Grooms ruling juco ranks

It happens every year, come late winter/early spring. Programs suffer unexpected defections, academic casualties or find out prospects they signed just aren't good enough.

And coaches turn to the junior college ranks.

This year, one of the hottest junior college recruits is Sam Grooms.

A 6-foot sophomore point guard at national power Chipola College in Marianna, Fla., the Greensboro, N.C., native has played a large part in the 21-3 start of Jake Headrick's squad.

"He's having a hell of a year," Headrick told Rivals.com. "People ask me how good he is and I tell them that we found out when we had to play without him. There's not a lot of point guards out there. Everybody is calling him."

Headrick isn't kidding when he says that the recruitment of Grooms - whom he compares favorably to another former Chipola player, Oregon's starting point guard Malcolm Armstead - has taken off. Within the last week, North Carolina, Louisville, Oklahoma State, Kansas and others have joined the fray. Houston was in on Thursday while Tennessee State and USF (where he signed out of high school) have been a constant presence.

Headrick explains to everybody that Grooms is an elusive, "pure" point guard.

"He's really fast with the basketball," Headrick said. "He's really good in transition and his body helps. He's 6-foot-1 and about 200 pounds and does a great job. He knows the system well. He knows when to push and when to run offense.

"His body allows him to guard point guards. But, he can also no-catch defend two-guards. He allows you to do a lot defensively."

Currently, Grooms has yet to set up any visits and won't until his season is completed.

"He wants to see all who comes in to see him before he does that," Headrick said.