Towers reaching new heights

Before Sharaud Curry enrolled at Providence College and shined as a freshman in the Big East, he was an under recruited point guard from Wheeler High School in Marietta, Ga. He heard all of the excuses on why the high-majors looked but never offered.

He was too small. He is more of a scorer than a point guard. He just wasn't good enough to play at the high-major level. Curry won two state championships in a loaded Peach State. Last year as a freshman he averaged 11.9 points and 3.5 assists a game and started every Big East game for the Friars.

Another Wheeler point guard, Corey Towers, watched the process Curry went through as a prep star and has a sneaking suspicion he might go down the same road. Towers, a 5-foot-8 sophomore floor general, doesn't mind the comparisons to his former teammate.

"Around the school they say I'm the next Sharaud," Towers said. "I think it's fair. He's a great point guard and I want to be the best point guard I can be."

Towers and Curry aren't completely identical in their respective style of play. Curry is a better shooter while Towers is a better game manager. But both win games. Towers was the driving force for Wheeler, a team with three 2006 Division I signees and J.J. Hickson, a five-star junior. Like Curry, Towers works hard in order to keep the doubters at bay like Curry did.

"He worked hard. A lot of colleges told him that he was too small but he kept working and kept winning. People couldn't sleep on him," Towers said. "He was working in the weight room, in the classroom, everywhere.

"I'm trying work like he did. I'm in the gym working hard. When he comes down from school we go work out if we can."

And like Curry, Towers is starting to see his hard work as a sophomore pay off. Auburn, Florida and Providence have all extended invitations to their respective camps. Illinois, Murray State, UAB, South Carolina and Georgia have been keeping tabs on him this spring, he said.

And like Curry, Towers said he would like to wait the recruiting process out as long as he can.

"I want to wait until the last minute and keep my options open," Towers said. "Some schools think I'm too small too so I want to wait and prove that I can play at that level, too."

So far, so good.