Promising Talent

Promising Talent

BY: Steve Marshall

Southmoore Product Shoots for Stars at Utah State

Avid basketball fans in the Oklahoma

City area see it all the time. Talented players from local high schools take their talents to the collegiate level before moving on to the NBA.

Blake Griffin from Oklahoma Christian School, Trae Young from Norman North and Josh Richardson from Edmond Santa Fe are a few examples.

It seems like new prospects pop up on a regular basis, and this season may bring the next local star with NBA promise. Just look to the western horizon. Former Southmoore player Justin Bean is making waves with his teammates at Utah State University.

The 6’7 forward is averaging nearly 15 points and 12 rebounds per game, including eight double-doubles in December as the Aggies cracked the AP Top 20 ranking.

This isn’t your typical star player who graduated and then got recruited by dozens of collegiate teams before making his final decision on where to continue his education and his basketball career.

Bean tore his ACL in his junior year at Southmoore, and, as a result, most schools lost interest his senior season. He took unofficial visits to Utah and Utah State, where he was designated a preferred walk-on.

“It was a humbling experience,” he said. “They still wanted to see how I responded to the injury. I just kept a good mind set, positive attitude and knew if I got the opportunity that I could earn the full scholarship.”

Bean graduated from Southmoore in 2015 and then went on a two-year mission for his church in Reno, Nev.

“It was a great experience for me,” Bean said. “I definitely grew a lot in a lot of ways, but I didn’t play any basketball, so it was kind of difficult to get back in the swing of things.”

In the end, Bean chose Utah State because of the coaching staff, who visited him while he was on his mission and because of the great team environment. In addition, Utah State is in Logan, Utah, close to where his dad grew up and where his mother attended college.

Bean was named the MVP at the Jamaica Classic earlier this year as the Aggies took down LSU in the opening round and then knocked off North Texas 68-59 to claim the title with Bean averaging 14 points and 13 rebounds per game.

Bean also gives a lot of credit to his high school coach Wes Brown.

“I still keep in touch with Coach Brown,” he said. “Coach Brown taught me the concepts of team defense and fundamentals. I can’t thank him or my teammates enough.”

“Basketball is definitely a religion in our family,” said Bean.

His father, Gordon, was an all-conference standout at Idaho State while oldest brother Shawn played at Moore and older brothers Tyler, Jourdon and younger sister Erin all played at Southmoore. – 19SM

Presented by Larry D. Leemaster DDS