Happy Holidays From Memphis

I received a warm holiday call a couple of days ago from Memphis Head Coach Josh Pastner. He's doing a great job with the Memphis Tigers in his first season, with only two heartbreaking losses to Kansas & UMass. The Tigers are still very talented, but are a little short in numbers after this past summer's recruiting class bolted to Kentucky, Kansas, etc. From our Family to His, we wish him the all the best.

Below: Memphis Tiger DJ Stephens is #30, third player from the right in the back row. For any of you who know Coach Pastner as I do, you won't find a more optimistic guy. He's a great young coach who really cares about his players...I mean REALLY cares. He wanted to let me know first hand how Texas D-1 Ambassador D.J. Stephens of Harker Heights HS was doing in his freshman campaign.

"Max, DJ has made a couple of starts for us and keeps getting better every day in practice through his hard work. He goes against a likely NBA lottery pick everyday in practice in Senior Elliot Williams who transferred from Duke. He's rebounding the ball well and night in and out is a crowd favorite (in front of almost 18,000 adoring fans). He's an elite level athlete who is only going to get better and better."

For all you aspiring players in Central/South Texas take heed of DJ's work ethic and unrelenting FAITH. Having received only one offer (San Francisco) after his junior summer, he elected to play his senior year unsigned with the D-1 Ambassadors. DJ did not commit to Memphis until late August of this summer and 4 days later was enrolled at school. Unbelieveable! I will chronicle his recruiting story in the inaugural issue of my Texas Basketball Inc. Magazine which will be published in late January.