NLR’s Watkins provides dual threat

Senior point guard Dayshawn Watkins has shown he can be a scorer and a passer for North Little Rock this season, but first year Coach Johnny Rice would prefer to use him as a passer. “If he is scoring 25 a night for us, we’re not going to be very good,” Rice says. “That’s not a slap to his face, but as a point guard with the other weapons we’ve got, he’s got to get us set up, organized and running.”
Senior point guard Dayshawn Watkins has shown he can be a scorer and a passer for North Little Rock this season, but first year Coach Johnny Rice would prefer to use him as a passer. “If he is scoring 25 a night for us, we’re not going to be very good,” Rice says. “That’s not a slap to his face, but as a point guard with the other weapons we’ve got, he’s got to get us set up, organized and running.”

— Dayshawn Watkins handed out 12 assists in North Little Rock’s first game this season. The next night, Watkins scored 23 points.

First-year head coach Johnny Rice may not know exactly what his team is going to get from his 6-0 senior point guard every game, but normally Watkins is going to provide the Charging Wildcats with something positive.

“There are nights where we’ll need him to score and there’s going to be nights when we need him to get 12 assists,” Rice said. “He has a lot of tools, and he’s got a lot of weapons that he can get the ball to.”

North Little Rock (2-1), averaging 77.0 points a game this season, will attempt to keep up its high-scoring ways in today’s Battle of the Border game against Memphis East.That game will be played at Little Rock Hall’s George Cirks Arena with tip-off set for 6 p.m.

“We’d like to turn those high-scoring games into a habit,” said Watkins, who averaged 15 points and six assists a game for the Charging Wildcats last season. “We just have to stay consistent. We run our offense like that every day in practice, so we should score a lot.”

Scoring, however, is not what Rice wants most from Watkins. Senior forward Thomas Alexander and sophomore guard Kevaughn Allen have proven already that they can produce points for the Charging Wildcats.

“If [Watkins] is scoring 25 a night for us, we’re not going to be very good,” Rice said. “That’s not a slap to his face, but as a point guard with the other weapons we’ve got, he’s got to get us set up, organized and running. He’s got to get his teammates some touches,and he’s got to keep everybody happy.”

Watkins, who transferred from North Pulaski to North Little Rock before his junior year, said last season was a long year of adjustments.

“It wasn’t easy for me to get used to my teammates, and it wasn’t easy for them to get used to me,” Watkins said.“We liked each other, but we didn’t always have the chemistry on the court.

“We have a better chemistry this year, and it’s because we’ve been around each other more.”

Rice said Watkins tries to do too much sometimes.

“He’s such a competitor that when things get tough and we need buckets, he tries to do it,” Rice said. “That’s when everybody else stands around and watches. He’s got to trust his teammates a little more in tougher situations. We’re working on that.”

Watkins signed a letter-of intent in early November to play basketball for Alabama-Birmingham, a program that uses the “run-and-gun” style that Watkins enjoys.

“I love their up-tempo style of play,” Watkins said. “They are like us. We will slow it down when we need to, but running the fast-break situations, I love it.”

At a glance

BATTLE OF THE BORDER

WHERE Cirks Arena, Hall High School

WHAT A match up pitting five boys basketball teams from central Arkansas vs.

teams from the Memphis area

ADMISSION $10, good for all five games

TIPOFF TIMES 1:30 P.M. Little Rock McClellan vs. Memphis Lausanne 3 P.M. Jacksonville vs. Olive Branch, Miss.

4:30 P.M. Little Rock Parkview vs. Memphis Hamilton 6 P.M. North Little Rock vs. Memphis East.

8:30 P.M. Little Rock Hall vs. Memphis White Station

Sports, Pages 25 on 12/01/2012

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