College basketball: Sykes hopes memories serve him well for Wranglers

A versatile 6-foot-4 wing with a knack for drawing fouls, a sophomore who last year averaged 13.4 points per game, third most on the Odessa College men's basketball team, and a captain of the Wranglers, Tommie Sykes still feels like he's making up for a high school basketball game.

March 5, 2007. District 12 Public League Championship. The Liacouras Center at Temple University in Philadelphia. Sykes' Simon Gratz against Prep Charter, the Prep Charter of Markieff and Marcus Morris, twin big men now at the University of Kansas, the defending national champions.

Sykes had led the team here, scoring a team-high 17 points in a 69-35 semifinal win. And in this, the title game, he again tallied the most points, 13, and kept the team within a few last-second misses of winning it. Simon Gratz fell short, though, a 49-48 loss in an attempt to defend the league crown.

What bothered Sykes the most, though, wasn't his or his teammates' performances.

Sitting on a chair on the court at the OC Sports Center after practice earlier this week, staring at the hardwood floor without blinking much, he said that it was the way he sat back and let it happen.  

"I blame it on myself because we lost," Sykes said. "I didn't say much, I didn't do too much. I played well. We played well, but if I would've been more vocal, and more trying to lead, I think we could've pulled through. We only lost by one point, so that's why I was really like down on myself.

"Certain things I should've done, certain players I should've told to do this or that. It came at me fast, and I had never been in that situation."

With the season-opener at 7 p.m. Friday against visiting Western Oklahoma, Sykes is going into the game, and the season, carrying a duty to serve as an example for the rest of the Wranglers, in practices and in games in a Western Junior College Athletic Conference that features three teams nationally ranked in the top 10 in the Sporting News magazine college basketball edition.

It's a responsibility Sykes put on himself. Because, Sykes says, he wants to hit a clutch jumpshot as much as deliver a pick-me-up for a teammate during crunch time.

"During a timeout, if I'm not playing, I'm on the floor, shaking hands, patting them on the back, saying, ‘Good job,' " Sykes said. "Now they look up to me, so I try to be on my best behavior, be a role model."

Odessa College head coach Dennis Helms sees the potential for Sykes, one of five sophomores, to be special not just on the floor but around his teammates. But both aspects are still projects.

"A year ago, Jamel Guyton (the team's leading scorer), if he was having a bad day, his level of a bad day was still above average," Helms said. "If Tommie's having a good day, he's a good leader, doing what we need him to be able to do. But he lets the bottom drop lower than what we need it to drop.

"He's extremely talented, and Tommie can lead by making great plays. Because he's a sophomore and playing that role, he's got to take the biggest chunk" of the team's leadership.

In practices, it seems Helms looks for Sykes to deliver a message if he can't. On Tuesday, Helms asked the team to get in two lines on opposite sides of the court for a mid-range shooting drill.

Seeing unbalanced lines, Helms pointed to Sykes.

"How many guys we gonna have on that line, Tommie?" Helms said from across the court.

It took a few seconds for Sykes to get it organized, and then he started the drill.

It is not exactly a moment of penance. It is more not forgetting the past, as much as he'd like to change it.

"I remember that game like yesterday," Sykes said. "Any game in the world I want to go back to, it's that game. I always say it to myself, ‘Any game in the world I could go back to, I would go back to that game.' "