It took time for J.J. Avila.
Initially, it was time the former McAllen High boys basketball standout thought he didn’t have. It was a year away from the game he adored, a personal redshirt year. Two solid seasons at Navy birthed nothing but uncertainty.
Avila felt his basketball career was in jeopardy.
“There were down points,” Avila said. “I just tried to keep faith in God’s greater plan. I really think He has a plan for everybody, and sometimes you just have to wait. You have to be ready to seize the opportunity when it comes and make the most of it.”
By all accounts, the 6-foot-7, 250-pound Avila, now a senior forward at Colorado State, has. Avila is the leading scorer and rebounder for a Rams team that controversially missed out on making the NCAA Tournament, becoming the highest-ranked team in the RPI (29) to be left out in the history of the tournament’s 68-team field.
The Rams are the No. 1 seed in the NIT, hosting South Dakota State in the first round tonight.
But Avila’s impact is much more, particularly in the Valley. The former two-time All-Valley Player of the Year for McHi, where he finished as the school’s all-time leading scorer, has opened doors for Valley basketball.
“If you would’ve asked me 10 years ago what I thought about J.J., I wouldn’t have known we’d have a blueprint, a superstar, a Division I prospect,” said Arnold Martinez, Avila’s AAU coach for nine years with the South Texas Hoopsters. “I just thought we had a great player. What J.J. has done is he’s left a blueprint for any kid we have that’s 6-foot-6 and above.
“If you want to put the work in, we can find you a place.”
FINDING HOME
Avila left Navy because its lifestyle wasn’t for him.
He voluntarily resigned from the academy 21 games into his sophomore campaign, leading the team in points, rebounds and assists. This came after he had one of the top seasons by a Navy freshman, ranking second in scoring (11.5), rebounding (5.3), assists (74) and free throw percentage (.829), first in steals (54) and third in three-pointers made (53) and blocks (18).
“The military life was not for me,” Avila said. “I didn’t want to commit to joining the Navy, which asks for a contractual obligation.”
Avila attempted to go to Richmond, but some classes did not transfer. Instead, he spent the next year attending South Texas College in McAllen, working on his game and playing in city leagues.
Avila trained with Martinez, working on ballhandling, shooting and footwork.
He worked out in the mornings and played league games at night, breaking presses, working on his dribble-drive, learning how to use screens.
The versatile nature of his game came from his ability to adapt to coaching. Under Martinez, Avila was used on the perimeter to draw bigger defenders out of the lane, so his shooting and passing improved. At McHi, then-coach Roy Swift used Avila in the post, riding his talents twice to the state regional finals.
But while his skills continued developing, Avila’s prospects weren’t.
“We knew there was no room for error,” Martinez said. “I would ask him, ‘What do you want out of this?’ He’d say, ‘Coach, I want to go somewhere … I want to make the Dance. I want to make the field.’”
Eventually, the interest came. First, it was Pat Knight, son of Bobby, offering a full scholarship to Lamar. Then it was TCU. Tulane. And, finally, Colorado State.
Lamar was too small of a school. TCU didn’t call back after a visit. Tulane misled Avila with information about which players were returning and which weren’t.
Colorado State, however, felt like home. Avila felt wanted. He was.
“We had just come off our big year going to the NCAA Tournament and were losing five seniors,” said Colorado State first assistant coach Ross Hodge, who made the initial contact with Martinez and Avila after getting a heads up from Valley native and Abilene Christian coach Jaret von Rosenberg and former assistant Bryan Burton. “We knew we’d have to look for an immediate impact guy.”
READY FOR ANYTHING
Colorado State and Hodge were not concerned that Avila spent a year away from the game.
“He had a phenomenal feel for the game,” Hodge said. “He just knew how to play. His feel, his understanding, were things you can’t teach or lose. It was just a matter of getting him back in shape.”
The immediate impact the Rams yearned for, Avila provided. As a junior, he led the team in scoring and filled up the rebounding, assists and steals categories.
“I worked so hard when I was home, just to be ready for anything,” Avila said. “I had put in so much work that I thought success would come. I just never stopped working.”
Avila finished as an all-Mountain West Conference third teamer. This season, he could make a push for league MVP, averaging 16.6 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 2.0 steals.
“He just doesn’t stop,” Hodge said. “People talk about his size and versatility, but he has an unbelievable ability to play through fatigue and still play at a high level.”
Hodge said the biggest difference in Avila from last season has been his leadership.
“I don’t know if I’ve had a player grow more,” Colorado State head coach Larry Eustachy told ESPN.com earlier this season.
TAKING TIME
“It’s crazy,” Avila said. “These past two years have gone so fast. Ever since my freshman year, I feel like I’ve improved and I’m finally winning like I wanted to. Sometimes it takes time.”
The Rams are 27-6. It’s true neither Avila or the program accomplished the goal of playing in the NCAAs. While Colorado State’s RPI was impressive, the NCAA selection committee admitted Sunday it is now just a piece of the puzzle.
“We look at RPI really as an organizer in terms of top 50 and 100, but we spent a lot of time, more time than I remember, in comparing (RPI) in the swings to metrics such as the Sagarin, Ken Pom, BPI,” committee chair Scott Barnes told The Coloradoan. “We review those metrics each week, and that carried over to this week.”
According to The Coloradoan, CSU’s KenPom ranking is 68th. It is 57th in the Sagarin and ESPN’s BPI. The Rams, who scheduled this season in favor of the RPI, never really had a shot.
“It’s something you work so hard for,” said Avila, whose Rams lost in the Mountain West semifinal last week without him after he sprained his ankle in the previous day’s quarterfinal. “Not hearing your name is … I don’t know. I’ve never felt that way before. We were in the locker room during the selection and I just left. I just went home. You start wondering what you could have done differently. Maybe my ankle injury messed things up.
“But now we’re in the NIT, No. 1 seed, and we move on. Things happen for a reason.”
Avila, who said he will play tonight, has a big-picture mentality these days. He’s come a long way from when he was chopping wood for money two years ago, wondering if he’d ever play competitive basketball again.
“It makes you realize that this is not going to last forever,” Avila said. “Teams could’ve passed up on me while I was home and I could’ve never played basketball again. It really makes you appreciate the chances you have, and it’s given me a chip on my shoulder to keep getting better, keep growing, to show my appreciation.”