By John Loop
Sports Editor
A starting lineup stacked with four Division I prospects awaits head coach Kit Pehl and the Coppell Cowboys when they tip off their matchup with the Plano West Wolves at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night.
The Wolves (4-2) are fresh off of a five-point loss to Hamilton (Tenn.) High School in the Thanksgiving Hoopfest over the break. Although they have a winning percentage of .666, MaxPreps.com ranks Plano West among the top teams in the country, most recently rated as the No. 14 team in their Xcellent 25 national rankings.
The Wolves’ success starts with the play of junior DJ Hogg. Hogg is a 6-foot-6 guard that can score in bunches. As the elite shooter that he is, Hogg finds ways to get shots to drop into the hoop with the defense draped all over him. His length and volume scoring have helped him get big attention from Baylor, Kansas State and Arizona.
Hogg gets a load of help from 6-foot-8 junior point forward Mickey Mitchell. Mitchell, who committed to the Ohio State Buckeyes in August, can do anything and everything with a basketball. Averaging close to a triple-double per game (14.5 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 7 apg), Mitchell is comfortable posting up on the block, but his preferred M.O. is an authoritative slam dunk. His slick ballhandling skills are also a great asset.
Junior guard Soso Jamabo, also the football team’s star running back, and senior guard Avery Johnson Jr., the son of former NBA player and coach Avery Johnson who Pehl calls “a blur coast to coast”, also contribute to making this Wolves team a formidable opponent.
Coppell has rebounded from a disappointing loss to DeSoto in last year’s playoffs to a 6-2 record in the first quarter of the season. To keep things going in the right direction tomorrow, the Cowboys will need to keep Johnson and Hogg in check, while forcing Mitchell out of the paint to take more perimeter shots.
