Winston Shepard: Texas Power

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When players like Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson move on to the next level of their basketball careers, it creates “room” for other players to step up and increase their presence on the court. One of those players who will definitely step up even more is Texas native, Winston Shepard. Our conversation first started off  with his current list of schools. “I have a list but I’m still figuring things out but, I have like a top 8: Texas, West Virgina, Syracuse, Memphis, Kentucky, UNLV, Kansas and Oklahoma State are the early favorites” Shepard said. It’s a pretty long list but he had nothing but good things to say about each of the schools. The first school we talked about was Texas, where his fellow high school teammates, Cory Joseph and Tristan Thompson, will be attending this year. I asked him how he felt about the possibility of playing with Cory and Tristan again. His reply to the question was “Yea, I think about that but, I love UT because I’m from Texas“. No matter where he plays or what college he goes to, Winston can always go back to his home.

We went down the list, talking about what he liked about each of the  schools on his list.

“UNLV is close to Findlay Prep (his interest in UNLV is similar in certain aspects to Cory Joseph’s interest in UNLV before)

“Kansas, I’ll start with, I like them because coach himself knows how to get the players that play my position to the league. I like their style of play and my mom signed with Kansas. (could it possibly be ” Like Mother, Like Son.

“Kentucky, Coach Calipari plays freshmen, he lets his stars be stars, he gets players to the leauge and he develops his players.”

“Memphis, I’ve always liked them because of the location, it’s close to Texas. I also like their style of play.”

“WVU, I like them because a lot of there offense is run through their wing players and they get up and down in transition”

“Syracuse, I’ve liked them since Carmelo was there. I like that they play zone and it’s in a big city.”

Recently, there has been a lot of  news and rumors about Kentucky’s basketball team. The news range from Kentucky team’s low GPA percentage to Coach Cal’s, supposedly, “interest” in the Chicago Bulls. But, even with the negative news about Kentucky and Coach Cal, Winston disregards it all, continuing his interest in the school and in his college recruiting process. “I mean I heard, but one thing I’ve learned is that the media is going to always find something negative to say wherever you go. So, I mean, until I find out first hand then I wouldnt really pay attention to that.” As you can see with this young man, the media does not affect him and won’t affect his decision unless he hears “first hand”.

But, Coach Cal was not the only coach we talked about in our discussion. Since, WVU does appear to be on his list, Bob Huggins emotional moment with Da’Sean Butler in March Madness came up in our discussion. WVU’s short fall from the championship does not appear to affect Shepard’s thoughts about the team. It was very evident that Bob’s moment between him and his player only increased Winston’s respect for Bob. “Well, I love Huggins. I think he’s a player’s coach from what I saw. I was pulling for them to go all the way (in the tournament). Also, Ebanks is my favorite player so, I really like them.” Shepard said.

After our discussion about coaches we moved more into his college process and where he stands with his college visits. “Well, I’ve been to Texas, Kansas, UNLV and Oklahoma State, they were cool.” The visits do not end with just those colleges, Shepard still has a couple more visits to make. “Well, I’m gonna visit Kentucky, Memphis and Syracuse next month.” Now, you may be wondering when will Shepard commit? To answer that question, the commitment will not be right away but, it will be in the near future. “I don’t know, a while, more like after I take my visits.” Our discussion about colleges came to a halt when we began to shift towards his High School career at Findlay Prep and about next years team. Shepard stated that he feels like next years team “will do just as good if not better.” Through out the conversation he was very optimistic, portraying one of the many good traits this young man has.

Soon after the short lived High School discussion, I asked him what he is currently looking for in a college and in a basketball program. The answer was short and sweet: “Well, I want to be in a nice city and a coach that will develop me so I can get better.”  It will be interesting to see what school he ends up in in 2012.

At the end of the discussion, Winston Shepard shared with me some interesting things about him that not a lot of people know. He is a “Regular Joe and loves Carmelo and Durant” to the point where Melo inspired him , a little bit, to start playing basketball. Not, only do you guys know him on the court as a player, but off the court as an individual.

I want to personally thank Winston for the interview and wish him good luck! If you haeve any questions for boxofmess.com or for Winston about this interview, leave a message below.

photo thanks to Winston Shepard himself.