Tyler Wooten knows he’s stepping into an impressive legacy when the sophomore guard makes his debut for the Mott Community College men’s basketball team on November 5.
Two of the four National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Player of the Year award winners Steve Schmidt has coached at Mott were Chicago guards who wore No. 2, just like Wooten. Jeremie Simmons won the award in 2008 and John Taylor won it in 2012. Both also led their respective Mott teams to national championships.
Wooten is too young to have seen either play, but he’s definitely aware of their legacy and the successful Chicago-to-Flint pipeline that has benefitted Mott’s program over the last three decades.
“It’s definitely, like, a bar for me,” Wooten said. “Just knowing that they wore No. 2 as well, that’s not why I picked it, that’s always been my number. I already have high expectations for myself, but that’s more motivation for me to chase, that a lot of people have come here from Chicago and been good, so I want to be good too. I’m not gonna mess that list up.”
Schmidt recruited Wooten, who played high school basketball at Brother Rice, last year. But Wooten decided to play closer to home at South Suburban College outside of Chicago. He averaged 12 points and 4 rebounds per game on 52 percent shooting as a freshman, but decided to pursue other opportunities after the season.
“He (Schmidt) was one of the first people to call me after my senior season,” Wooten said. “When I was open and available this year, we talked again and made it work. He’s a legendary coach, he takes care of us and treats us good, the gym is always available for us to get extra work in.”
Wooten is one of several new faces on a nearly completely remade roster – Grant Bean is the only holdover from last year’s team – that has Schmidt excited as Mott opens its season at home against Glen Oaks Community College at 7:30 p.m. tonight (November 5).
“These young guys, I think they have a chance to be really good college basketball players,” Schmidt said. “But we gotta go through a growing time, and I gotta see how they react when times get tough. Right now things are great, but we haven’t played a game yet.”
That first game will be a familiar opponent for another sophomore transfer Schmidt is relying on to help provide leadership on a mostly freshman-laden team this season. Mike Phillips, a point guard, played last season at Glen Oaks Community College. Phillips has good memories of playing at Glen Oaks and how sophomores on that team last year helped him through his freshman season. He’s hoping he can provide that same type of leadership for Mott’s freshman class this season.
“Last year, I had two sophomores ahead of me, and they just showed me so much, so I’m trying to share that (with his Mott teammates) as well,” Phillips said, noting he still has friends on the team at Glen Oaks. “It’ll be fun (to play them). I feel like it should be a good game.”
Phillips averaged 11 points, nearly three assists, and a steal per game. But his outside shooting touch should be a big plus in a Mott lineup that has been seeking more consistent three-point shooting for several seasons. Phillips hit 45 percent of his threes last season for Glen Oaks, which ranked him 18th nationally in Division II.
But Phillips had a connection to Mott even before he played a college game. His coach at Niles High School, Myles Busby, played for Schmidt at Mott from 2012-2014 and was team captain his sophomore season. Since transferring, Phillips has found familiar similarities that Busby adapted into his system at Niles from Schmidt’s at Mott.
“I joke with him (Schmidt) all the time,” Phillips said. “I’ll say, ‘Oh Myles showed me this,’ and he’ll say, ‘Who do you think taught him that?’ Practice is actually like second nature for me, because he (Busby) ran things pretty much the same way (in high school).”
If Mott has a successful season, improved guard play will drive that. And Wooten and Phillips, with their experience, are critical components of that mission.
“Mike, he wanted to come here two years ago, but he stayed closer to home,” Schmidt said. “(Wooten) went to South Suburban, which is a pretty good JUCO. But his mentor knew a former player of mine really well, and stayed in touch with me. He contacted me and I’m really, really happy to have him. That will be solid guard play for us this year because they have experience playing at a pretty high level. And I recruited them both before they got here, so I’m happy that, even though it’s a year later, that they chose to give us a chance.”
Local Connections
Phillips’ connection through Busby isn’t the only familiar one present in Mott’s program this year. Freshman forward Caden Neves, from Grandville, played high school basketball for Desmond Young. Young is a Grand Blanc graduate who played college and professional basketball and was a fixture at Mott during summers for pickup games and workouts that regularly featured a collection of Flint’s basketball talent home from college or professional stints overseas.
There are also six players on this year’s roster from Genesee County schools: Bean and R.J. Murphy from Carman-Ainsworth, Donnie Huddleston and Jayden Higgins from Grand Blanc, Brad James from Kearsley, and Queese Fields from Madison Academy.
Huddleston, who had a standout career at Grand Blanc, averaged nearly 22 points per game his senior season and was an All-State honorable mention. The success his teams had at Grand Blanc was part of the appeal of playing for Mott – he wanted to continue in a program that always expects to win.
“Coming from Grand Blanc, where the standard was so high, to a program here where the standard is set to the ceiling, I’m really just ready to soak it all in,” Huddleston said. “I’m ready to play for one of the best coaches and just not be afraid of the moment.”
Huddleston also said he’s excited to play close to home, where his family can come and watch him. The fact that his high school teammate, Higgins, is on the team as well as players he played against in high school and knows well in Murphy and Saginaw’s Tray Buford, has made the transition to college easier.
“We already know each other and have been friends,” he said. “And Carman was our rival in high school, but it’s like now I see R.J. and it’s like we finally get to play with each other on the same squad. So I’m excited to see how that goes.”
Schmidt thinks Huddleston’s positional versatility and tenacity could thrive in Mott’s system.
“Donnie was someone I really recruited, because I just see something there,” Schmidt said. “If he continues to work, he’ll be a really good player, especially in our system, because he does so many different things.”
Re-Establishing Mott’s Brand of Basketball
This offseason wasn’t an easy one for Schmidt. Mott finished 16-12 last season, not a bad year by most program’s standards, but Mott and its four national titles and three national runner-up finishes is not most programs.
“We won 16 games in the toughest conference in the country,” Schmidt said. “And I’ll be honest with you: I’m not satisfied with that. That’s what keeps me going.”
Putting together a team with the toughness and athleticism that Mott basketball has been known for throughout his tenure as coach, which began in 1991, was a priority. But Schmidt had to do that work at less than 100 percent. Ankle surgery has limited his mobility over the last six months. As the season starts, he’s finally able to move around again, but it has taken him a while to get to that point. He’s relied on his support system at Mott and beyond to put a promising roster together.
“I had complete reconstruction on my ankle, from wear and tear over the years,” he said. “It was a brutal recovery. I was non-weight bearing for three months. But I have such good support around here. I’d have rides in here. I was on crutches. I couldn’t drive, it was my foot that I drive with. It’s been tough, but I had a lot of time to basically recruit without having to travel too much. I talked a lot on the phone, met people, and of course it helps when a former player coaches now and he wanted this kid (Phillips) to come here.”
Although much of the roster is inexperienced, Schmidt is encouraged by the competitiveness and talent in practice, and offseason investments in a strength coach and program to help the players get stronger. The players themselves also sound like throwback Mott players, as they’re focused on winning and team culture as their priority.
“I don’t think about putting up a specific number of points or rebounds, I want to win and to work on becoming a better leader,” Wooten said. “My role here, I think I’m just a competitor. That’s the best thing about me.”
Phillips, like all players who go the JUCO route, has dreams of playing at a 4-year college. But he’s also focused on what he can do to help his younger teammates achieve their dreams too.
“We got a lot of talent. We got a lot of scorers and some defensive guys, so I feel like all around we could be a special team,” Phillips said. “I hope to help these freshmen get better and just help them soak up the game as much as possible.”
Huddleston’s goals go beyond basketball. He’s also excited about the opportunity to pursue a degree.
“Not many people in my family have ever finished school,” he said.
But as far as on the court visions for the team, Huddleston’s defense-first philosophy aligns well with how Mott’s program has been built.
“If we play hard defensively, that just brings so much more to the game offensively and makes it easier,” Huddleston said. “We have so many pieces, we’re very versatile in the way we play, and we’re gonna get the ball up and down the court.”
Mott last qualified for the national tournament in 2023, and the team has three appearances there in the last decade. That’s another benchmark that would be a great accomplishment for most programs, but in that respect Mott is a victim of its own success.
JUCO basketball in Michigan has improved significantly over the last 15 years. In the early and mid 2000s, there used to be just a handful of teams that were realistic threats to advance to nationals. Now, since 2020 alone, nine different Michigan teams have qualified for the national tournament. And the Michigan Community College Athletic Association (MCCAA) Eastern Conference, Mott’s division, has become particularly competitive. Last year, seven of the eight teams in the division finished with winning records overall.
“Our conference, you can look at it anytime throughout the year in the Eastern Conference, we will have four to possibly five of the schools from this conference alone ranked nationally,” Schmidt said. “So every game is tough. We got the best conference in JUCO at our level in the country. That’s not a coach saying that, that’s backed up by the teams that are nationally ranked.”
Even with those tough odds, Schmidt likes his team’s chances based on their collective work ethic they’ve displayed so far.
“They’re doing a great job,” Schmidt said. “They live in the gym every morning. I get here, they’re here at eight o’clock in the morning. We practice in the afternoon, two of them, one night last week were at the Y in the evening. This group to me has more of a gym rat feel to it, just guys that love to be in the gym.”
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