Isiah Small refuses to be overlooked

Isiah Small doesn’t need to do much to stand out.

The Texas State senior forward is listed at 6-foot-8 and 170 pounds. He's got arms longer than the San Marcos River, which he uses to swallow up shots and passes. His 7-foot-2 wingspan racked up 52 blocks and steals combined this season. No other Bobcat cracked 40.

How does anyone ever score against Isiah Small? @smdrsports pic.twitter.com/zlWsX31dsJ

— Drew King (@drewking0222) December 5, 2020

But Small operates on a staccato rhythm. Everything he does is intentionally out of the ordinary.   He flows up and down the court to the beat of his own drum and it usually puts in the right spot at the right time. It’s a dance only he knows the steps to, although he’ll occasionally clue you in on which part he’s at — his shots from behind the arc are usually punctuated with a bow or a shoulder shimmy.

I didn't know you could give a shoulder shimmy anywhere but the post, but somehow @Isiahsmall_11 gets it done here 🤷‍♂️ @smdrsports pic.twitter.com/CPzYQ4pXgH

— Drew King (@drewking0222) February 13, 2021

When he’s not in a game, he does whatever it takes to stay at the same tempo. He feels most comfortable in a pair of Crocs and seemingly has one of each color in his closet. Small wears his practice jersey backward to bring good luck, an idea he hatched while playing at Seward County Community College (SCCC). Texas State, coincidentally, has had two historically-good seasons since.

“My first year (at SCCC), we didn't win nothing because I had it regular,” Small said. “Then the second year, I wore it backwards and we won conference and then we won the region and then went to nationals. And ever since then, like, I took that there and I brought over here.”

It’s strange to think that the Jersey City, N.J., native had to go to a junior college in Liberal, Kan., to find a home at the NCAA Division I level. Small averaged 20 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game as a 6-foot-6 senior at Henry Snyder High School.

But Small was competing in one of the lower-tier leagues in the area, his hometown sandwiched by places like Newark, N.J., to the west and Manhattan and Brooklyn, N.Y. to the east. It was tough to get any attention in his recruiting process. SCCC head coach Jason Sautter doesn’t even remember how he found out about Small. But he’s glad he did.

“We were the only people that ever gave him an opportunity to play in college basketball,” Sautter said. “I don't know (why). I didn't really care either.”

Sautter was cleaning house after taking over an SCCC program that posted a 9-22 overall record and finished in last place in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) during the 2016-17 season. Small was one of the first players he signed with the Saints.

The coach didn’t mix well with Small at first. He considered the forward’s happy-go-lucky attitude as a weakness. Sautter consistently barked at Small during his first couple of months on campus that the player was too flippant.

“It made me upset because I thought he wasn't serious about winning and about playing basketball. Boy, was I wrong,” Sautter said. “Sometimes guys, when they're goofing around and joking around, all that stuff, they don't tend to listen at all. With Isiah, that's not the case … When he was holding other people accountable and encouraging them at the same time in practice, I started trusting him more and more and more. There's no point in being on a young man if he shows me that he's grasping what we're saying. Now it's just a matter of letting him be him.”

Small wasn’t changing anyway. He’d had a hard life growing up in New Jersey. Playing basketball was always going to be a source of joy for him.

“I like being from Jersey because it matured me in all different kinds of ways,” Small said. “If you saw what I came from like back at Jersey, like, a lot of people don't make it this far.”

“I'll be real honest with you, man, Isiah didn't from much. He's a kid that's seen the worst of the worst. And frankly, he's just the person that understands he's blessed,” Texas State assistant coach Robert Guster said. “He's got a very good spiritual background — shout out to Sharon his mom for that … When you're a kid that doesn't know where your next meal is coming from — you know what I mean? Or when you get in a situation like this where you've got all of this and you're living in a very plush place, he just realizes he's lucky, unlike most young people.”

Small started in 23 of the 32 games he played in as a freshman, averaging 14.8 points, 6.9 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 0.9 blocks. SCCC improved to 18-14 and moved up to the middle of the pack in the league. The next season, Small started in 29 of the 32 games he played in, posting 15.0 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. The Saints earned the top seed in their conference, won the NJCAA Region VI tournament and advanced to the national tournament as a No. 7 seed before getting upset in the second round by No. 10 seed Eastern Florida State College, 67-59, on March 19, 2019. Small was named a 2018-19 NJCAA Division I Men's Basketball Honorable Mention All-American.

NCAA Division I teams started to show an uptick in interest after Small’s first year, even though he was a non-qualifier. Small dropped 24 points, three rebounds, two blocks and a steal in SCCC’s national tournament game, and coaches came barging down Sautter’s door immediately after for a chance to talk with the player — namely Hawaii and UT Arlington.

It was likely too late, though, Sautter would tell them. Texas State had been hot on Small’s trail for a long time.

Sautter had been encouraging Guster, a longtime friend, to keep an eye on Small. The two first met in 1999 when Sautter was the head coach at Bakersfield High School in Bakersfield, Mo. and Guster was an assistant coach just 20 miles away at Missouri State University-West Plains. Sautter never missed a single one of Guster’s home games and the two have stayed connected ever since.

Guster makes sure to scout the Kansas JUCO scene annually and took Sautter up on an offer to watch one of Small’s games during his freshman year. He was impressed with Small’s quick feet and his willingness to embrace the gritty side of the game, boxing out for rebounds and getting physical on defense. He relayed what he saw to the rest of Texas State’s staff and, over the course of the next 18 months, every coach had gone to see Isiah in person.

On one occasion, Guster told Small he was planning to watch the sophomore play in a road game at Allen Community College on Dec. 5, 2018. Small told the coach not to come. The forward had a fractured finger and was going to be sidelined for the game.

“A little light bulb popped up,” Guster said. “I said, ‘This is exactly why I need to go.’”

“They came and still supported me. That right there just showed me ‘OK, they want me that bad.’ I mean, they're there. Like, who else are they there for?” Small said. “That showed me loyalty, and I'm loyal to the people that's loyal to me. Even though schools recruited me late ... schools that were higher than this, I'm like, ‘Nah, (Texas State) stuck with me through the end, throughout the bads and goods. I'm going to the guys that's loyal to me.’”

That loyalty extended through former Bobcats head coach Danny Kaspar’s resignation in the 2020 offseason. When Kaspar stepped down, coaches began reaching out to Sautter again to gauge Small’s interest in transferring somewhere else. Small waved them all off. He’d found a home in San Marcos.

Small became a plug-and-play starter for Texas State, averaging 8.0 points, 6.5 rebounds, 1.0 steals and 0.9 blocks as a junior. The maroon and gold won 20 games for the second season in a row, the first time the program accomplished the feat since 1977-79.

He saw slight improvement in his 3-point shot, canning 33.3% after making just 26.3% at SCCC, but also shot a career-low 27 attempts. Bobcats current head coach Terrence Johnson knew Small had the potential to be as versatile as former Texas State forward Kavin Gilder-Tilbury if he could knock down the long-range shot more consistently. And Johnson was extremely successful in working with Nijal Pearson, the program’s all-time leading scorer, on his jump shot.

“Even when (Pearson) got here, if you look at his stats his freshman year, he didn't shoot that many threes,” Johnson said. “We knew that (Small) being able to score from the perimeter this year would make us an even better team. I knew that I wanted to play somewhat similar (to Gilder-Tilbury) with my four. I wanted (Small) to have a guard-like ability and I needed to work on that. And if we were going to invest that kind of time and effort into him, we needed him to believe in it and to invest that kind of time and effort into himself.”

Johnson kept tweaking with Small’s mechanics and built the forward’s confidence up from outside. This past season, Small tied his career high with 57 attempts from deep, knocking down a personal-best 42.1% of them. He averaged 10.9 points, 5.8 boards, 0.8 steals and 1.2 blocks this season, helping the Bobcats claim their first-ever Sun Belt Conference regular season championship with an 18-7 overall record.

Small’s teammates, junior guards Mason Harrell and Caleb Asberry, were both named to all-conference teams at the end of the season. Johnson was voted the league’s Coach of the Year. But Small was left off the postseason awards list completely despite leading the team in rebounds, blocks and field goal percentage.

The senior didn’t mind it. When the season began, Small was disappointed he wasn’t voted as one of the team’s captains. Associate head coach Bennie Seltzer reminded him that leaders weren’t selected, leaders were made. Johnson said Small is undoubtedly a leader of the maroon and gold. The forward didn’t need any kind of recognition to know it.

no need to feel any type of way.. my brothers on there & OUR HEAD COACH 💯 they success is my success.. you’ll see the outcome next year 😉

— 1️⃣ (@Isiahsmall_11) March 11, 2021

“No need to feel any type of way,” Small said in a tweet on March 11. “My brothers on there & OUR HEAD COACH(. T)hey success is my success. (Y)ou’ll see the outcome next year”

The NCAA granted every player an extra year of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic this year. Small announced on March 18 he planned to use his to remain at Texas State.

He’s hoping that another year of wearing his practice jersey backward will get the maroon and gold farther than ever before.

“Just his approach to life every day and finally something to smile about and be positive, you know, that's infectious,” Johnson said. “He's an example of a young man you want to represent your program.”