Carbondale Reporter

The season has just started  for the John A. Logan (JAL) men's basketball team, but Michael Tucker already has reaped a big honor.

Tucker, a 6-foot-7 sophomore forward, was named a preseason first-team All-American by The Sporting News, according to a news release on jalc.edu.

“It was one of the goals that I had set after my freshman year, and I accomplished getting it, so it felt good …,” he told the Southwest Illinois News.

Michael Tucker | John A. Logan College

Tucker has other goals in mind: getting the Volunteers to the No. 1 ranking – JAL is No. 8 in the recently released National Junior College Athletic Association poll, according to jalc.edu – and the national championship, become the No. 1 player in the nation and “to see everyone on my team be successful this year.”

Last season, his first at JAL, Tucker was second on the team, with 13.6 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, according to njcaa.org. He hit 55.4 percent of his field-goal attempts and made 71.7 percent of his free-throw tries.

The successful season and promise of this season came after Tucker fought back from a serious knee injury.

Tucker, a native of Georgia, was a star player in his high-school days, which included playing for the Atlanta Xpress, an Under Armour Association team. However, he tore a knee ligament while on a visit to Auburn during his junior year of high school, according to JAL Head Coach Kyle Smithpeters. He basically took almost two years off from competitive basketball after that.

Smithpeters said an assistant coach has a brother-in-law from the area of Georgia where Tucker is from, which started the relationship that brought Tucker to JAL.

However, there was work to be done for Tucker to get him back into game shape.

“There was a lot of rust,” Smithpeters said. “He was out of shape, his knee hadn't been rehabbed correctly so the biggest thing we did when we brought him in was to try to get him, you know, stronger through his core and through his legs.”

But Smithpeters gave Tucker credit for working his way through the rust. The coach said Tucker came to the program weighing about 220 lbs., but now is down to about 205 lbs. Tucker also has regained a lot of confidence on the floor, Smithpeters said.

Smithpeters was happy for Tucker about the preseason honor, but said the focus is on the postseason awards. Smithpeters said Tucker was motivated that he wasn't picked to be Player of the Year.

“That's kind of been his motivation here," Smithpeters said. "He wants to be not just one of the best, but THE best,” Smithpeters said.

With Tucker's talent and his good work in the classroom, Smithpeters said schools from every major conference have been there to recruit him. Purdue, Iowa State, Mississippi State and Pittsburgh were among the colleges showing interest.

Tucker said he would like to have the chance to work out for some NBA teams, but plans on being in school somewhere next fall for his junior season. He is not looking at any specific area of the country.

“Just keeping my options open at this point,” Tucker said.