Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Quiet quality
Allen stars without blaring of trumpets
KeVaughn Allen played so well this season that North Little Rock Coach Johnny Rice had trouble recalling any of the 6-3 sophomore’s poor decisions.
“I can honestly say in 29 games he [Allen] might have taken one, or two at the most, what I consider a bad shot,” Rice said. “I can’t say that about very many other players, but he really didn’t. He never forced anything. I can remember one [shot] that he took right before the half of one game, but that’s about it.”
Described as quiet, humble and laid-back, Allen was an integral part of North Little Rock’s 27-game winning streak and the program’s first state championship since 1971. Allen has been selected as the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s Sophomore of the Year.
“It was a fun season,” Allen said. “We were focused. We had a goal. Every time we went on the floor, we just wanted to play hard and compete. … The coaches kept reminding us that it had been a long time since the school had won a championship. I don’t think a lot of people outside our school thought we could win it all. By the end, we wanted to prove them wrong.”
Rice said he was well aware of Allen’s talents before this season, but he was concerned that Allen was not as aggressive as he should have been.
“When I watched him play as a ninth-grader, there were times he would take over a game in the fourth quarter when I thought he should have been dominating the entire game,” Rice said. “He was passive. He wasn’t as assertive as I thought he could have been. We talked to him all of last spring and fall and told him, ‘We need you to be more aggressive.’ ”
Allen wound up leading the Charging Wildcats’ with an 18.6 scoring average, but the sophomore admitted having seniors Dayshawn Watkins and Thomas Alexander helped his scoring.
“They took a lot of pres- sure off of me,” Allen said. “They let me do what I do, but they helped me and guided me. They showed me what I needed to do to become better.”
“It did help that KeVaughn had two other scoring options,” Rice said. “KeVaughn got boxed-and-oned one time, but the other guys scored so it didn’t last very long.”
Rice said Allen will need to be more vocal for the Charging Wildcats over the next two years.
“One of the biggest things we like about him is that he is so coachable,” Rice said. “We get on to him just like we do anybody else, but sometimes we have to make things up just to get on to him because we want the other kids to see how he reacts.
“He just says ‘yes, sir’ and keeps working.”