High school boys basketball: Givens will cook on the court
Posted at 12:00 p.m. Thursday, April 25, 2024
- Will Givens. CK Photography.
West Rowan’s Will Givens. CK Photography
By Mike London
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MOUNT ULLA — When West Rowan senior shooting guard Will Givens tells people he’s going to play college basketball in Charlotte for Johnson & Wales University, people are either amazed or amused.
Rowan County men’s second-leading scorer to go to cooking school?
Say what?
And yes and no.
Yes, it’s true that Johnson & Wales is known nationally and internationally for the magic its students create as chefs, but Givens is not that.
The 6-foot-6 Givens is a future accountant, but not many accountants can shoot the basketball like him. He plans to cook for J&W well, but he will slice and dice the 2-3 zone defense of some unlucky opponent.
“Everybody knows about Johnson & Wales as a cooking school, and that’s great,” Givens said. “They have good basketball players there. I got a chance to meet some of the guys and play in some Saturday pickup games. The coaches can’t be there, but the older players can run things. I fit in well with the new guys.”
Givens will fit in well wherever there is a 3-point line.
“When the coaches first started talking to me about Johnson & Wales in September, I was skeptical,” Givens said. “But we kept in touch, we had great conversations, and when I got there, the campus was bigger than I expected and the basketball room was better than I expected. I had a chance to go to Pfeiffer or Brevard (the D3s everyone knows), but Johnson & Wales seemed to want me the most. They seemed like the best fit for me to continue my college career.
West Rowan head coach Dadrian Cuthbertson got a first-hand look at Johnson & Wales in the 2023-24 season as his daughter, DeDe Cuthbertson, was a freshman on the J&W team that played in the United Collegiate Athletic Association national championship game states. His daughter clearly enjoyed the experience, made new friends and made future business connections.
Who is Johnson & Wales competing with?
Well, the Wildcats have a crazy lineup of opponents. They played a few exhibitions against DI schools this past season, but most of the opponents were D2 or D3. The J&W men lost to Johnson C. Smith 80-72 and lost to Pfeiffer 71-67, so it’s a competitive program.
Givens should help. He was one of the most consistent scorers and scorers the Falcons have had over the past three decades. He totaled 1,206 career points playing for some pretty good teams in a challenging league.
He was actually a three-year guy as he only played a handful of varsity minutes as a freshman.
The breakthrough for Givens came in the third game of his sophomore year, when he scored 22 points in a win against Salisbury.
Givens suited up for the Falcons in 72 games over the past three seasons and scored in double figures 63 times. He scored in the 20s 14 times. He scored his career high of 32 thrice and it was interesting against whom he made that 32 – Davey, Crest and Robinson. Three good opponents and three close games. There are no crimes in this group.
His steadily improving average was 13.6 as a sophomore; 17.0 as a junior and 19.1 as a senior. His 1,000th point came early in a game his senior year at South Rowan.
“That was my best memory of high school because it’s such a journey to 1,000 points,” Givens said. “Every time I think about 1,000, I’ll think about all the family, teammates and coaches that helped me get there. There were so many ups and downs along the way.”
Second best memory of Givens? It was the shutout against North Iredell that started his senior season.
“The first game of my senior year of high school ball and all that,” said Givens, who realized basketball was his game when he was very young. “It was nice to start the season with a dunk.”
He probably hit 100 threes for every dunk in his career. Givens is a good athlete who can score points on the fast break and points off the guard, but his prowess at the 3-point line is always what makes him special and makes him a big threat. When you played West, the first thing you talked about was taking him away from the 3-point line, but his release was quick and deadly.
“Will meant a lot to us,” Cuthbertson said. “He’s been the scoring leader for three years. Every time he stepped on the floor, he could go 20 or 25, so teams had to worry about him. There has been a lot of growth for him in the last year. He’s gained some size and strength and is putting the ball on the floor more than ever.”
At his recent signing party in West Givens noted that “everyone ate well.”
He can appreciate good cuisine, but he has plans to turn J&W into a basketball school.
