Pick up any junior college basketball team’s roster and Ricardo Patton can find at least a couple stories worth listening to on it.

Leading up to the 2010-11 season, two in particular caught the interest of the head men’s basketball coach at NIU. A 270-pound forward out of Danville Community College and a Bowling Green Falcon turned Lee Community College Running Rebel.

The departures of several key players last semester left the NIU coaching staff with some glaring holes to fill. Without the luxury of time to mold freshmen, Patton and his assistants set their sights on more experienced players.

“When you bring in junior college players, they usually only have two years,” Patton said. “So most of them come in with the expectation that they will get to play everyday, which is what we were looking for.”

Recruiting a junior college player, though, is hardly the same as pursuing a high school student. To give players time to concentrate on academics, coaches are barred from communicating with them until their second year in junior college.

The student athlete’s sole responsibility is to be on track to graduate with an associate’s degree before transferring to a four-year school.

During his second year at Danville, Tim Toler understood the pressure of impressing a coach, both on and off the court. Poor grades and SAT scores at Avon High School in Indiana scared off any interested Division I schools, forcing Toler to bide his time in Danville while waiting for a second chance.

“I was really hoping after my two years in Danville I would get into a Division I school,” Toler said. “The main thing, though, was to make sure my grades were good and advance my skills a little more on the court.”

Patton and his staff took notice of Toler after a sophomore campaign that saw the 270-pound forward average 16.2 points and 8.6 rebounds a game. Danville head coach Mike Carpenter remembers being impressed with the way NIU’s coaching staff went about recruiting Toler.

“I think the thing that NIU does is that they understand that kids at this level are more mature,” Carpenter said. “There isn’t the transitional phase that most freshmen have, there is some transition but there aren’t nearly as many growing pains. They approached Tim like he was a man, not an 18-year-old college freshman.”

Low grades weren’t a concern for fellow JUCO transfer Cameron Madlock at Whitefish Bay Dominican H.S. in Milwaukee. The Bowling Green coaching staff recruited Madlock to play for the Falcons during his senior year of high school.

The forward left Bowling Green, however, after his freshman season to attend Lee Community College in Texas and use his second year of eligibility there.

“Out of high school it was kind of a last minute thing to attend Bowling Green,” Madlock said. “The AAU circuit helped me a lot to get an opportunity out of high school.”

After playing a season for the Running Rebels, Madlock was approached by NIU with the opportunity to be a Huskie. The junior forward accepted the offer, but not without some apprehension.

“At Bowling Green, when the freshman came in they were a lot more praised than when the junior college guys came in,” Madlock said. “It was different here, though, it was like ‘you’re here, you’re part of the team and let’s get rolling.'”

Patton –who began his collegiate basketball career on the John C. Calhoun Community College basketball team before transferring to Belmont College– fully understands the limited eligibility most JUCO transfers have upon arriving on campus.

Most importantly to the fourth-year head coach, a Division I school often represents a sorely needed opportunity.

“The intent of a junior college for some of these guys is to mature both on and off the court,” Patton said. “It’s a second chance.”