Cougars' Coleman shows his polish

Aubrey Coleman advanced the ball with a slow, almost leisurely pace. It was almost like watching a snake charmer as he hypnotized his defender with the languid rhythm of his dribble. But rather than charmer, Coleman was about to become the cobra. When he reached the top of the key, Coleman suddenly put it in overdrive, stutter-stepping and dropping a shoulder, a burst that caused the surprised defender to fall back on his heels. With his man staggered, Coleman, with a clear look at the basket, took one last hard dribble, rose and launched his silky jumper. Two points. "That's my move," said Coleman, smiling. "I put in a lot of work to get that move down." Coleman used the move to good effect in Wednesday's Conference USA game against East Carolina, scoring a game-high 23 points to lead the Cougars to an 85-67 victory. And it should serve Coleman just as well today when the Cougars (12-4) take on Arizona (11-8) in a non-conference game at the McKale Center in Tucson, Ariz. "Aubrey might be the hardest-working player I've ever coached," UH coach Tom Penders said. "Whenever he gets extra time he goes to the gym and works on his game. Sure he has talent, but this kid is always working." It's that work ethic that has made Coleman the rarest of gems in today's game - the unearthed diamond that no one knew about. Despite scouting services that can give detailed reports on fifth-graders, AAU tournaments, camps and nationally televised high school games, Coleman was a basketball non-entity coming out of Fort Bend Marshall. Learning his own way Illness - a family history of abscesses that required surgery, the result of which is still evident by the raised scar on Coleman's neck - kept him off the court during his middle school and early high school days. Coleman wound up honing his skills wherever he could find a game. "I figured I had to learn the game myself," he said. "Nobody ever taught me fundamentals or anything. I played a lot of streetball, but I taught myself the fundamentals by going into the gym and working on it." The effort paid off when Coleman was "discovered" by former UH guard Kenneth "Juice" Williams, who was running the show at high-flying Gulf Shores Academy. Coleman showed up for open gym one day and wound up playing at the charter school. It was on their trip to Mississippi that Coleman was noticed by Southwest Mississippi Community College coach Bill Wallace. After one season with the Bears averaging 23 points and five steals per game, it was time for Coleman to again be discovered. Jerry Mullen, who runs a national showcase event in Tulsa, Okla., called the 120 JUCO Elite, got a call that urged him to include Coleman in his field. Who? Mullen had to see the 6-4 guard for himself. "I fell in love with the kid immediately," Mullen said. "He was so athletic, got to the rim and was fearless. The first thing I did was call Melvin (Haralson, Penders' top assistant at UH) and tell him that he had to recruit this kid. They saw Aubrey and they jumped right on him." Indeed they did, though Coleman at first didn't want to come. But when his mother, Cynthia, underwent abscess surgery, he decided it was time to come home. "I wanted to go away because I thought that would make me hungrier," he said, but "I wanted to be close to my momma." Moving in Haralson and Penders immediately recognized that the hyper-athletic point guard would be a perfect complement to returnee Kelvin Lewis, a pure-shooting off guard. "The first thing I noticed was that speed," Haralson said. "I didn't know how well he could shoot and I didn't know what a good passer he was, but I kept seeing how he could get from one end to the other. "And he just kept putting up the numbers." Which leads to another anomalous part of Coleman's basketball life - he puts up those numbers without relying on the 3-pointer. Coleman averages 18.4 points for the Cougars, but has attempted only six 3s all season. To put that in the proper context, consider that the player Coleman succeeded, Robert "Fluff" McKiver, played 67 career games at UH, and in only 10 of those did he attempt fewer than six beyond the arc. "The 15-footer is easy, so that's why I take it," Coleman said. "It's a high-percentage shot, and I've worked hard on it. One thing I've learned is that you're not given anything. It's all about the work you put in, so I'll never stop working."