Hightower's Jeffery Nwanko drives the lane against state-ranked DeSoto in the Texas Invitational tournament recently held in Pasadena. Matthew White photo

Last season’s Hightower Hurricanes were the most talented group of players fourth-year coach David Green has had in his career — and the toughest to coach.

Not only did he have to find a way to get all that talent to share the ball and mesh together, he had to manage an early-season crisis in which four starters were suspended the first nine games for rules violations.

“It was challenging, but any time you lose five starters before the season even gets started that’s a challenge in itself, especially with the expectations we had going into the season,” Green said.

“We knew we were going to be one of the better teams in the state and to lose those kids for that amount of games (nine) put a damper on our season when we first started to the point where it took us a while to catch up.”

towe: Hightower's Jamal Hamiton brings the ball up the floor in a recent Hightower game. Photo by Matthew White/For the Chronicle

J.J. Richardson, Garlon Green, Daryell Taylor and Ryan Holland all were suspended, and Joshua Wesley was late getting back from football. Hightower opened the season just 2-7 without them.

Once they returned the Hurricanes finally got going, putting together an 18-game winning streak en route to their first district title under Green and a trip to the regional tournament, where they finally lost to Chavez in the regional semifinals.

It was a nice playoff run but less than Green expected with the group he had, and he points to the lost time on the court together as a big reason why they fell short of their ultimate goal of going to state.

“It really hurt us to the point where we felt like we could have made a state run. I was pleased for them by making it to regionals, but them sitting out set us back from what we really expected,” Green said.

Now Green is starting over after graduating nine players and losing 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Winston Shepard to Findlay College Prep in Las Vegas, Nev. Only one player is back, junior point guard Jonathan Jordan.

He’s already assumed a leadership role with the younger players, and Green expects him to turn heads with his play this season.

“Jonathan Jordan’s going to be one of the best point guards in the area when it’s all said and done,” Green said. “He can flat-out play.”
So can senior post Jeffrey Nwanckwo, who Green expects to be his top newcomer.

“Each game that we play I see him getting better because he scored 20 points last (Friday) night (against Huntington),” Green said. “He’s going to be someone to reckon with by the time we get into district play.”

The other key new players are senior P Garrison Hawley, junior G Marshun Meadows, senior P/wing Wayland Siverand, junior W Jabari Goree and senior SG Josh Thomas.

The Hurricanes opened the season with an 81-76 win over Madison led by Nwanckwo (20 points) and Jordan (18). But then they lost their first three games at the McDonald’s Texas Invitational.

“We played some tough teams in this tournament — College Park, DeSoto and Kingwood — so our kids are learning on the go against some tough competition and I’m hoping it’s going to help us in the end,” Green said.