THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, November 5, 2014

North Idaho College freshman guard Djuan Piper comes from a tough upbringing and is looking to continue getting better both on the court and in the classroom.

PIPER GREW up on the south side of Seattle, where crime is pretty high and shootings can be witnessed from time to time, and played at Rainier Beach High in Seattle.

"My school isn't in a good neighborhood," said Piper, 19. "There is a lot of gang violence going on there every day, shootings every other day, robberies. I know people that got killed from gang violence. I know people that got robbed at gunpoint, people that have been shot. So I've seen it all, I've seen shootings with my own eyes, seen them across from my school. So it was tough. Some people get caught and go to jail, some people shoot and they run, I've seen shootings where no one got hit, I've seen people who got hit, they went to the hospital and everything was all fine."

PIPER HAD to make up for some lost time after making the transition from middle school to high school.

"The first two years, freshman and sophomore years, I wasn't really going to class," the 6-foot-7 Piper said. "I was ineligible (to play high school basketball) three out of the four times it came up. So I just wasn't focused, wasn't prepared for high school. In the beginning of my sophomore year, I called my coach and said 'I don't want to play any more.' So I quit the team, that was another reason I started getting bad grades again. I got back on the team ... it was a tough transition. I had a lot going on at the time."

At the end of his sophomore year, Piper's mother, Lawanda Piper, who works for Dr. Pepper as a delivery truck driver, moved to Houston with Djuan's sister.

"She just had to get away from Seattle," as Djuan put it, and she has relatives in Houston.

Djuan moved in with his aunt, Nicole Fabre, for a year.

"I had to move in with one of my (assistant) coaches in high school during my senior year, coach Rob (Delgardo). Rainier Beach wasn't in the nicest neighborhood, it was a small school, so I wasn't focused," he said.

But things started to come around for Djuan.

"What got me back on track is coach Rob, coach (David) King and coach Mike (Bethea), they sat me down, got my head right, told me I could do big things with basketball, I could go play Division I, be able to take care of my family, make it if not to the NBA, overseas, make sure my mom, all my brothers and sisters are good for life. They helped me all the way through, (but) some things happened and I didn't get eligible (to play Division I)."

PIPER WAS heavily recruited coming out of Rainier Beach, which at one point was ranked No. 3 in the nation according to USA Today, and he was very close to signing with Minnesota and coach Richard Pitino, son of Louisville coach Rick Pitino.

Oregon State, USC and Washington State were also interested. Piper narrowed his choices down to Minnesota, Gonzaga and Washington, and visited Minnesota on Feb. 7.

A snag with Piper's transcripts prevented him from simply going to play at Minnesota or another school. His overall grade-point average was a 1.8, but it was a 2.6 in his fourth year, plus a 2.7 his fifth year of high school. The NCAA requires a 2.5 overall GPA in order to be eligible.

"With Minnesota, my high school coach (Mike Bethea) is good friends with Rick Pitino," Piper said. "(Minnesota) was the best visit I had. I was a day from committing there and signing, but I never got to sign, because I reclassified (from a 2013 graduate to a 2014 grad) and when you reclassify, you've got to take an appeal to play basketball and go to school. When I had my appeal, I just took it to play basketball. My coach never told me, for the Division Is to count my fifth year, to make up for the other years. So when they looked at it, they just looked at the first four years, including the two years where I messed up. That's why I wasn't eligible to play Division I. My two senior years were great, but it was a little too late."

NIC coach Corey Symons said that's how he got to NIC.

"When he got here, he was still a little frustrated he was here," Symons said. "He wanted to be at Minnesota, which in his defense he probably should have been. That fifth year, that's what put him on the ineligible list and put him with us. The first month with us, sometimes it's tough at first to trust your coaches. We've been helping him out, and Pipe's starting to trust us, realize that we're on his side and we're trying to help him out. He's doing really well."

PIPER GOT here thanks to Symons having connections with Bethea, the Rainier Beach coach.

"I didn't know anything about JUCOs, community colleges," Piper said. "I just knew about the ones around Seattle, like Highline, Tacoma ... A few of my teammates, Will Dorsey, Fuquan Niles and Jordan King, they won two state championships with me. I knew they came here. They were like, 'Coach Corey wants to talk to you, see where your head's at. So I called coach Corey and I went to NIC. He said I can come to NIC, they'll develop my game and I can play Division I."

Piper is getting adjusted to playing with his new Cardinal teammates, on a team that is 9-1 going into today's game at 2 p.m. in the Bigfoot Classic against Everett Community College at Spokane Community College. He also knows former Rainier Beach players like current Los Angeles Clippers guard Jamal Crawford and Denver Nuggets guard Nate Robinson.

Piper has already made some improvements on his game and is averaging 11 points and five rebounds per game, shooting 46.7 percent from the field and 35.3 percent from beyond the 3-point line.

"I've gotten better at NIC with handling the ball and handling it under pressure," Piper said. "Here I get to play point guard. I feel like I'm shooting the ball a lot better. Unfortunately my free throws have gone down. I make them all at practice, I don't know why. In games, it's tough. My defense has always been the best part of my game, I can guard all five positions."

Piper has a wingspan of at least 6-10, according to Symons. But there are a few things not easily physically measured he's still working on. He is shooting 56 percent from the free-throw line but Symons said he makes plenty of free throws when it matters late in games.

"He's an unbelievable player," Symons said. "He's got a couple things he's got to work on. He's got to work on playing hard all the time. In high school, he was so much better than anybody, he could play a little lazy and still be good. But we're getting into playing against some talented kids. He's also got to work on his mental game; sometimes he gets frustrated if things don't go his way. If I get mad at him, or a call doesn't go his way, he gets mentally down. If he fixes those two things, talent-wise, he can be an NBA kid. He will definitely play professionally, at what level is up to him and how he reacts to some issues he needs to deal with."

At NIC, Piper said he has earned As and Bs.

"I still know I can work and get back to being the highly recruited player I was in high school," said Piper, who was listed in high school as a three-star recruit by Rivals.com. "I've just got to work hard. It's nice ... I get a real school experience. It's in a nice neighborhood, I can go to the basketball courts right there on the lake. So it's real calm and quiet over here. I like it; it's not like home, but I like it."

"My goal is to help us win our conference and win a national championship, raise my game and get a lot of Division I offers."

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at [email protected]