THE FRONT ROW WITH BRUCE BOURQUIN: Friday, March 11, 2016

Scott Turner took the road less traveled to become a member of the North Idaho College men’s basketball team.

NIC, as the No. 5 seed for the NJCAA national tournament, will open tourney play Tuesday in Hutchinson, Kan., against Monday’s winner between Southwest Tennessee Community College of Memphis, Tenn., and Spartanburg of Spartanburg, S.C.

After the 2012 Lake City High graduate — a self-described “late bloomer” — earned his B.S. degree in biomechanics at Boise State University in 2015, he still had the itch to play basketball in college, and ended up at NIC this season. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, biomechanics is the mechanics of biological and especially muscular activity.

And the Coeur d’Alene born-and-bred 21-year-old is not necessarily done playing college hoops.

“One of the things I wasn’t expecting was getting some attention in recruiting after NIC,” said Turner, a 6-foot-6 freshman backup forward. “The University of Calgary up in Canada and the University of Texas at San Antonio each have graduate programs with biomechanics.”

Instead of going straight from Boise State into a new job, Turner wanted to hold onto some of his basketball dreams. After he turns 22 on April 25, he still wants to play some hoops for at least a couple more seasons.

“I was pretty young, maturity-wise,” Turner said. “I didn’t want a full-time job just yet. There’s always going to be a job in my career. Playing college basketball was like a challenge to me. I worked out last spring with Boise State’s men’s basketball team. It was like my alternative.”

CARDINALS COACH Corey Symons is in his second season and he recruited Turner.

“I’ve seen him around town, playing pickup ball,” Symons said. “I talked to him and invited him to an open gym. This past summer we recruited him. He’s a high academic kid, he took some college courses in high school. He’s capable to be a starter, the last two conference games he’s been playing huge minutes. At home against Snow College, he had 16 points and seven rebounds. He’s a team guy who’s bought into our rotation; we start the same five guys. He’ll play 25 minutes one night, five minutes the next. He can shoot it, put it on the floor a little bit.”

As one of the old wise men on the team, Turner provides a lot of value as a sort of glue guy to this bunch that at one point was undefeated.

“He’s mature, he’s got a good head on his shoulders,” Symons said. “He brings a little bit of leadership to the team.”

AS FAR as playing on a team that’s contending for a national title, Turner naturally turned a personal reason for continuing his education into an experience beyond his and his teammates’ dreams.

“It’s kind of crazy,” Turner said. “I went on a personal mission and it’s turned out to be way more than I thought. Just the way I’ve been a part of games, playing late, it’s a ton of fun. I’m looking forward to it, I look forward to competing against guys who’ll play Division I ball and the big stage.”

While practicing and working out with the Broncos, as a forward Turner literally ran into James Webb III, a former NIC standout who is now starring as a redshirt junior at BSU.

“We’ve always had a laugh,” Turner said of Webb III. “I’m back at NIC, whereas he went from NIC to Boise State. They’ve been in the NCAA Tournament. I think coach (Leon) Rice has built guys up, they’re becoming a national power.”

So from being a warm body at BSU practices to possibly playing in a national JUCO tournament, Turner has come a long way to achieving his dreams.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013, via e-mail at bbourquin@cdapress.com or via Twitter @bourq25