By Jeff Vella

Staff Writer

Editor’s note: This is the 10th in a series on the college choices of some of the area’s top athletes.

Alfred State needed a shooter. Tyler Lloyd needed a home for two years.

That’s the Cliffs Notes version of the union between Unadilla Valley’s all-time leading basketball scorer and the Pioneers. It probably didn’t hurt that Alfred State, a Division II junior college, sweetened its offer with some scholarship money.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]"We shot around 30 percent on three-pointers last year, and that hurt us a lot," Pioneers coach Jerry Jusianiec said. "I think Tyler’s biggest role will be to open up the inside with his shooting. We didn’t have much from the perimeter last year."

Six-foot guard Lloyd, a two-time Daily Star First-Team All-Star, is regarded as one of the premier shooters in the area, so he and the Pioneers seemed like a natural match. Except that the two sides didn’t talk until late in the recruiting process.

"I was all set to go to Keystone," Lloyd said of the Division III college in Pennsylvania. "The (Alfred State) coach didn’t contact me until after the season ended. But he offered some scholarship money and I figured I might have a better chance of playing more there."

The other school in the picture was Onondaga CC, which sent coaches to UV practices, scrimmages and games the past two years. Lloyd, however, said he shrugged off the attention, never looking at himself as the second coming of Jesus Shuttlesworth from ’He Got Game.’

"He kept things in perspective," Storm coach Matt Osborne said. "He knew when people were coming, but he never tried to do more than he could, or should, with them watching. He stayed level-headed. OCC said he could’ve started for them as a (high school) junior."

Onondaga, though, didn’t offer Lloyd’s desired major of sports management, so that kept him on the free-agent list. As a senior, Lloyd averaged 19.1 points and 8.1 rebounds, winning MVP of the Midstate Athletic Conference’s Division I and leading the Storm to the Section Four Class C semifinals. Then the Pioneers swooped in.

"We saw him during the fall at an All-Star shootout in Verona and we followed him throughout the season," Jusianiec said. "We’re not a typical junior college. We offer dorms on campus and our academic standards are a lot higher than other two-year schools, so we really go after the four-year kids with a good background and good grades. Plus, we offer the possibility of coming here for two years, getting stronger and improving, and maybe getting a scholarship to a four-year school. A lot of the kids want that."

Two Alfred State products played Division I basketball last year. Point guard Greg Lewis started eight games for St. Bonaventure, and guard Marcus Young averaged 6.5 points as a top reserve for Alabama A&M, which reached the NCAA Tournament before losing to Oakland, 79-69, in the play-in game.

"That really got my attention," Lloyd said. "I definitely want to play somewhere after two years."

The Pioneers return four starters from last season’s 16-12 team, including 6-foot-6 forward Johnny Roberts. Although three guards who started last winter will be back, Jusianiec said he expects Lloyd to see minutes right away.

"We started 16-5 last year and lost our last seven games, and a lot of that was because we wore down," Jusianiec said. "We didn’t have a very deep rotation, and it cost us late in games. Tyler’s going to help out. He has a good head on his shoulders and is willing to accept any role we give him."

Lloyd said he realizes the next level won’t be easy, but going from a pressing, trapping system at UV to the similarly uptempo world of junior college basketball should help.

"Everyone’s bigger, stronger and faster," said Lloyd, who should see at least one familiar face when the Pioneers play Tompkins-Cortland CC — expected to feature former Sidney rival Eric Dorsey — in the third game of the season. "That’s how it is. I just have to get used to it."

The knock on Lloyd in high school was his sometimes-lackadaisical defense, but he said he’s out to change that perception.

"People have told me I’m lazy and that I just take defense off," Lloyd said. "But even my coach told me I improved a lot this year. I know I can do it. I just have to work harder."

Lloyd might never be his team’s stopper, but he’ll always have the jump shot that drew the Alfred State coaches to him in the first place.

"Opposing teams that don’t know about him are going to find out in a hurry," Osborne said of Lloyd, who finished with more than 1,100 points with the Storm. "Everyone wants those good, pure shooters."

Coming next: Andrew Sherwood, Unatego.

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Jeff Vella can be reached at jvella@thedailystar.com or 607-432-1000, ext. 209.