Jefferson Walker and Sam Wiseman joining forces at Rhodes College shouldn’t surprise anyone
Jefferson Walker and Sam Wiseman faced each other numerous times during their respected high school basketball careers at Bartlett and Arlington High School.
And each time, they got each other’s best.
Many may not know this, but Walker and Wiseman are best friends off the court and have been teammates since the fifth grade on the AAU Circuit, playing for Mike Miller’s MM33 AAU team, which is now Hoops City.
Walker and Wiseman’s days of playing with one another will continue for, at least, the next four years as both have committed to Division III School Rhodes College.
The Lynx are getting two proven winners. Walker, a 5-foot-11 point guard, averaged 8.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.1 steals per game this past season for the Panthers, who were the No. 1 team in the state of Tennessee for the entire season and were one win away from getting to the state tournament.
During his senior season, Walker was named the Rumble on the Ridge MVP and District 14 AAA All-District Honorable Mention.
In his sophomore and junior seasons, Walker made the District 14 AAA All-District first team in a starting role. Walker played in a reserve role this past season, but it didn’t bother him. His high school basketball coach Dion Real called him “a player who just wants to win.”
“I think it was more hard on me than it was on him,” Real said about Walker’s role. “I would always ask him ‘Are you ready?’ And all year long he told me ‘Coach, I’m fine, I’m fine. I just want to win.’ So, in his freshman and sophomore year, we went 15-16. In his junior year, we went 22-9.
“And this past season, we went 32-3. So for him to say winning is a lot more important than me getting mine, again, it screams who he is. He could have totally shut down on us, but he never did shut down on us. In the games we needed him to be big, he was big. In the games we needed him to just facilitate, he did. I feel like Rhodes is getting something extremely special.”
Wiseman, a 5-11 guard, was the Tigers’ best scorer from this past season, but his final year unfortunately ended with a gruesome leg injury. Even though Wiseman’s final year was cut short, he was still named to the District 14 AAA All-District first team.
Wiseman scored at least 20 points in his meetings this past season against Bartlett, but knew going in that Walker would make him work for each score.
“We’ve always loved playing against each other,” Wiseman said. “We’re like best friends off the court, but on the court, we’re both competitors, and we go at each other, but we always enjoy playing against each other.”
Rhodes College finished the 2018 season 5-21 under first-year head coach Tyler Papadinis. Wiseman watched one of the team’s practices and really connected with coach Papadinis, which ultimately helped him decide to stay close to home. Walker thinks he and Wiseman can come in and put the Lynx in position to win a lot of games.
Walker has been talking to his former high school teammates Sylvester Thompson, Wynne Brown Jr., and Takori Rooks about joining him at Rhodes College. Walker would like for that to happen since he’s comfortable with playing with all of them, but if it doesn’t happen, Walker still feels the Lynx are in good hands with what’s coming in.
“The thing is me and Sam will be able to jump in there and play right away, which was another big thing for me,” Walker said. “And I believe me and him can get the program back on track. I believe in a couple of years we can compete for a national championship.”