Aubrey Coleman doesnt subscribe to most basketball standards.
Whether it be his relatively short playing career to date, or the manner in which he led an under-appreciated and overlooked Houston team to its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1992, the nations leading scorer has taken beating the odds to an art form. Of course, if all you did was check a box score, youd never know it.
"People dont see the work Ive put in," Coleman said. "All that they really see is that I can score."
Its hard to fault most casual observers for not looking past the 25-point per game scoring average that Coleman tortured opposing Conference-USA teams with this season  after all, he fits the bill of so many scoring machines who have come before him. The senior scored nearly one-third of his teams points on more than thirty percent of the Cougars field goal attempts, all while operating outside of the national spotlight.
But to really know the 6-foot-3 Houston native is to know an individual who is anything but the stereotypical scoring machine - he's simply a person who knows what it takes to get himself noticed.
Growing up, Coleman wasn't taken with the idea of playing organized basketball like so many of his peers. He didn't play a 30-game high school schedule, didn't lace up for an elite level AAU team in the spring and certainly didn't bounce around the country attending prestigious summer showcase events.
The blossoming talent was content to stay within the confines of the local streetball scene where he earned a reputation for being able to score at will against would be defenders. Upon receiving encouragement from friends to try his hand at playing within an organized system though, Coleman opted to tryout for his high school team as a senior.
Some things just don't fit.
Despite a wealth of talent, Coleman didn't understand the nuances of playing organized basketball. He wasn't tuned to the idea of running an offense and was charge prone due to the lack of such calls on the streets. The senior's coach often kept the guard on a shot leash, meaning plenty of his time was spent on the bench where colleges didn't get the opportunity to see him play.
So it was that Coleman did something that has become a habitual practice in his career  he took matters into his own hands. With no interest coming from four-year schools, he began attending open tryouts hoping to garner the attention of a junior college and earn a scholarship.
Enter Southwest Mississippi Community College.
Long summers in the gym helped to forge Coleman into more than just a slasher and prolific, but a player capable of hurting teams in a variety of ways. He parlayed that into a scholarship to Houston after two years at Southwest Mississippi, preferring to be as close to home as possible to be near his ailing mother.
The move proved to be a perfect fit. As a junior, Coleman averaged more than 19 points, teaming with Rob McKiver to form a deadly scoring duo, but as a senior and suddenly the top option on offense, adjustments were going to be necessary.
My first year people were sagging off me because they knew I was a driver, he said. So [Houston head coach Tom Penders] told me, theres going to come a point and time where you need to develop that three-pointer jumper in order to keep them honest, so thats what I spent the whole summer working on. I worked at pulling up off the dribble, shooting from the outside and just getting comfortable with that."
The result was an eleven percent increase in Colemans perimeter shooting percentage, and while at just under 32-percent he isnt a consistent threat to hurt teams with his range, it did allow him to raise his scoring average by six points on an additional four shots per game. While the prodigious scoring numbers were enough to earn him attention, the senior knew that without team success his numbers would be endlessly scrutinized.
And with good reason. While the Cougars werent able to overcome the Maryland Terrapins in the first round, Coleman made his mark by netting a game-high 26 points and hauling in a team-best eight rebounds in the loss. It was simply another case of the scorer rising to the occasion and making his mark when it was needed most.
He found himself under a microscope once again this week, competing in the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in front of NBA scouts and GMs, hoping to make a good enough impression to earn an invitation to the NBA Combine and individual workouts.
Working in the NBA hopefuls corner is a man familiar players like Coleman, his agent Michael Whitaker. In each of the last two seasons Whitaker has taken a mid-major level talent and helped land him a pick on draft night. In 2008 it was current San Antonio Spur George Hill, and last season it was another C-USA scoring machine in Jermaine Taylor, now with the Houston Rockets.
Now, Coleman is on the cusp of getting the chance to do that on a nightly basis. Regardless of where he lands though, the player who didnt know a thing about basketball except how to play hard, isnt going to suddenly change the approach that has taken him this far.
Its becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the voracious scoring numbers Aubrey Coleman has been producing at the University of Houston this season, and with the increasingly perimeter oriented direction the NBA is heading in these days, hes likely long overdue for an extended look.
A junior college transfer from Southwest Mississippi Community College, Coleman was probably best known until now as the guy that stepped on Chase Budingers face last season when his team played Arizona.
Despite the poor first impression, hes making a name for himself in other ways now, currently holding the distinction of being the #1 scorer in college basketball.
From an NBA standpoint, Coleman has average size for the shooting guard position at 6-3 or 6-4, but makes up for that somewhat with an absolute chiseled frame. Hes not going to blow anyone away with his pure athleticism, but is a very skilled offensive player who fills up the stat sheet in many different ways.
No player carries a heavier offensive load in the NCAA than Coleman, as he ranks first in both possessions per game and field goal attempts. The fact that his team plays at the third fastest pace in college basketball obviously helps, but its undeniable how intensely they rely on his scoring production. Very few of his field goal attempts are created by teammates, which makes his solid efficiency numbers (48% 2P, 39% 3P) even more impressive.
Coleman gets the largest portion of his offense in isolation situations, facing up from the perimeter and taking his man off the dribble. Not a prolific 3-point shooter (only 21% of his field goal attempts come from beyond the arc), he loves to operate in the mid-range area, where he does a terrific job creating separation from his defender and is capable of making some exceptionally difficult shots.
He takes and makes a large number of long, contested 2-pointers pulling up off the dribble with a hand in his face each and every game, showing his virtues as a high-level shot-maker and pick and roll player.
This lends itself to his 3-point shooting as well, where he makes 39% of his attempts, despite his flat-footed and somewhat slow-developing release. The fact that he can make shots effectively both catching and shooting as well as pulling up off the dribble is a big plus.
Despite displaying what appears to be just an average first step, Coleman still finds ways to get to the basket fairly regularly, averaging an excellent 9.5 free throw attempts per game3rd best amongst all shooting guard prospects per-40 minutes pace adjusted.
An instinctive, aggressive scorer, Coleman is a very confident ball-handler who can create going either direction and shows nice hesitation moves and exceptional strength making his way to the basket. He turns the ball over at a minuscule rate (0.09%) on a per-possession basis, which definitely bodes well for his future. Unfortunately his court vision appears to be below-average, which would likely nullify most chances of him being able to make the conversion to playing the point down the road.
Coleman contributes to his team in a couple of different areas, namely with his excellent rebounding production (7.5 rebounds per-40 minutes pace adjusted) and his ability to get in the passing lanes (3.6 steals per-40p), reminding somewhat of Lester Hudson in that regard.
Undersized on the defensive end, and not always showing the best effort or fundamentals, Coleman has terrific instincts and anticipation skills. Hell need to apply them much better if he wants to improve his chances of making an NBA roster, though, as his potential role will likely be much smaller offensively and hell have to earn his minutes in other ways.
Thats typically the biggest concern with smaller-school scoring machines like Colemanwhether hell be able to be productive as without the ball in his hands and an entire offense built around him.
There is a lot to like about Aubrey Coleman regardless when considering his NBA potential, although hes obviously no lock at this point. Continuing to win and produce efficiently in the underrated Conference USA will go a long way in helping his cause, as will a strong showing at the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament in April.