Former E-Rab diversifies his game to become a college star for St. Louis University

Sincere Parker came out of nowhere.

Twice.

Well, maybe only once. St. Louis University coach Travis Ford saw the second time coming.

“We thought he was a guy who could average over 20 points a game,” Ford said of Parker, a former Rockford East star who leads the Billikens in scoring with a 15.9-point average. “What he is doing is not a surprise. We knew he was capable of this. This is what we were preparing for.”

No one saw Parker coming in 2019, when he led East to a fourth-place finish in the Class 4A state tournament and the E-Rabs’ first NIC-10 title in 37 years.

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He scored 31 points in his first varsity start. Then added 22, 29 and 33 points in his next three games to set a pair of records: Most points in a 205 Tip-Off Classic game and most points in one Tip-Off Classic tournament (115).

And then he exited the Rockford spotlight as suddenly as he arrived. Except for getting into a couple of games for just a few minutes late in his sophomore season, that was the only year Parker played at East. He moved to Arizona his senior year to attend a prep school (Compass Prep). At the time, he already had a few Division I offers (Green Bay, Long Beach State, New Mexico, Illinois-Chicago). Instead, two years later, he went to a junior college.

Only then did he attract notice again, leading the NJCAA in points (767) and being named first-team All-American after averaging 21.9 points and shooting 49 percent from the floor — although he was only 30 percent on 3-pointers.

That didn’t sound like the player who averaged 19 points at East and had one of the greatest 3-point shooting seasons in area history.

But that is what attracted Parker so much to SLU coaches.

“One of the things that makes Sincere special is he can score in so many different ways,” Ford said. “He’s got deep range from 3. He also has one of the best mid-range shots around. He can get to the rim. He’s a great free-throw shooter. He can score off the catch or off the bounce.

“What makes him so dangerous is he can score in so many different ways.”

While Parker had almost as many 3-pointers (122) at East as baskets inside the arc (146), he is a different player at St. Louis. For the Billikens, the 6-foot-3 junior has more than three times as many two-point baskets (93) as 3-pointers (26), although he is a stand-out shooter from both distances (49.2 percent on twos and 42.6 on 3s).

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“We saw how he scored the ball in so many different ways at Moberly,” Ford said. “That is what attracted us to him.”

Yet he had a quiet first year at SLU, averaging 5.9 points last year.

He’s had a mercurial second season.

When he plays, he’s been great, averaging 15.9 points and 4.3 rebounds in only 20.9 minutes per game.

He scored 20 points in his second game of the season. In only 16 minutes of playing time, making 9 of 12 shots. He then poured in 19 and 22 points in his next two games. The Billikens were flying as high as he was at 4-0.

But then broke his foot and missed seven weeks. SLU went 3-8 without him.

When he came back in mid-February, he averaged 9.9 points in his first seven games.

“He was really scoring at a high rate the first four games and we were sitting there at 4-0 and really playing well,” Ford said. “Then he goes down and sits for seven weeks. He had never experienced an injury. That’s what made it difficult coming back. He thought, ‘Man, I am going to be the same player I was.’ I had to explain to him this was going to be a process. We can’t expect him to be the same player the first game back.”

But the eighth game back? That was an entirely different story. Suddenly, it was like Sincere Parker’s starting debut at East five years ago.

He scored 33 points in only 18 minutes against LaSalle. Then 34 points against LaSalle. And 30 points against Virginia Commonwealth. He shot 65 percent in the three games (32-for-49), including 12-for-18 on 3-pointers.

Parker became the first Billiken since Larry Hughes — whose son, Larry Hughes, Jr., starts for SLU and who went on to score more than 10,000 points in a 13-year NBA career — to top 30 points three games in a row.

And then he got hurt again. First his foot. And then a shoulder injury.

Parker, who didn’t want to talk because he has been injured, has missed SLU’s last two games. His status is unknown heading into Tuesday’s Atlantic-10 tournament opener between the Billikens (12-19, 5-13) and Rhode Island (12-19, 6-12).

But his coach says there is no doubt about his future.

“He’s got a great future ahead of him,” Ford said. “He’s just scratching the surface now. As he continues to get games under his belt, the sky is the future for him. The way he can score the basketball, not many guys can do that.”

Contact: mtrowbridge@rrstar.com, @matttrowbridge or 815-987-1383. Matt Trowbridge has covered sports for the Rockford Register Star for over 30 years, after previous stints in North Dakota, Delaware, Vermont and Iowa City.

This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: Former E-Rab Sincere Parker making a 2nd splash as NCAA scoring star