Jacksonville's Bryce Workman, North Florida's Dorian James stayed true to their schools

Fans at Swisher Gym for Friday’s ASUN men's basketball game between the visiting University of North Florida Ospreys and the Jacksonville University Dolphins at 7 p.m. should pay close attention to the low-post battle that will occur when UNF's Dorian James and the JU's Bryce Workman punch in and go to work.

They may not see their like again, especially in terms of how long they've worn their respective jerseys -- six years, each, counting a redshirt and the NCAA's COVID season.

Loyalty, in the Wild, Wild West of the transfer portal era, still matters to the former Orlando AAU teammates.

The Ospreys (15-13, 8-5) will be trying to solidify their hold in the upper part of the ASUN standings and are going for a sweep of the River City Rumble for the second season in a row. UNF beat the Dolphins 82-74 on Jan. 12 at UNF Arena, with James leading all scorers with 25 points.

The Dolphins (13-14, 4-9) are trying desperately to make the top 10 of the ASUN standings and qualify for the conference tournament.

One advantage they might have is Workman back in the lineup. He missed 10 games between Dec. 6 and Feb. 8 with a broken hand and missed both games against the Osprey in 2022-23 when he was out for the season with an ACL injury. The last time Workman faced UNF was in the final regular-season game of 2022 when he had four points and six rebounds in a 71-39 victory at Swisher Gym.

Workman has averaged 9.7 points and 7.7 rebounds in four games since his return. He leads JU with 7.4 rebounds per game for the season and is second in scoring to Robert McCray V (17.0) with 11.5 points per game.

James enters the game averaging 9.8 points and a team-high 5.4 rebounds per game and a 52.9 shooting percentage.

James, Workman are craftsmen down low

James and Workman, both 6-foot-7 forwards, are throwbacks to a time when big men had an arsenal of moves: hook shots, spins, layups with either hand, drop steps, back-downs, the fine art of rolling when the defender they’ve picked jumps out at the ballhandler — they have it all, at a time when basketball players at almost any level live for the transition dunk or long-distance 3-point shot — and a spot on an ESPN Top 10.

“You don’t see very many guys in mid-major conferences with post moves like Bryce,” said JU coach Jordan Mincy.

“Dorian has always had beautiful touch around the rim and he works really hard to be a good interior guy,” said UNF coach Matthew Driscoll. “He has an old-school mindset.”

Orlando Oak Ridge coach Steve Reece, who coached Workman and James in AAU ball, said they conducted a clinic in post moves every practice and every game.

“They’re both team-first guys and among the most skilled players I ever coached,” Reece said. “Bryce’s footwork, in particular, is amazing. They’ve always played on very talented teams in high school and AAU and they’ve worked for everything they’ve gotten.”

Workman courted by both JU and UNF

Workman averaged 19.8 points and 13.3 rebounds per game as a senior at Tampa Sickles and was the conference player of the year. As a junior, he helped Sickles to the Class 8A state title.

Workman was recruited by schools such as UCF and USF — and UNF.

"Bryce was high on our radar," Driscoll said. "I love his game, have always loved his game."

But former JU coach Tony Jasick eventually signed Workman, seeing him as a cornerstone of the team's future.

"He had good size and an excellent basketball IQ," said Jasick, now coaching at Stephen F. Austin. "He knew how to play the game and he was an extremely high-character kid. I thought the world of Bryce and I still do."

Workman was patient for two seasons and then blossomed as a true junior in 2020-21, averaging 10.3 points and 6.4 rebounds. In JU's final four games, he averaged 13.7 points and 7.7 rebounds, and in the regular-season finale, lit up Stetson for 33 points, the highest single-game total in the ASUN that season.

The Dolphins were poised to make a run in the ASUN tournament, which was being held in Jacksonville that season. But it came to a crashing halt when the team had to withdraw from the tournament because of the conference's COVID-19 protocols.

Workman came back in 2021-22 to average 9.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game, serving as the key inside player during the Dolphins' 21-11 season and a spot in the ASUN title game in Mincy's first year.

UNF offered James early. Both honored the commitment

The UNF coaching staff saw James' potential early and offered him a scholarship during his junior year at Winter Haven.

"I first met him as a ninth-grader," Driscoll said. "I was visiting Winter Haven and his coach had bus duty. He called Dorian over in the parking lot and introduced us. I liked him right away."

James stuffed the stat sheet game after game as a senior at Winter Haven, averaging 15.2 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 3.4 steals to lead the Blue Devils to the Class 8A final four (they were defeated by Creekside in the semifinals).

James played more in the open court at high school and while he's adapted his game at UNF, he can still get out in transition and is sneaky beyond the 3-point arc, making 19 of 42 (45.2 percent) this season.

"I've adjusted my role based on what the coaches want from me," said James, who started all 30 games in 2021-22, started only one game last season when he was the sixth man, and has started all 28 games this season.

"I feel like I'm best with my back to the basket. Not very many people do it anymore. I've got to credit coach Driscoll and [assistant] coach [Bruce] Evans for showing me how to score close to the basket, how to use my body in certain ways to create angles."

Workman, James bonded on AAU team

In addition to being two of the top high school players in their respective areas, Workman and James were teammates on the Orlando AAU team E1T1 (Each One, Teach One), where they developed a friendship and mutual respect for each other's work ethic and overall games.

“We had a lot of talent on that AAU team,” Workman said. “Dorian was always one of your hardest workers. Every practice with him was competitive.”

The feeling is mutual.

“He’s a tough cover,” James said of trying to defend Workman. “He really knows how to use his body, can go left or right ... he’s pretty unpredictable. And he has a great touch when he finishes.”

Because of their respective injuries, the two players haven't played in every River City Rumble game, haven't faced each other as often as they could have, nor have they played particularly well.

Workman has played in nine games against the Ospreys, averaging 4.2 points and 4.1 rebounds and shooting 30.0 percent. James has played eight games against JU and averaged 5.5 points and 4.0 rebounds, with a 50.0 percent shooting percentage.

They have played against each other five times in the River City Rumble with nearly identical stats. Workman has averaged 2.8 points and 3.0 rebounds and James has 3.0 points and 5.0 rebounds.

Workman spent the better part of his first three seasons coming off the bench, starting 35 of 125 games. James, who recently sent the UNF program record for games played, has started 80 of 138. They've each started three games against the other school prior to Friday.

Obviously, they should be more of factor in their final game against each other — barring a meeting in the ASUN Tournament, should they both qualify and the seedings fall the right way.

Old-school games, old-school loyalty

Yes, Workman and James are skilled. But their value to their two schools runs deeper.

In the transfer portal and NIL Era, where mid-major players are jumping ship on a whim and the most powerful conferences lure them after another coaching staff develops them, Workman and James are, in the words of Mincy, “a couple of dinosaurs.”

“Everyone was after Bryce when they made the coaching change [in 2021],” Mincy said. “South Florida, UCF, Tampa ... he’s stayed loyal.”

Mincy almost thought he lost Workman after replacing Jasick. Mincy learned Workman had entered the transfer portal and tried to contact him. But it was spring break and one of the other players told him Workman was at South Beach with friends.

Several phone messages went unreturned. Finally, Mincy left a final message.

“I told him if he didn’t call me back, I was cutting him from the roster,” Mincy said.

Workman called back soon after that message.

“He just said, ‘hey man ... what’s up?’” Mincy said. “Then I got the best news I could get.”

“I was in the portal,” Workman admitted. “But I got to know Jordan and I loved his energy, the way he went about things. Coming back was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

James endured a redshirt season, an injury in 2020-21 and multiple roles asked of him.

“Is it tougher to keep kids? Absolutely,” Driscoll said. “It’s like every single year is free agency. But Dorian is about hard work and family.”

James agreed with that and said from the moment he enrolled at UNF, he intended to finish there.

“I always loved this coaching staff ... they were the first ones from a Division I program to offer me a scholarship and they stuck with me,” James said. “I’ve always felt my best opportunity as an athlete and a student was going to be right here.”

And regardless of their stats on the basketball court, both have accomplished an important goal: they both have their degrees, Workman in Social Science and James in Biomedical Science.

Family mattered for Workman and James

In trying to divine why Workman and James have stuck it out for six years at their respective schools, look no further than their upbringing.

Workman is the son of former NBA player Haywoode Workman, who played with Atlanta, Washington, Indiana, Milwaukee and Toronto and is now an NBA official.

“Everything I know about hard work and how to play the game right, I got from my father,” Workman said.

James has a very different background but with the same result. His mother, Cara James, is a family physician and his father, Denzil James, is an administrator at Central Florida Health Care. Neither played sports but James, his brother Dylan (University of Georgia) and his brother Darius and sister Charla (Lynn University) all played college basketball and the James children were always encouraged to pursue what they loved.

“His parents are incredible human beings and I think that translates to him wanting to stay where he’s comfortable,” Driscoll said. “His roots are so Florida and they taught him the meaning of hard work.”

Both players have different goals

While Workman and James have carved out similar paths in college basketball, they have different dreams for a future that will begin the minute their teams are eliminated from the postseason.

Workman wants to give professional basketball a serious try and said he doesn’t care where if he gets the chance.

“[NBA} D League, or Europe ... if that ever comes, if someone wants to give me the opportunity, I’ll be happy,” he said.

If a playing career doesn’t materialize, Workman wants to stay close to the sport as a coach or agent.

James is frank about the fact that when UNF is finished for the season, he might have played his last competitive basketball game.

“I don’t know if I want to play after college,” he said. “It’s tough on the body. Every kid has dreams of playing in the NBA but as you get older you become more realistic with your goals.”

James thought about following his mother as a doctor but is in a Masters program in Health Administration and wants to eventually work at a hospital.

“My plan is to get my foot in the door and work my way up to a leadership position,” he said. “You can still help a lot of people that way.”

Both plan to spend what's left of their college careers the same way they've been performing since they started: by going hard and playing the game the right way.

"I learned early from this coaching staff to be ready to go every day," James said. "It's going to be great to go against Bryce one more time."

Workman feels he has even more to prove after missing 39 games in two years.

"Coming off ACL surgery was the hardest thing I ever had to do," he said. "Then I got my hand injured and for a while, that really messed me up mentally. But staying at JU has helped me grow as a player and as a man and I think we still have the players to go out and learn from the losses and beat some people."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bryce Workman of JU, Dorian James of UNF remained loyal in the portal era