Rainey making impact at next level

The Journey Ends: Colonels fall at Eastern Washington
December 5, 2018
Mike Tyson syndrome hurts the Saints
December 5, 2018
The Journey Ends: Colonels fall at Eastern Washington
December 5, 2018
Mike Tyson syndrome hurts the Saints
December 5, 2018

Just about everyone who closely follows local high school basketball knows about A.J. Rainey by now.


How could one not?

The dude was a human high school basketball video game character for the past two seasons at H.L. Bourgeois — routinely dropping arcade-like point totals to help the Braves win.

But graduation came and a new challenge is in front of the dynamic combo guard for the next two years.


He’s still wearing blue and white, still getting buckets and still playing for a school and a mascot that both start with the letter ‘B’. But now, he’s in Texas — impressing folks at the next level with his offensive arsenal.

Rainey is enjoying his true freshman season at Blinn College — a two-year JUCO in Brenham, Texas, which is between Houston and San Antonio.

The Buccaneers are a force, off to a 9-1 start to the season and a 1-1 mark in conference play.


Rainey is a big part of the team’s success, averaging 11.3 points per game as the team’s starting point guard.

The former Brave said he loves college and is adjusting to Texas.

In the team’s last game against Navarro College, Rainey led the Bucs in scoring with 18 points.


“It’s fun out here in Texas,” Rainey said. “It’s going good. We’re getting a lot of wins and man, we have some great players. It’s just a great experience and I’m making the most of it.”

Rainey can score the heck out of the basketball.

He was a multi-year letter winner and starter with H.L. Bourgeois, but he exploded in the final two seasons of his career to be one of the more memorable players in recent years.


As a junior, Rainey was a dynamic guard for a Braves team that won 20-plus games and earned the No. 5 seed in the Class 5A State Playoffs before falling at Helen Cox.

In the offseason between his junior and senior years, Rainey grew his game even more and developed into an offensive juggernaut.

As a senior, Rainey averaged more than 30 points per game — routinely giving absurd scoring performances to help the Braves win.


Rainey pushed the Braves through the opening two rounds of the playoffs, but the team fell short in the Quarterfinals, falling 72-49 against Landry-Walker, who ended up finishing as the state runner-up.

H.L. Bourgeois coach Andrew Caillouet said several times last season that Rainey was one of the best offensive players he’s ever seen in decades of coaching high school basketball.

But the coach said it was Rainey’s leadership that set him apart from other premier players.


“He’s just a great senior leader,” Caillouet said when Rainey signed with Blinn. “He’s a great offensive player. He’s unselfish. He gets his guys involved and he makes the right play based on what the defense gives him. But what I think a lot of people don’t realize is that A.J. is a really good defensive player, as well. He really has worked hard to get better in that area of his game and I think he’s seen a lot of improvement there.”

When his prep career ended, Rainey picked Blinn after fielding interest from several schools.

It’s a two-year JUCO, so his mission is to impress coaches at bigger schools while with the Bucs — much like Houma native Lionheart Leslie did when he parlayed a two-year stop at Blinn into a run at Cal-State Fullerton.


And Rainey is off to a great start in his quest to make big things happen for himself.

He’s been an instant impact performer for the Bucs since arriving on campus.

In his collegiate debut, Rainey scored 11 points and had 7 assists.


His next game out, he poured in 15 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.

With Blinn, Rainey’s role is a little different than it was at H.L. Bourgeois. With the Braves, he was a combo guard who could either play on or off the ball — depending on how teams defended H.L. Bourgeois.

With Blinn, he’s more of the traditional point guard. His role is to score when it’s available, yes, but also to get teammates involved in the flow of the game.


In his first 9 collegiate games, he’d recorded 6.3 assists, compared to less than 2 turnovers per game.

“It’s been fun,” Rainey said of the move to point guard. “I have the ball in my hands a lot, so it’s cool. It wasn’t that hard for me to get the hang of it.”

AJ Rainey


Follow Casey on Twitter for more. 

https://twitter.com/casey_gisclair