All of Troy'reon Ramos' career, his basketball play did the talking.
On the court, it was hardly a costly flaw of the Pine Bluff High School point guard. Ramos' floor leadership was key in helping the Zebras win back-to-back 5A-South Conference championships and reach the 5A state semifinals in March.
But, according to Coach Billy Dixon, it cost Ramos a scholarship to a higher-level college basketball program because the highly vocal college coach didn't think Ramos' quiet disposition was an extension of him.
Apparently, new Arkansas Baptist College Coach Eric Bozeman saw potential in making Ramos' voice heard and offered him a scholarship to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics campus in Little Rock.
"It's something I've got to improve on, and I will," Ramos said Thursday after he signed a letter of intent to run with the Buffaloes. "Every team needs a good point guard, and it starts off somewhere, so being a vocal point guard can help the team work better."
Ramos not only has been an efficient scorer for Pine Bluff, but a clutch performer. He made the go-ahead floater with 43 seconds left in overtime of a state quarterfinal game against Vilonia last March. For the season, he averaged 16.7 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists and 4 steals per game, earning all-state honors from ScorebookLive.com.
Ramos had been a three-year varsity starter.
"When you bring a sophomore in and he's played ninth-grade basketball, it's just not the intensity and physicality we play with," Dixon said. "To be a quiet kid, you have to let your play stand for you. That's what we did. We threw him in the fire as a sophomore and let him get his feet wet. He had no choice. We said, 'Brother, you got to do this,' and he did. He's a three-year all-conference player and two-year all-state player, and to do that in our conference and in our classification, it's a huge accomplishment. Troy let his play stand for him on the basketball court."