Winding roads lead to JBU

Life can take some unexpected turns, especially when it comes to playing college basketball.

John Brown seniors Josh Bowling and Jake Caudle are well aware of that fact.

Neither Bowling nor Caudle began their college careers at John Brown.

But both will finish up here this spring after leading the Golden Eagles men's basketball team on a resurgence that has included the program's first trip to the NAIA Division I Men's National Tournament since 2013.

"I mean it's just a long-term journey," said Bowling, a 6-foot-6 forward. "I think it's a testament to the work we've put in. We stuck with it four years. I know we each transferred to start, but we each stuck with it four years here. We tried to improve each year and recognize areas we need to improve on."

The Golden Eagles (23-10) are set to play in the opening game of the tournament at 9 a.m. today against Bethel (Tenn.) from Municipal Arena in Kansas City, Mo.

And if John Brown is going to have an extended run, the Golden Eagles are going to need Caudle and Bowling -- their leading and second-leading scorers, respectively, and All-Sooner Athletic Conference selections -- to keep playing as they have among the nation's best.

"One of my favorite quotes is 'nothing of value is free,' Nothing that has greatness in it is easy," said Caudle, a 6-1 guard from Bentonville. "Failure is a process to become great, and so persisting through failure, I think that is one of the greatest keys you can have to become successful. It's easy to quit when you fail. It's hard to persevere through failure. I think it kind of defines us not only as two people on the team this year but the team as a whole."

Caudle returns to basketball

Following the conclusion of his high school career at Bentonville in the spring of 2014, Jake Caudle was burned out on basketball.

His senior season at Bentonville, Caudle became one of the most pleasant surprises for coach Jason McMahan and the Tigers, averaging 7.2 points and 2.8 rebounds for a team that wound up going 19-6 and featured Malik Monk, who went on to play at Kentucky and is now in the NBA with the Charlotte Hornets.

Caudle had worked his way up from being a junior varsity player at Bentonville to one of the Tigers' most dependable players and a 7A/6A-West All-Conference selection.

Despite all that, he felt like he was done with the game.

"I thought I was burned out on basketball," he said. "I didn't want to play anymore. I thought I wanted to just have a life without basketball and a (regular) college experience for the first year."

So that's what Caudle did. He enrolled at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and discovered he wanted to major in computer engineering.

But Caudle also discovered something else -- he missed basketball a lot.

"It only took about two-and-a-half to three months to realize I was really missing basketball," Caudle said.

Caudle realized that he was in the gym at the rec center playing basketball and lifting weights more than when he was actually on a basketball team.

And then came the greatest revelation.

"The biggest turning point I had was in that first semester at the U of A, I was sitting in the library on a Friday night doing homework, some type of engineering homework that was taking me three to four hours to do," he said. "And I was just sitting there thinking, this is not what I want to be doing right now. I want to go back to something that I love doing. I want to get back to basketball."

Caudle said over that Christmas break, he went to visit McMahan, his former coach at Bentonville, about finding a way to play college basketball.

McMahan, who led Siloam Springs High School to a boys state title in 2008, told Caudle that he could probably get him a tryout at John Brown, which was in its first year under coach Jason Beschta during the 2014-15 season.

Caudle got the tryout and joined the Golden Eagles as a walk-on for the 2015-16 season.

Caudle wound up playing in 29 games that season, averaging 4.4 points and 2.2 rebounds, but what was noticeable was his heart and hustle on the court. The season for John Brown though was mostly forgettable, finishing 13-19 overall and 5-13 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

"Especially coming in as a walk-on freshman, I knew there were very, very low expectations of me," Caudle said, "and so I wanted to not only get through but push past those expectations and really show what I can do and I show that with my work ethic."

Heading into his sophomore season in 2016-17, Caudle was one of the Golden Eagles' most improved players and it showed. He started 27 of 28 games and averaged a team-high 12.3 points per game along with hitting a team-leading 72 3-pointers.

The Golden Eagles got better too, improving to 15-15 overall and 7-11 in league play.

Last year Caudle became one of the premier scorers in the Sooner Athletic Conference, averaging 18.6 points per game, earning NAIA All-America honorable mention honors, All-Sooner Athletic Conference first-team recognition along with the SAC's Sportsmanship Award. John Brown wound up going 16-14 overall and 10-10 in league play as well.

Slowed by an ankle injury early in this season, Caudle was a bit slow to come on, but he still led the Golden Eagles in scoring at 16.9 points per game. He was first-team All-SAC and earned the league's Sportsmanship Award again for the second straight year.

Caudle is a player that has been known to crawl under the bleachers to retrieve a lost ball or go find a mop to take care of a wet spot on the the floor. He's even sung the national anthem before a game.

Beschta said Caudle is very aware of the impact he has on his teammates and everyone around him.

"Whatever the situation, Beschta said, whether that's him looking to encourage guys or willing to sacrifice his body for something, take a charge with a guy running full speed at him down the floor or whether it's 'hey, someone needs to get a mop.' It's not, 'I shouldn't have to get it, I'm an All-American. It's 'hey someone needs to get a mop. I'll go get a mop.' He doesn't think more of himself than he should. It's rare."

Caudle said his emphasis has been on attitude and effort at John Brown.

"Really the only person you can control is yourself right?" Caudle said. "So that's the biggest emphasis I try to make is my effort. That's the one thing I really control in the sport or school or whatever it may be."

After college, Caudle already has been hired as a support engineer for Microsoft. He'll start at his job in the Dallas area in July.

Bowling comes on

Bowling's route to JBU was quite different than Caudle's.

After having moved nine times in his life, going back and forth from Wisconsin to Virginia on several occasions and then settling in Detroit for five to six years, Bowling wound up at Benton High School in central Arkansas as a sophomore and he wound up as a three-time all-state selection for the Benton Panthers.

Bowling was recruited to Arkansas State in Jonesboro as a walk-on by former Red Wolves coach John Brady, with the hope that eventually he would turn into a scholarship player.

"When I talked to Coach Brady, he said he was willing to give me a scholarship the next year," Bowling said.

Bowling didn't see any action that 2014-15 season for the Red Wolves and speculation was that Brady's days as Arkansas State head coach were numbered.

So Bowling began seeking out other opportunities to play.

"I saw the writing on the wall," Bowling said. "If you have a new coach come in they're not going to give a walk-on a scholarship. They're not going to take that risk. So I gave a few places a call. I kind of reached out to a few different places. Both my parents went here, so they said you should look at JBU."

Bowling sent an email to then assistant coach Ty Beard and followed up with a visit to JBU.

He joined the team for the 2015-16 season, and like Caudle he showed promise at times.

Bowling averaged 5.1 points as a freshman and 6.5 points as a sophomore before really coming into his own as a junior for the 2017-18 season.

As a junior last season, Bowling was an All-SAC honorable mention selection and averaged 12.8 points and had a pair of 30-point performances against some of the league's best teams. Bowling scored 33 points in an overtime loss to Oklahoma City and then had 35 in another close defeat against defending national champion Texas Wesleyan.

But while Bowling was at his best against two of the league's best teams, there were nights where he didn't deliver for JBU as they needed him to.

"Last year we knew he was going to have big games and show up on the big nights for us," Beschta said. "The other games somehow he was on cruise control and didn't see the need in his mind to show up in the same kind of capacity."

As a senior, Bowling has been more consistent, averaging 16 points per game and being a constant threat down low and on the perimeter. He was a second-team All-SAC selection.

"This year, one of the reasons he's been able to make the jump and be a second team all conference guy and have a chance to be an honorable mention All-American, he's shown up a lot more consistently for us," Beschta said. "Not just in the big games but he's been there in the other games That's some of his growth and maturation over the last couple of years."

After graduating from JBU, Bowling is hoping to attend medical school at UAMS.

Willing to work

It's a rare find in this era of college basketball to find players in it for the long haul, but that's exactly what JBU has in Bowling and Caudle. It will serve them far beyond basketball, their coach said.

"You don't see a lot of guys these days willing to put in the work for the future," Beschta said. "If I'm not getting it now, I'm leaving because someone else will recognize that I'm ready now. Guys don't understand and aren't willing to put in the work day after day and realize what it takes. These guys (Bowling and Caudle) do and that's why they're not just going to be successful on the basketball court, but why they're going to be successful in what they do in life."

Ironically, Caudle and Bowling have been roommates for the last three years.

Both JBU stars understand too that this is their last shot at something they've wanted since they first set foot on JBU's campus.

"We're both seniors so it's not like there's next year," Bowling said. "This is what we've got. We've got a sense of urgency."

Said Caudle, "We've been waiting on this for four years. We haven't made it to the national tournament since we've been here, but we've talked about it every single year. Like he said it's our senior year. It's our final opportunity. There's nothing left to lose. I know, especially with him and I, we're extremely motivated to get the job done when we go to Kansas City."