Edjuan Green of the Temple College men’s basketball team is a much better player as a sophomore than he was as a freshman. And he was more than pretty good then, which is an indication of how good he is now.

Green, a 6-7 power forward from Spring, excelled as a freshman for the 2001-02 Leopards, then decided to sit out TC’s 2002-03 season as a redshirt to improve his academics and his game.

And the results of that decision have been quite impressive this season.

Green has averaged 19.0 points and 14.5 rebounds per game to lead the Leopards to an 18-6 overall record and a 4-4 mark in Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference play going into their battle against Grayson County (12-9, 4-3) at 6 p.m. today at TC Gym.

“He’s done everything we had hoped he would do,” TC coach Kirby Johnson said. “He can score in multiple ways — obviously off rebounds, posting up, facing you — and he’s a pretty good free-throw shooter.

“He works extremely hard and he has the power to take over games in two areas.”

Green grabbed 18 rebounds in Temple’s 71-70 loss at conference leader Collin County on Wednesday to push his career total to a 625 boards, a program record for Johnson’s 17 seasons as the Leopards’ coach.

The second-ranked rebounder in NJCAA Division I, Green is a leading contender for the NTJCAC Player of the Year award. But with his team sitting at the .500 mark in league play with six regular-season games remaining, he’s far from being satisfied.

“I think I played all right in preseason (non-conference games), but in conference I need to step my game up to help my team,”Green said. “I need to step up so we can get that winning record.”

As Green has delivered double-double numbers in almost every game, recruiters from NCAA Division I four-year programs have taken notice. Among the interested are Big 12 Conference schools Oklahoma State, Colorado, and Nebraska, Penn State of the Big Ten, and St. Bonaventure of the Atlantic 10.

Green says he will wait until after the season — which he hopes lasts well into March — to take his official visits and select the school for whom he’ll play the next two seasons.

Said Johnson: “If anyone in the Big 12 and the Big Ten is interested, that’s pretty good company.”

Green made an immediate impact on TC’s 23-8 squad as a freshman in 2001-02, the season after his brother Jermaine helped the Leopards go a program-best 27-5.

Edjuan averaged 14.4 points and 9.9 rebounds in NTJCAC play and earned a first-team position on the all-conference team.

However, Green then made the choice to not play last season (TC finished 24-7) — and for several reasons.

He says he needed to shore up his grades to improve his chances of getting a D-I scholarship, allow an injured meniscus in his knee to heal, and sharpen his physical condition and all-around court skills.