Gaston College’s Kaleb Siler finds DI confidence, offers on juco basketball path
If there is a local poster child for the new version of college basketball recruiting, it might just be Gaston College’s Kaleb Siler.
OK, you have probably never heard of Gaston College — a juco with about 7,000 students in Dallas, North Carolina — and you might not have heard of Siler, a 6-foot-10, 250-pound center who played in two high school state championship games for Carmel Christian, a North Carolina prep basketball power in Matthews.
But his journey to Division I basketball appears to be a route that many players may have to consider taking as Division I schools, almost exclusively, recruit the transfer portal before they call up your local high school coach.
If they call at all.
“In today’s recruiting process, colleges want the players older and experienced,” said Queen’s Grant coach Joe Badgett, who coached Siler in high school and has sent dozens of players to college on scholarship. “If you do that reclass in high school, you’re still in high school. That doesn’t make them older the way colleges want. I mean, in college you’re seeing more and more teams where players are waving in the stands to a wife and two kids. So that’s the process now.”
Following that process is how Siler is going to find his way back to a Division I school.
The Observer interviewed Siler last week after he led Gaston College to a 72-62 win over Caldwell Community College in front of a surprisingly loud and strong crowd at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia.
Siler finished with 21 points and 14 rebounds, thriving as a No. 1 option, something he was never close to being before.
“In high school,” he said, “I wasn’t the most confident, and now God has put me in a place where I can do it all over again, and feel this energy I’m feeling now.
“It’s really a blessing.”
The journey back to Division I
Siler averaged 5.3 points and 2.7 rebounds as a senior at Carmel Christian, under Badgett, in the 2022-23 school year. He had been playing basketball for three years, and Badgett would tell every college coach who would listen to him about Siler’s soft hands, good footwork and a work ethic that helped him drop from 305 pounds to about 260 in a year.
One of the coaches he spoke with was Benny Moss — Badgett’s former summer college roommate at UNC Charlotte, where they both played basketball. Moss, now the head coach at Gaston College, was at D1 Coastal Carolina at the time.
“Joe brought the team to team camp at Coastal, the summer before (Siler’s) junior year,” Moss said, “and Joe goes, ‘You’re going to laugh at me. You’re going to think I’m crazy, but I’ve got a big kid that’s going to wind up being good.’
“He looked like he was 350 pounds.
“And I say, ‘Joe’.”
Moss didn’t take Siler, but Western Carolina did.
Siler redshirted and later transferred to Division II USC-Aiken. At Aiken, in the 2024-25 season, Siler played in 19 games, starting four. He averaged five points and 3.7 rebounds.
He wanted more.
“I redshirted at Western and was a walk-on,” Siler said. “I said there’s no more time for that. After last year (at Aiken), it’s like, ‘It’s time to be Kaleb. No more scared stuff.’ Now I’m go-get-a-bucket Kaleb, and I help us win.”
Badgett called Moss after last season ended and told him that Siler would be coming.
“Joe goes, ‘You better have a scholarship because he’s coming to you no question,’” Moss said. “And I promised (Kaleb) that I would do everything in my power to get him in front of the right people, so he could find a good situation. And right now, he’s producing.”
Siler has continued to work on his body. He looks completely different from the shy high school kid who only wanted to shoot hook shots with his weak left hand. Moss runs play after play for him, and Siler — who showed off several nifty low post moves against Caldwell Community, including a roaring one-handed dunk that caused the opposing coach to run on the court to call timeout — has made a big jump.
Siler is averaging 18.6 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks. He said he’s picked up nine Division I offers from schools like Campbell, East Carolina, Georgia State and Georgia Southern. Moss said more and more schools are beginning to show interest.
“It’s been good coming in and being somewhere I can be myself,” Siler said, “and where the coaches trust me. Coach said come here, do what I’ve got to do, play my game, and he’s going to help me out. Since I came here, I’ve got a new role as a leader. I’m one of the oldest guys, and I’ve got some (college) experience coming to juco, and being around the younger guys, I try to lead them and share what I’ve experienced. But honestly, I’m just out here trying to help us win.”
‘This is the right thing for me now’
Moss, 55, has coached basketball for more than 33 years, including at Charlotte as an assistant and as a head coach at UNC-Wilmington and Coastal Carolina.
He came to Gaston College in April 2024, and was quickly surprised to find out how competitive junior college basketball was. He already knew how important it could be.
“This is the right thing for me right now,” Moss said, “because of the world that college basketball is in. These guys in my locker room are good students. I’m recruiting good students who are good players who are just getting overlooked because of the transfer portal.”
Moss’ pitch — to high school players or frustrated college players like Siler — is simple:
“Why not come here,” he said, “and let me use 33 years of contacts to get schools in to watch our guys and help a kid who gets overlooked in high school sign a Division I scholarship.”
Gaston College is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association, whose corporate offices are in north Charlotte. The NJCAA has more than 450 men’s basketball teams split into three divisions. The association hosts national championships in each one. Gaston College, a Division I team, will try to make the finals in Hutchinson, Kansas, in late March.
Gaston College opened in 1964 and had men’s basketball from 1964-72. The school brought the program back in 2021, along with women’s cross-country, beach volleyball, softball and baseball. The baseball team made the NJCAA World Series in 2023. The softball team reached the series in 2023 and ‘25.
Moss’ mission is to get the basketball team to similar heights. The Rhinos were 46-42 in the three years before Moss arrived.
Moss’ first team last season was 22-8 and the Rhinos are 17-3 now, featuring players like former Queen’s Grant star Ian Howard, former Olympic High player Kush Carter and former Hunter Huss player Trimell Dunlap. Ryan Evans, who told Gaston coaches he was cut from Myers Park’s team, grew from 5-11 to 6-6 and has signed with Georgia State.
Also on Moss’ roster is point guard EJ Joyner, the grand-nephew of J.C. Smith coaching legend Steve Joyner.
Besides Evans and Siler, Moss said four other players are receiving serious D1 interest this year, and three players signed last year, including Jordan Brown, who is at UNC-Greensboro.
“I really believe this is the new way,” Moss said. “These high school kids are getting left behind. Why not come to a Gaston College and play for a guy who knows a lot of people? We had 30 Division I schools come watch us in the preseason. If college coaches at the Division I level are going to recruit older kids, come to junior college, get older for two years and win.
“I mean, everybody wants a winner, right?”
Moving down to move up is winning formula
For Siler, going back to juco has certainly worked out.
“I’ve been waiting on this moment since I was a kid,” he said. “The biggest thing for me was getting my confidence. It’s win or lose. It’s now or never. It just clicked for me when I got to Gaston College.”
Badgett, his high school coach, said Siler will have three years of eligibility at the Division I level, and he’ll be the older, more experienced player that college coaches covet.
“What Kaleb did is the way to go,” Badgett said. “He’s playing college kids every night, and he has three years left to play. We knew it would take time for him to mature and to get it. But he put in the work. He’s got really soft hands, and he’s agile for a big guy. So that’s what happening with him now, it’s all coming together. He’s figured it out. Now he has the confidence to match his physicality.”
Moss said the jump Siler has made is really all on the player.
“He’s just fully committed,” Moss said. “I’d like to take credit, but I’ve just steered him in the right direction. He’s done the work, from the weight room to the basketball court. He deserves everything he’s getting.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2026 at 5:30 AM.
