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The Tyler Junior College men's basketball coach thinks all 12 teams should be allowed into the Region XIV Tournament, not just the top eight.

Any time Mike Marquis mentions this, he begins his argument with something like this: "If it's truly about the kids..."

I have no problem with four teams being left out of the playoffs each year, but that's not the point of this column.

It's the fact that Marquis is in it for the kids - his players. His passion is, and always will be, junior college basketball.

The 44-year-old Iowa native has been a head coach on the Juco level almost half his life.

This is year 20 overall - Marquis' seventh at TJC - and he's one victory shy of 400 for his career. That milestone could come Saturday when the Apaches entertain Blinn College at 4 p.m. at Wagstaff Gymnasium.

"I haven't really thought about the wins," said Marquis, who guided both the men's and women's teams his first two years at Marshalltown (Iowa) Community College, where it all began. "I tend to think about all the terrific kids I got to be around. And how many of them are so successful."

That's one reason Christmas Day is extra special at the Marquis house.

Not only does the coach celebrate with his own family, but also with his extended family in the form of text messages and phone calls from former players.

"Ultimately, if you're not in it for the kids, you're probably in it for the wrong reason," he said.

Marquis, who played two years of Juco basketball at Marshalltown, was the head coach there for 11 years (1987-1998), where he went 235-106. He knew that's what he wanted to do the day he graduated from Marshalltown.

"I always wanted to do this," he said. "Even when I was a kid, I wanted to coach. But after I played in junior college, I knew I wanted to be in junior college."

Marquis viewed this occupation - before AAU basketball caught fire in the state - as a way to help overlooked Iowa players get an opportunity to further their education and basketball skills.

"They would play for us a year or two and then go Division I," Marquis said.

Soon, the young coach began to develop out-of-state contacts. He signed a couple of players from Detroit and then worked his way into Chicago.

"The better we got, the more we won, the more people wanted to be part of something like that," Marquis said. "By the end, I had won enough at Marshalltown that I was lucky enough to be hired at Indian Hills."

Indian Hills Community College, located in Ottumwa, Iowa, was coming off back-to-back national championships in 1997 and 1998.

He was first hired at Indian Hills as associate head coach, helping the program win a third straight national title in 1999.

Taking the helm the next season, Marquis and Indian Hills lost in the regional final to eventual national champion Southeastern Community College (Iowa).

Indian Hills made it back to Hutchinson, Kan., the next season and finished fourth. Marquis had a 60-10 record in two seasons there.

"Because I was fortunate enough to do well there, I was lucky enough to come to Tyler," Marquis said. "By far, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life, professionally, being at Tyler."

Marquis is currently 104-86 at TJC. His Apache teams have qualified for the regional tournament every season but the first, and the 2007-08 club could be his best.

The Apaches started the season 11-0, 5-0 in conference play, before losing Wednesday night at unbeaten and No. 9 Paris.

"The depth of the league here, the amount of travel, and the number of conference games can be a real back-breaker," Marquis says of Region XIV, which has a 22-game regular season. "(In Iowa), you got teams ready for six big conference games a year, then a semifinal, then a best two-out-of-three, then a sub-regional against another state.

"Here, that's about halfway through the conference schedule - that number of games. It's a lot harder here as far as the preparation."

When Marquis came to Texas, TJC officials wanted a coach who wasn't looking to use their school as a quick stepping stone to a NCAA Division I job.

Mission accomplished.

Marquis is already TJC's longest-tenured men's basketball coach since Roy Thomas from 1984-94.

"I have never had an aspiration to be a Division I coach," Marquis said. "Not because I don't think I could do it, but because of the time constraints. You don't manage your own time like you do here."