Black college hoops gets off to customary shaky start
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
The 40- and 50-point blowouts are fewer and farther between. Now, they're by 20 or 30. But they're still there.
That's the state of black college Div. I basketball as it does its annual pre-New Year's Day tip-toe through the non-conference ranks.
Attribute the reducing of deficits to the watering down of college
basketball as the best and brightest have already made their way into the
professional ranks. How else to explain preseason Div. I all-America squads with a
junior college transfer (Oklahoma's Taj Gray) on the
first team and such unknowns as Keydren Clark (St. Peters), Nate Funk (Creighton) and Alex
Loughton (Old Dominion) on them. From that, it's easy to
see why the gap is narrowing. But it's still there.
Going into Tuesday's (Dec. 20) games, teams from the Mid Eastern Athletic Conference (16-71, .183) and the Southwestern Athletic Conference (18-55, .246) were a combined 34-126 or winning at a rate of .212. That's pretty anemic but not much different than in previous years.
The SWAC has two winless teams and the MEAC has three. Neither has a team over .500
Unlike last year when South Carolina State stood up to the big boys and won games against Big East (Miami) and Big Ten (Penn State) schools, none of that has happened this year.
At 0-8, a young Coppin State squad may have made the most noise in losing by respectable margins at No. 17 UCLA (69-57) and at No. 8 Oklahoma (57-47). Ron "Fang" Mitchell's Eagles close out December with dates at Pittsburgh, Michigan and Michigan State. They've already tangled with Xavier and Clemson in a schedule that features 14 straight road games to start the season, 11 out-of- conference and three to begin the MEAC portion of their schedule.
Some may think Mitchell, who is also the athletics director at Coppin State, is crazy for subjecting his team to such a demanding schedule. But if so, he's crazy like the fox that he is. Mitchell figures if you're going to get beat _ and paid _ you might as well get beat and paid by the best and in the meantime get your team ready for anything they'll see in conference play. It's worked for Mitchell to the tune of 10 MEAC regular season titles and three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Coming off a national championship year from Virginia Union of the CIAA, the Div. II black college counterparts are not faring nearly as badly. Dave Robbins' VUU Panthers, at 4-1, are ranked third nationally in the Dec. 13 NABC Div. II poll. West Virginia State (6-1), an HBCU out of the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, is ranked 11th.
The CIAA is 41-42 in the early going with seven of its 11 teams above .500. The SIAC is struggling a bit with just three teams over .500.
With 642 career wins, Robbins is sixth on the all-time NCAA Div. II list and needs one more victory to catch former N.C. Central, Tuskegee and Texas Southern head coach Ed Adams (1935-58).
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.