Va. Union takes over No. 1 Div. II spot
LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor
Defending NCAA Div. II national champion Virginia Union finds itself now right back where it left off last year _ on top of the men's national basketball rankings.
The 4-1 Panthers were voted last week to the top spot in the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Div. II poll, up from fourth a week earlier. Following a break for the holidays, the next poll will be out Jan. 10. The Panthers were already the top team in the BCSP Top Ten.
Head coach Dave Robbins' squad returned two important cogs from
last year's national championship team, two-time
CIAA Tournament MVP and preseason all-American
Darius Hargrove, a 6-4 shooting guard, and
Duan Crockett, a sleek 6-6 swingman. Hargrove is averaging 18.8 points
per game and a team-best 7.8 rebounds per game while Crockett chips in 13.2 ppg.
Brad Byerson, a 6-7, 250-pound former starter at West Virginia, has taken over at one forward spot with 6-2 sharp-shooter Mo Manning at point guard. Both Byerson and Manning average 10.2 ppg.
While the Panthers are favorites to win their third straight CIAA title, and that is no given, whether they can also repeat on the national level is perhaps a bigger question. Replacing departed point guard and team leader Luqman Jaaber is perhaps the key to that happening.
"The reason why we were so good and so tough last year was chemistry," said Robbins Tuesday while with his team in Los Angeles for a holiday tournament. "No one cared who scored or who got the credit. We were undersized overachievers. This year we're actually more talented but don't yet have some of the intangibles that made us so good last year."
The Panthers' only loss this season was a 69-67 decision on Nov. 25 to Mountain State (WV), the No. 1 ranked team in NAIA Div. I basketball.
Tennessee State (2-4), a team perhaps as talented as VUU, holds down the second spot in the BCSP Top Ten. Former South Carolina State head coach Cy Alexander has built the Blue Tigers into a formidable team in the Ohio Valley Conference and a budding player on the national scene in just his third year at the helm.
Alexander's team boasts four double-digit scorers led by 6-3 junior guard Bruce Price's 19.3 ppg. Six-four senior guard Wayne Arnold averages 14.8 ppg., senior forward Kareem Grant is at 12.8 ppg., and junior forward Clarence Matthews gets 12.3 ppg. Sophomore point guard Reiley Ervin is just below double figures at 9.3 ppg.
Alexander's squad got devastating news this week when they learned Price, a leading candidate for OVC player of the year honors, has been lost for the season with a torn ACL suffered in the final minutes of the Tigers' 74-65 upset bid against Ohio State Friday night.
Price was leading the team in scoring and also drew the assignment of covering the opponents' top offensive player. He became the 24th player in TSU history to cross the 1,000-pont mark last week at Southern Mississippi.
"This is a major blow for our team as Bruce was playing well and had shown a lot of maturity from his sophomore to his junior season," said Alexander.
Defending SWAC champ Alabama A&M (2-3) holds down the third spot in the BCSP rankings. Vann Pettaway's Bulldogs are led by reigning SWAC Player of the Year, 6-1 senior guard Obie Trotter and 6-4 all-SWAC senior forward Joseph Martin. Trotter, who led all Div. I players in steals last year is at it again. He is currently atop the SWAC stats getting a whopping 5.4 pilfers a game to go with his 14.8 ppg. Martin leads the SWAC in rebounding at 12.6 per game and also gets 13.2 ppg. He is currently the only SWAC player averaging a double-double.
Heralded 6-7 junior college transfer and Huntsville (Al.) native Michael Ford (11.3 ppg.) is the key addition to the Bulldogs.
Sophomores Ted Scott, a 6-1 guard, and Tony Cornett, a 6-5 forward, are the chief cogs in the attack of Bryan Poore's West Virginia State Yellow Jackets (7-2) who are currently tenth in the NABC Div. II poll and fourth in our ranking. Scott averages 17.6 ppg., while Cornett gets 14.6 points and 7.6 rebounds per contest. The Yellow Jackets have wins over Elizabeth City State and Livingstone of the CIAA and recently suffered a one-point loss (90-89) to St. Joseph's (In.) the fourth-ranked team in the nation.
"What was good was they were the number four team in the country and we were 10 and we're as good as they are," Poore said after the loss. "So we know we are as good as any team in the country and our kids should go out there every game and expect to win."
Talented Bowie State (6-3) of the CIAA rounds out the top five in the BCSP ranking. Luke D'Alessio's veteran squad boasts four double-figure scorers led by 6-6 senior forward Derick Payne's 20.6 ppg. Senior guards Derick Bell (10.1 ppg.), Thomas Hawkins (13.4 ppg.) and Brent Campbell (11.7 ppg.) round out the quartet. Bowie State is in the bracket opposite Virginia Union in the Los Angeles Tournament.
In Bowie State's bracket in LA is current SIAC co-leader Morehouse (3-2), now tenth in the BCSP rankings.
In Virginia Union's bracket in the LA Tournament is 7th-ranked Johnson C. Smith of the CIAA. Steve Joyner's squad, like Bowie State, is expected to challenge VUU for CIAA honors. The Golden Bulls are led by Charles Clark (15.3 ppg.), Maurice Hooper (14.7 ppg.) and John Fulton (13.3 ppg.)
© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.