BCSP Notes . . .
SIAC Hoops Tourney back in BirminghamThe Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference scheduled a press conference on Wednesday, Jan. 25 to announce that the conference has inked a three-year deal to bring the league's men's and women's basketball tournament back to Birmingham. The SIAC and the city were to hold the press conference at 1 p.m. at Fair Park Arena, the site of this year's tournament.
"We are excited to bring our tournament back to Birmingham. The city has always been very gracious to us and the residents of Birmingham have been very supportive," said SIAC Commissioner Dr. William E. Lide. Attending the press conference will be Terry Burney, assistant to the mayor, SIAC staff and representatives from SIAC members Miles and Stillman College, who will serve as host institutions. ESPNU will televise the championship game Sunday, March 5, at 3:00 pm CST.
This year will be the 73rd year for the men's tournament and the 28th year for the women.
For more information concerning the tournament, including ticket information, hotel accommodations and events visit the SIAC basketball tournament website at www.siacbasketballtournament.com.
Stat Stuffers
Two SWAC guards are among the leaders and
are setting the pace in national basketball statistics.
Six-two senior Brion Rush of Grambling State and 6-5 junior Trey Johnson of Jackson State are in the top ten of Div. I scoring statistics. Rush is at 25.7 points per game while Johnson is seventh at 24.2 ppg.
Alabama A&M senior guard Obie Trotter, the SWAC's steal leader, is second in the nation in steals at 3.5 per game.
On the Div. II level, St. Augustine's 6-1 junior guard Antonio Fitzgerald, who leads the CIAA in scoring at 24 ppg., is ninth nationally. Jumaaane Sorrels, a 6-1 senior guard from UDC, is 11th at 22.5 ppg.
Six-foot sophomore Ted Scott of West Virginia State is sixth in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage canning 47.9% of his treys. Six-four senior Thomas Hawkins of Bowie State is ninth at 47.2%. Scott also is fifth nationally in free throw percentage at 92.9%. Scott's teammate, 6-3 junior guard Christopher Dunn is sixth in assists at 7.7 per game.
Seven-one junior Kobby Acquah of Clark Atlanta is second in blocked shots at 3.4 per game. Morehouse 6-2 senior guard Brandon Chiles is getting 3.2 steals per game to rank tenth nationally.
Bethune-Cookman band to get Super Bowl exposure
The Bethune-Cookman Marching Band,
The Pride, is featured in a new Cadillac commercial that
will air during Super Bowl XL in Detroit.
The commercial, which debuted this week, was shot during the winter holidays when the band's drum line and cymbals core, under the direction of Donovan Wells, flew to Los Angeles. The shooting took place on a closed road course.
"This is a culmination of hard work over the last decade," said Wells, who has been band director at B-CC since 1997. "We tried to position ourselves with hard work in the movie Drumline, the Ellen DeGeneres Show and on MTV … and now Hollywood is taking notice."
The commercial is set to air as the very first in a series of commercials during the Super Bowl postgame show. Cadillac will be running the commercial numerous times over the course of 60-75 days following Super Bowl Sunday.
"This was just so much fun for us, and great exposure for Bethune-Cookman College," adds Wells. "It says a lot about a small black college on the east coast when they [Cadillac] could have gotten any number of bands in the LA area such as USC or UCLA. This is excellent for all HBCU's and the tradition of excellence in our marching bands and music"
The Pride will now prepare for their annual opening ceremonies of Nascar's biggest sporting event of the year, The Daytona 500 held in the hometown of Bethune-Cookman , Daytona Beach, Florida. The event is set to take place on Feb. 19.
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