2006-07 Basketball Preview

LUT WILLIAMS
BCSP Editor

Black college basketball has followed pretty much the same script on the national scene over the past two seasons.

On the Div. II level, which involves teams from the CIAA and SIAC, there were NCAA championship aspirations, particularly from the CIAA. For their Div. I brethren, which includes teams from the MEAC and SWAC, there were no such lofty ambitions. Getting a single NCAA Tournament win was considered optimistic.

Such is the case again as the 2006-07 season readies to tip off. The CIAA enters the season fresh off back-to-back appearances in the Div. II title game by three-time conference champion Virginia Union, who took home the national crown in 2005. Head coach Dave Robbins' Panthers lost two all-Americans from last year's squad and will be a long shot for another national title run. But St. Augustine's with two, maybe three, all-American candidates has the talent to make a run at the crown.

Despite not getting a coveted win in the NCAA "Big Dance," the Div. I squads have made progress. Two-time MEAC regular season champion Delaware State followed up its courageous battle with top-ranked Duke (a 57-46 loss) in the 2005 NCAA Tournament by getting an opening round win in the 2006 NIT, the conference's first in that tourney since 1995. Additionally, 2006 SWAC champion Southern gave the Blue Devils another first-round NCAA fight before falling 70-54.

DelState returns all five starters from last year's squad and has added a piece to the puzzle in former Cincinnati starter, 6-6 forward Roy Bright. Many feel by season's end Bright will be regarded as the best player in the conference. With their experience against major competition over the last two seasons, the Hornets have the best shot at making a breakthrough. There's also a top-ten scorer on the Div. I side at Jackson State that makes the Tigers the favorite in the SWAC.

Delaware State's Jahsha Bluntt and Jackson State's Trey Johnson have more in common than being their conferences' preseason players of the year. Both tested the NBA Draft waters earlier this year before deciding to return for their senior seasons.

Bluntt, a 6-6 guard/forward and reigning MEAC player of the year averaged 14.6 ppg. last season primarily as a spot-up shooter. He withdrew from the draft a few days before the April 16 deadline.

"I think the thing he learned is that he's got to have a total package, not just be able to shoot a basketball," said DSU head coach Greg Jackson, who advised Bluntt against the move. "How well do you play with other people? Can you make other people around you better? That's the thing he's learned more than anything else because you've got a whole lot players in this country that can shoot a basketball, you don't have a whole lot who can play with each other."

"I just wanted to get my name out there to let people who may not have known who Trey Johnson is," said the 6-5 JSU guard, who averaged 23.5 ppg. last season including a 40-point explosion vs. Texas Southern. "It did everything I wanted it to do."

Maybe not. Johnson's name is noticeably absent from lists of the top 150 prospects for the 2007 NBA Draft. Bluntt's is there.

It's not unrealistic to say that St. Augustine's has three potential D2 all-Americans though most of the country has failed to notice.

It's hard to know what its trio of seniors _ 6-1 guard Antonio Fitzgerald (22.2 ppg.), 6-7 forward Nicholas King (20.1 ppg.) and 6-2 swingman Claude Neeley (19.3 ppg.) _ has to do to get some pub. Unseating Virginia Union in the CIAA would be a good start. Head coach Thomas Hargove has added a long and beefy front line that might help the Falcons get over that hump.

None of the high-scoring trio, whose combined 61.4 points per game dwarfs any other threesome in the nation, is listed on Street & Smith's College Basketball Magazine's list of D2 All-Americans or 33-deep roster of honorable mentions.

With the right amount of attention, Fitzgerald, a dynamic scorer who committed to Boise State out of Kilgore (Tx.) Junior College before winding up at St. Aug's, has a shot at joining former CIAA Players of the Year Ronald Murray of Shaw (2002) and Darius Hargrove of Virginia Union (2006) who also took home Div. II national player of the year awards.

Watch for the inside-outside combination of West Virginia State forward Tony Cornett and guard Ted Scott.

Cornett, a 6-5 senior forward, averaged 15.2 points and a hefty 8.7 rebounds per contest last season for the Yellow Jackets who finished 27-7, won the D2 West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament title and made it to the East Region semifinals. Scott, a 6-1 junior, matched Cornett's 15.2 ppg., while shooting 85.9% from the line and 40.9% from three-point range.

OK, forget the sexual overtones. Here we're talking about dominating on the basketball court.

It starts with Jacques Curtis's Lady Bears of Shaw who have ridden an incredible 79-game CIAA winning streak, which stretches to the better part of three seasons, to an unprecedented four consecutive conference basketball titles. They've also won back-to-back South Atlantic Region crowns. Their seasons have ended the last two years in the national quarterfinals.

A 29-game MEAC win streak has helped the Lady Eagles of Coppin State net the last two league championships. They made significant progress last year in the NCAA Tournament, playing No. 2 seed and national power Connecticut to a ten-point game (44-34) thru 30 minutes before bowing 77-54.

Fort Valley State has won a measly 20 consecutive regular season SIAC games. The Lady Wildcats have lost to Paine in the each of the last two conference tournament finals.

_ First team all-SIAC guard Adrian Comer of Lane averages 20 points per game, making him the top returning scorer in the SIAC. He's the conference's best free throw shooter at 88.2% and he's the third best returning rebounder at 7.3 caroms per game. Thing is, he's only six-feet tall.

_ Six-nine Alabama A&M center Mickell Gladness is the preseason SWAC defensive player of the year. His 3.0 blocks per game is fifth best among returning Div. I players.

_ Welcome back to the HBCU fold, Gil Goodrich. The 5-10 former (2002) Howard point guard _ the first Caucasian hoopster in Bison history _ has found his way to Bowie State where he'll run the show for head coach Luke D'Alessio's Bulldogs.

"He's nothing like the player he was then," says D'Alessio. "He's going to tear this conference up." Former UMass starting guard Arthur Bowers will likely join Goodrich in the BSU backcourt.

_ Former North Carolina Central, Norfolk State, Fayetteville State and Shaw head coach Mike Bernard takes a seat as an assistant coach at Delaware State after serving as director of basketball operations for the Hornets last season. DSU head coach Greg Jackson, who was an assistant to Bernard when NCCU won the NCAA Div. II national title in 1999, is hoping Bernard's pedigree can help take DSU to the next level.

_ Kentucky State's 6-6 forward Kenny Jones shot 60% (171 of 285) from the floor a season ago, while averaging 13.7 points and 7.8 rebounds. His field goal percentage is sixth best among returning Div. II players.

© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.

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