UNDER THE BANNER
What's Going On In and Around Black College Sports
FAMU COACH ARRESTED: Florida A&M men's basketball Coach Mike Gillespie Sr. is facing a
misdemeanor charge for allegedly stalking a woman.
Several Florida newspapers reported the 56-year-old Gillespie was
arrested Friday morning by Leon County (Fla.) police, who said
a woman filed the complaint against him. The
Tallahassee Democrat reported he was released from jail on $1,000 bail
on the condition he wear a GPS tracking system and stay
away from the woman. Gillespie's attorney, Tim Jansen, said
"Our position is it didn't happen. We would've gone in and told them
it didn't happen. My client wasn't given an opportunity to even come and tell his side of
the story." The woman said she and Gillespie dated from
September 2004 to March 2005, and she has called police
on numerous occasions complaining of stalking dating back
to 2005. The newspaper also said police warned Gillespie
to stop his behavior in 2005 after the woman made her
original accusations. The police warned Gillespie again in
March 2007 after she made more accusations. Neither he nor
school officials have commented. Gillespie is married and has
two adult children. His son, Mike Gillespie Jr., is his top
assistant.
TSU COACH ON NABC BOARD: Tennessee
State head men's basketball coach Cy
Alexander and Lorenzo Romar of the University of Washington have
been elected to the board of directors of the National Association
of Basketball Coaches (NABC). Alexander and R
omar fill
positions on the board previously held by outgoing president
Oliver Purnell of Clemson University and Dick Davey of Santa
Clara University. Alexander is in his fifth year as head coach at
Tennessee State after 16 seasons at South Carolina
State. His teams have an overall 20-year record of 323-270. Alexander, who has a B.S. degree
from Catawba and a M.S. degree from Howard, turned the
South Carolina State program around after taking over in 1987.
He led the Bulldogs to five Mid-Eastern Athletic
Conference tournament titles and his team finished in the top two in
the conference in every season except 1991. The Tigers
also earned five berths in the NCAA tournament. The
Winston-Salem, N.C., native was named MEAC Coach of the
Year three times. Alexander is a member of the Black
Coaches Association, and serves on the NABC Recruiting
Committee and on the NCAA Basketball Tournament East
Regional Advisory Committee.
JSU'S JOHNSON EYES DRAFT: According to ESPN NBA analyst Chad Ford, Jackson State's prolific 6-5 shooting guard Trey Johnson may sneak into the first round of the June 28 NBA Draft if he plays well at this week's pre-Draft Camp in Orlando. According to Ford, "Johnson may have the most interesting story of any player in the draft." Johnson, drafted by Major League Baseball's Kansas City Royals out of high school, "has NBA three-point range and a smooth midrange jumper. He's a good, but not great athlete, who uses angles and strength to get to the basket. The knock on him is that he takes lots of bad shots and puts up big numbers on bad teams. However, Johnson has played against some of the better teams in college basketball and played well. He scored 36 against Alabama, 32 against Georgia Tech, 27 against Illinois, 32 against Memphis and 25 against Florida in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Given that he was the only good player on his team, that's impressive. Johnson, who finished second in scoring in Div. I this season (27.1 ppg.), "has a lot of interest from NBA teams," according to Ford.
© 2007 Azeez Communications, Inc.