MITCHELL TO BE HONORED:
Former coach Lucias Mitchell, the all-time winningest basketball coach in Kentucky State history who led the Thorobreds to three straight NAIA national titles, had the floor in the Exum Physical Education Building named in his honor at a special ceremony in Frankfort on October 4 and will have a formal ceremony during the Saturday, Nov. 22 men's basketball game vs. Mid Continent.

Mitchell, now 73, led three teams to NAIA National Basketball Championships in 1970-71-72 as the Thorobreds compiled records of 29-3, 31-2 and 28-5 becoming only the second team ever to win three straight NAIA titles; the other coach to do so is former KSU mentor John McLendon, who accomplished the feat at Tennessee State. All divisions included, only Mitchell, McLendon and UCLA's John Wooden have ever won three national titles in a row.

After the three-year run by Mitchell's teams, his 1972-73 team finished 28-6 but was upset in the first round of the NAIA National Tournament. The 1973-74 team went 28-5 and had a 21-game winning streak broken in the semifinals of the NAIA Tournament before winning the third place game the next night. All totaled, the Thorobreds finished 144-21 in that five-year span, an .873 winning percentage.

Under Mitchell, KSU became the first NCAA Division II team ever to have back-to-back first-round NBA draft choices. Elmore Smith, who was drafted in the first round by the Buffalo Braves, signed what was at the time the highest contract ever by an NBA player in 1971. The following year, 1972, Travis Grant was a first-round pick in both the NBA and the old ABA, where he played for the San Diego Conquistadores.

Mitchell won National Coach of the Year Awards in both 1970 and 1971. He had five KSU players drafted into the NBA and was the first-ever black coach to be elected as an officer of the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC). He went 192-47 at K-State from 1967 to '75, and his overall record was 325-103 including coaching stints at Alabama State (1963-67) and Norfolk State (1978-81). He was also one of just four coaches selected to head up the first-ever Olympic Development Camp at Colorado Springs, Colorado, in 1971. He coached three seasons at Norfolk but stayed on another 27 years, retiring as a professor of health.

D2 VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS:
CIAA champion Elizabeth City State, WVIAC runners-up West Virginia State and SIAC champion Albany State begin play Thursday in the NCAA Div. II Women's Volleyball Championship.

ECSU (31-9), seeded eighth in the Atlantic Region, will face top seed and host California, Pennsylvania (37-1) on its home floor. WVSU (25-4) is ranked seventh in the region and will face second-seed Wheeling Jesuit (28-9), the same team that upset the Yellow Jackets in the finals of the WVIAC tournament.

SIAC champion Albany State (27-3) received the #8 seed and will play at host and top-seed Tampa (25-4) in an opening round match Thursday in the South Region.

Regional competition will be single-elimination, best three-of-five game matches. The regional finals are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 22. The winners of each of the eight regionals will advance to the finals, December 4-6, on the campus of a participating institution.

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