Conferences Honor Past Greats

With few exceptions, major college basketball conferences have been changing their membership on a regular basis. It can make for some interesting lists as former players are honored around conference tournament time.

The Atlantic Coast Conference will honor 12 players -- one from each school -- as Basketball Legends next month in Greensboro, N.C., but five of them never played in the ACC.

The seven players honored for what they did in the ACC are: Billy Cunningham of North Carolina (1963-65), Buck Williams of Maryland (1979-81), Chris Whitney of Clemson (1992-93), Mark Alarie of Duke (1983-86), Drew Barry of Georgia Tech (1993-96), Curtis Staples of Virginia (1995-98) and Rusty LaRue of Wake Forest (1993-96).

The five who made their mark in a different conference are: Dana Barros of Boston College (1986-89, Big East), George McCloud of Florida State (1986-89, Metro), Dick Hickox of Miami (1959-61, Independent), Bobby Speight of North Carolina State (1951-53, Southern) and Dell Curry of Virginia Tech (1983-86, Metro).

The Legends will be introduced at halftime of the first semifinal game on Saturday, March 11.

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Elon has clinched first place in the North Division of the Southern Conference, the school’s first league title of any kind since winning the NAIA’s Carolinas Conference in 1971. Yet it won’t mean anything come Selection Sunday.

And the Phoenix aren’t even guaranteed one of the top two seeds in the conference tournament. All 11 teams are reshuffled following the regular season.

“While it’s a significant achievement, for sure, for our team, the consequences really don’t change for us,” Coach Ernie Nestor said. “We have to have one of the top two best records overall in the league, and we’re still shooting for that.”

Elon was tied with South Division-leader Georgia Southern for that honor at 9-3. But few thought Nestor’s team would be anywhere near that position back in December, when it started 0-9 against Division I opponents.

The last of those losses was by a point at Buffalo, and the Phoenix had a nine-day break before their next game at Clemson.

Somehow, they upset the Tigers, who had been 11-1.

“You always go into a game thinking, ‘If we do these things, we’ll be right there,’ ” Nestor said. “We did those things. Our kids pulled it together.”

They followed that victory with seven more -- six in the Southern Conference -- and haven’t looked back.

“Like every team, we want to go to the NCAA tournament,” Nestor said. “Our seeding for the conference tournament is very important, as is the way you’re playing. Hopefully, we’ll have those in our favor when it counts.”

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Guys with the last name James have been ringing up triple-doubles in both the NBA and college basketball.

LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers had 43 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists on Wednesday in a 113-109 double-overtime win over the Boston Celtics, his fourth triple-double of the season.

That same night, Shawn James of Northeastern had 17 points, 14 rebounds and 11 blocked shots in a 77-55 win over James Madison, his second triple-double in the last four games and the fourth of his career.

LeBron James is the one with the TV commercials.

Shawn James is the 6-foot-9 sophomore from Brooklyn.

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Adam Morrison is one of the best known college basketball players in the country so it makes sense he is the face of No. 5 Gonzaga.

There is another pretty good player on the Bulldogs, though, and J.P. Batista is starting to be noticed by NBA scouts as well as media and fans.

The 6-foot-9 forward is averaging 20 points and 9.1 rebounds per game to complement Morrison’s 28.8-point average.

The 24-year-old Batista, a senior from Olinda, Brazil, is completing his second and final season with the Bulldogs after transferring from Barton County Community College in Great Bend, Kan.

Batista has scored in double figures in all but one game this season, when he had eight. He has averaged 10 rebounds per game since late December.

Through 24 games, Batista was shooting 60 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free throw line.

Batista, the youngest of three brothers, went back to Brazil last summer for three weeks, his first visit home in three years.

“My plan is to play basketball until I can’t walk no more,” Batista said. “Life in Brazil is hard. Life here is more easier and safer. The NBA is my dream and ultimate goal. But only God knows what will happen when the season is done.”

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The recent resignations of Quin Snyder at Missouri and Mike Davis at Indiana are reminders how fragile a coach’s position can be, even with the biggest programs.

Kansas Coach Bill Self said there is no joy in the coaching community over the downfall of others.

“Firing a coach affects more than that particular person,” Self said. “You’re talking about families, kids in school, you’re talking about relocation, you’re talking about assistant coaches and their families.

“It’s a tough profession which is very competitive. You don’t have enemies in the profession. You have some guys you’re very competitive against. But you don’t ever wish ill will on anyone.

“You want to beat them on the court, or on the field,” Self said. “But after that, there is a strong fraternity of guys that really bond together, that look out for the betterment of all coaches. I would honestly say that nobody in our profession who’s worth his salt enjoys seeing somebody else suffer, or their family suffer due to a termination.”

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Arkansas’ 5-6 record in the Southeastern Conference is downright remarkable when broken down game by game.

The Razorbacks’ five wins were all by at least 12 points and an average of 15 points.

The six losses were by no more than five points and an average of 2.6 points.

Easy wins. Tough losses.

The latest loss was by three points to Mississippi on Wednesday. Razorback Coach Stan Heath feels his team can bounce back even though he said there were few areas where it played well against Ole Miss.

“We were poor on defense, poor rebounding, we were not great shooting and we were not great passing,” he said. “If you add all of those together, it’s not a good recipe. It’s a recipe that makes you want to throw up.”