Sunday, February 28, 2010

Richmond's Anderson Weaving a Web of Winning Basketball

This year the Atlantic 10 Conference is slated to have maybe 5 or 6 teams get at large bids into this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, more commonly known as "The Big Dance" or "March Madness". The Spiders of the University of Richmond are one of those teams, and Suwanee, GA native Kevin Anderson is a big reason why.

Anderson is one of many former high school student athletes from Gwinnett County, Georgia, about 25 miles northeast of Atlanta. The Peachtree Ridge High School product is leading the Richmond Spiders in scoring with 17.5 points per game and is an 82% free throw shooter. Earlier today, Anderson scored 17 points in a double overtime loss to Xavier at the Cintas Center in Cincinnati, where the Musketeers are 27-1 over the past two seasons. Anderson had 29 points leading the Spiders to a win against Xavier in their first meeting in Richmond. Richmond came into today's game against Xavier ranked #24 in the country having won back to back games against ranked opponents. That is the first time since the 1957-58 season the Spiders have won back to back games against ranked teams. Before today's loss to Xavier, Richmond was in a three way tie for first place in the Atlantic 10 with Xavier and Temple University. It is safe to say that Kevin Anderson is a major reason for Richmond's success.

Anderson, a junior, is already 13th on Richmond's all time scoring list with 1,419 points and 21 points away from 10th all-time. With three or four games possibly in the Atlantic 10 Tournament and possibly the NCAA Tournament, Anderson is bound to surpass that mark. With one more year remaining, Kevin Anderson has a very good chance of becoming Richmond's all-time leading scorer before his career as a Spider is over.. Here is a list of some of Kevin Anderson's accomplishments while at the University of Richmond:

During his Sophomore Year:

Named Second-Team Atlantic 10 All-Conference
Two-time Atlantic 10 Player of the Week
Became the fourth Spider sophomore to reach 800 points and finished the season with 930 points
Finished the season with 598 points, which ranks ninth on the school's single-season list
Anderson is one of two sophomores to make the single-season scoring list, along with all-time leading scorer Johnny Newman
Scored in double-figures in 34 of the 36 games and has scored in double-figures in 45 of his last 47 games going back to his freshman year

This year, his Junior year, Anderson is 5th in the Atlantic 10 in scoring with 17.5 PPG, 6th in Field Goal Percentage (46%), third in free throw percentage at 82%, second in steals with a total of 55 (2.0 per game), and third in the conference in minutes played at 36.7 per game.

Richmond is currently 22-7 overall and 11-3 in A-10 play and sitting in second place. They have wins over SEC opponents Mississippi St. and Florida and a win over Missouri, out of the Big Xll. Kevin Anderson, out of Suwanee, Ga in Gwinnett County and Peachtree Ridge High School, has a lot to do with the Spiders' success. It is amazing to me how Georgia and Georgia Tech missed on this young man, one of many young male and female student-athletes from the athletic-talent rich area of Gwinnett County, Georgia.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Downey Should Be a Candidate for the National Player of the Year

There are several players in College Basketball who can be considered for National Player of the Year; Damian James of Texas, John Wall and Demarcus Cousins of Kentucky among others. However, there is one who I think deserves this award more than anyone else, South Carolina's Devin Downey.

The Senior PG from Chester, SC is averaging 28.8 points per game and is already one of 11 finalists for the Bob Cousey Award. Downey is also a candidate for the Oscar Robinson Trophy. Downey has played big time in big games. He scored 30 points in the Cocks upset win over #1 ranked Kentucky, and also grabbed 11 rebounds. A couple of nights later, Downey poured in 34 points in a win over Georgia. The Gamecocks have a good shot of making it into the NCAA Tournament if they finish strong during their last few games of the regular season and win a few games in the SEC Tournament. Much of that will depend if Downey can keep up this performance. I cast my vote for National Player of the Year for Devin Downey of South Carolina. That's my opinion, and I welcome yours.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

NCAA Cracking Down on Taunting Touchdowns in 2011

This past week, the NCAA endorsed a proposal by the rules committee on college football that players who taunt players of the opposing team as they are running for a touchdown should be penalized for taunting by nullifying the touchdown. I'm surprised this wasn't already a rule by now being that they are already throwing flags for taunting after things such as a sack, reception or interception.

This may not be popular with most fans, but I agree with the ruling. Student-athletes need to learn respect for their opponents and for the game. People will say that things like trash talking and taunting gives the players a psychological edge over their opponent. They say "If you can back it up, what's wrong with it". If you are breaking away to score an easy touchdown. The fact that you scored the TD is enough of an edge against your opponent anyway. If your team is the more talented and better team, you don't need any more competitive edge than that. Therefore, a psychological edge (taunting, trash talking, etc.) is unnecessary. Besides, remember Leon Lett in the 1993 Super Bowl? If he'd tucked the ball away like he should have, he would have scored, but he had to tease the Bills and Don Bebe made him pay. Yeah, the Cowboys won big, but what if the game had been closer and the play was a deciding factor.

Besides, I'm a purist. I still feel if you don't have respect for your opponent, then you don't have respect for the game itself. The game is bigger than you. It's not about you, it's about your team, the opposing team, and the game of football. I agree with the University of Oregon Athletic Director and former Ducks Football Coach Mike Belloti. this is what he had to say: "Our committee firmly believes in the team concept of college football,” Said Belloti, who chairs the committee. "Taunting and prolonged individual acts have no place in our game, and our officials have generally handled these rules well. This is just another step in maintaining our game’s image and reflecting the ideals of the NCAA overall.”

Before it can be on the books in time for the 2011 season, the NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel must approve the new rule. I have a pretty good feeling that they will give it the go ahead. If the NCAA approves the rule change, look for it to be inserted into the rule book for High School Football as well. There is probably even more instances of taunting at that level. You can put the blame on the University of Maimi Hurricane teams of the late 80s and early 90s for these new unsportsman like rules, They were the ones who started all of the "celebration demonstrations" and taunting of opposing players and teams. Before the beginning of the 1992 College Football Season, the NCAA produced a video showing examples of taunting and unsportsman like conduct. Just about all of those examples involved Miami players. I like the rule, but I welcome your opinion. Feel free to post your comment. Some information in this post was obtained from the NCAA web site www.ncaa.org.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

College Athletics Making an Eternal Difference: The NCCAA

When most people think of American college athletics, they think of schools like North Carolina, Notre Dame, Southern Cal, Georgia and other big schools who have a history of championship caliber athletics. These schools are members of the National College Athletic Association (NCAA), which was founded back during the Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Other smaller colleges became members of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), which is about as old as the NCAA. However, another college athletic association is making a lasting difference in the lives of it's student-athletes, coaches and the communities where it's member institutions reside. It is the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA).

According to its mission statement, the NCCAA was incorporated "to provide a Christian-based organization that functions uniquely as a national and international agency for the promotion of outreach and ministry and for the maintenance, enhancement and promotion of intercollegiate athletic competition with a Christian perspective".
It was founded in Canton, Ohio in 1968, and during that year ,launched its first national tournament in men's basketball in Detroit, Michigan. Lee College (now Lee University) won that first NCCAA national tournament.

There are currently 96 member schools in the NCCAA, and most of these institutions also have memberships in the NAIA and NCAA Div. ll and lll. The NCCAA is divided into two divisions: liberal arts colleges, which offer athletic scholarships, and Bible colleges, who like NCAA Div. lll, do not offer athletic scholarships. The Bible colleges have done well against the liberal arts schools, but in 1975, the Bible colleges decided to go along with a plan to place them in the Div. ll level while the liberal arts schools stayed at Div. l. In 1973, the NCCAA decided to add national competitions in sports such as men's soccer, cross country and track & field. Today, the NCCAA holds national competitions in 23 different sports for both men and women. Some former and current member institutions have produced both professional and Olympic athletes.

As exciting as the athletic competition is in the NCCAA, the organization believes that there are more important things than winning a national tournament. The NCCAA exists for outreach and ministry. As part of every NCCAA national tournament, each participating team is required to participate in a Christian Service Project (CSP). These are opportunities in which student-athletes and coaches go out into the community of the city in which the tournament is held and participate in a variety of service projects. CSPs include visiting children's hospitals, serving the Salvation Army, Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs, Habitat for Humanity, doing yard work around the community, writing to soldiers overseas, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, reading to children in public schools, visiting the elderly in nursing homes, and much more. NCCAA student-athletes and coaches have devoted thousands of hours to these projects, thus "being doers of the Word, and not hearers only" (James 1:22).

Many former NCCAA student-athletes and coaches have gone on to more prominant, and even famous roles. Here are a few examples. Dr. Homer Drew was president of the NCCAA from 1985-87 and coached men's basketball at Bethel College in Indiana during that time. Eleven years later, Dr. Drew would go down in NCAA Tournament history as he would lead the Crusaders of Valparaiso University to an improbable upset win over Mississippi on a last second shot by his son, Bryce Drew.
All Christians in America and around the world know of Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA., which was founded by the late Jerry Fallwell in 1971. Nine years later, the men's basketball team of Liberty Baptist College, as it was then known, won its first NCCAA national championship. Though Liberty is now an NCAA Div. l school and no longer a member of the NCCAA, there first and, as far as I know, only national championship came as an NCCAA member. Los Angeles Dodger fans will know the name of Kevin Malone, the club's General Manager. What they don't know is that Malone went to Tennessee Temple University, an NCCAA Div. l school in Chattanooga, TN. The NCCAA's first national tournament in any sport was in 1968 and it was in Men's Basketball. Since then, Tennessee Temple has won 7 NCCAA national titles in Men's Basketball, the most of any member school.
Another former member school, Azuza Pacific University, has produced four Olympic athletes, one former NFL running back and one MLS soccer player. Track and Field star Brian Clay, an APU alum, won a gold medal at both the 2008 and 2004 Summer Olympics. In the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, Clay posted the best score in Olympic history in his event. The other three Olympians from APU were Shot Put and Discus Thrower Vivian Chukwuemeka (06), Cyclist Julie Ertel (99) and Track & Field star Innocent Egbunike (86 & 93). Christian Okoye was a running back for the Kansas City Chiefs back in the late 80s, and former APU Soccer star Steven Lenhart is a member of the Columbus Crew of the MLS.

Another former NCCAA student-athlete will be getting a lot of attention in the next few months as the NFL tries to avoid a possible work stoppage. DeMorris Smith, the head of the NFL's Players Association, is an alum of NCCAA/NAIA member Cedarville University, where he ran Track. Those who know high school sports in the state of Georgia will no the name of Dr. Ralph Swearngin, who is currently the president of the Georgia High School Association (GHSA). From 1987-89, Dr. Swearngin, who was at member school Atlanta Christian College at the time, served as president of the NCCAA. There are many other former NCCAA student-athletes and coaches making a difference for Christ. They are fulfilling the goals of the NCCAA. As it states on the organization's web site, "the NCCAA game plan is to produce true winners: a game plan that will carry an individual through his or her entire life. The game plan is devised to draw out the student-athlete’s greatest potential – body, mind and spirit". For more information on the NCCAA and its member institutions, the reader can go to www.thenccaa.org.