a
BLACK COL Ltd
MEAC SCOUTING R|
If Aggies J
By ALLEN JOHNSON
Review Editor
The MEAC is still somewhere in thfe
? wilderness between The Big Time and
perennial obscurity.
Two members of its lost colony ~
fe.T ^t. ^*1 ftl _ A A m mm
nronit ^artmna ^<1 ana Mowara
are on the verge of finding their way
out. They've upgraded their schedules
and between them have made three
NCAA tournaments.
The other five league members appear,
at least for the time being, to be
going in circles. While A&T and
Howard battle it out for the top spot -and
try to figure out how not to get
blown away in the NCAA tourney, the
rest of the conference ranges from
mediocre to weak.
A&T figured to have all the ingredients
to dominate the league - until
6-9 center Juan Lanauze left school last
5 r !_ _ L
spring ior nis nome in ruerto K?co.
That puts more pressure on Joe Binion,
a 6-8 senior forward who averaged
19.9 points and 11.1 rebound^Jast ?
season and is the best player in the
league.
But Binion will get help from 6-4
Eric Boyd, a fine guard who contributed
15 points and three assists per
game, and Jim Drown, another guard?
who averaged 10 points, but may be
best-known as the son of a certain profootball
immortal who's considering a
comeback.
Aggie Coach Don Corbett is an intense
man whose bark during games
may be more ferocious than A&T's
bulldog mascot's. He'd like nothing
better this year than to win the MEAC
once morp and chnw thncp MfAA
V ? ? W?IV ?? % IWUV A ^ V' ' 1
snobs thqj his team and his conference
are not sacrificial lambs.
The AggiesVill get a chance at the
latter early in a Dec. 17 game at defending
national champion North
Carolina State.
And if A&T falters in its quest for
the former, Howard will be waiting in
the wings.
The Aggies and Bison don't like each
other a whole lot. Never have. Never
will.
"Why do we hate A&T?*' said a
Howard fan at last year's tournament,
"Why is the sky blue? Why is the earth
round? It's nature."
Mother Nature always seems to
make her presence known at Howard
a&i games, in 1981, for instance, the
Bison squeezed the favored Aggies out
of the MEAC's first NCAA tournament
berth with a 66-63 win in the
MEAC tourney.
In 1982, A&T returned the favor,
79-67, but not before a second-half
brawl erupted. In 1983, A&T beat 'em
again in the finals, 71-64, even though
Howard had won the regular-season title
with an 11 -1 league record.
Howard^ -one loss, incidentally,
came at A&T. And one of A&T*s three
Page 16-December, 1983S5S5SSS
E SPCEflX GEVIE
EPORT mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Wont, Bls<
league losses came at Howard.
- Which wasn't supposed to happen
fasTyear, since A&Twas loaded with
talent andgenerally expected to use the
MEAC?for scrimmages until the NCAAs.
But the Bison and Coach
A.B. Williamson had other ideas, going
19-9 wei^ and-^inmng the
regular-season title.
Although he loses one of the keys to
last year's success story, guard Bernard
Perry, Williamson returns three
starters from last year's team.
* Kevin Scott, a 6-5 forward who
scored 12 points per game in '83, is one
of them. Williamson expects the allconference
senior to be the glue that
holds his '84 team together and leads
another Bison assault on the Aggies'
dominion.
Williamson also has beefed up the
Bison's nonconference schedule, which
includes December dates with Hawaii
*ndU LAr
" inose games will be tough/' he
says, "but they should help our
recraitmg an<Twiir help prepare us for
the conference schedule."
Meanwhile, there have been more
than rumbles of discontent among
some of the other league members as
three heads have rolled.
?At?Delaware?State;?where?thc~
MEAC's best-looking cheering squad
was the major bright spot in an otherwise
forgetable 8-19 year, Coach Ajac
Triplett got his pink slip.
While Triplett now coaches high
school ball in Texas, his replacement,
Joe Dean Davidson, formerly of
Washington, D.C.'s legendary Dunbar
High School, will try to squeeze a few
more wins out of a lineup that's solid
in the backcourt and soft up front.
DelState's fine backcourt trio includes
junior point guard Danny Sapp,
who averaged 17.1 points in '83, and
seniors Albert Anderson and Robert
Fields.
Six-foot-seven Eric Seymour, the
lone veteran forward, averaged only
2.3 points and 3.3 rebounds last year.
While Joe Davidson attempts to
build a tradition, Maryland-Eastern
Shore Coactt Kirkland Half would like
to restore one.
The 1974 Hawks won the conference
title and went on to a strong showing in
the NIT. The 1983-84 Hawks would be
happy to pass the .500 mark.
One of the prime determiners as to
whether UMES will reach that modest
goal is swingman Robert Boney, the
only returning starter.
Robert's cousin. Donnell Bonev.
proved that hoops run in the family by
turning in a strong freshman season,
scoring 10.6 points per game.
South Carolina State and Florida
A&M have a common problem:
reputations as football schools ? which
is okay if you're a football coach but
not so wonderful if you're trying to
build interest and credibility in a
^ ;
y , - _ >, ? : ' _
on Certair
go
KmV - "
Howard's Kevin Scott loads Coach
(photo by Brian Branch-Price).
basketball program.
Basketball has been the one sport in
which proud S.C. State has not kicked
butt in the MEAC. Matter of fact, the
Bulldogs have more often than not
hppn th#? Virkw nn th# hnrHu/nnH ac
was Coach Johnny Jones, who was
booted right out of his job last year.
Percy "Chico" Caldwell takes over
for Jones, and inherits a team that
looks solid on paper but only finished
13-15 in *83.
The Bulldogs are strong in the middle
with 6-8 veteran center Franklin
Giles, who scored 15.9 points a game
J
ly Will -
*: i * w$
i A.B. Williamson's upstarts this year
and grabbed 12.8 rebounds (second in
the nation). Another notable returnee
is 6-3 guard Marvin Haynes, who
averaged just under 20 points.
A&T Coach Dan Corbett savs S.C.
State "may have the best material in
the conference." But it only has the
fifth-best team.
As for Florida A&M, the Rattlers
haven't rattled very much lately, and
r will rattle even less this year since
they'll be ineligible for the league title.
They did make some noise off the
i court, however, as Coach Josh Giles
i Please see page 22