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SWAC Opening Eyes in College Hoops

Dick Weiss on College Basketball

The SWAC is making waves in college basketball.

Last Friday, Gambling defeated visiting Colorado, 83-74, in thte Pac 12-SWAC Legacy Series. Over the weekend, Alcorn State defeated Wichita State and Texas Southern defeated Arizona State, 67-66, on a tip inby freshman Zytarious Mortle with three seconds to go in the Legacy series on its Houston campus..
Suddenly, historic black colleges and universities are more than sacrifical lambs.
Defending champion Texas Southern stands out in particular. The Tigers, who have won 10 conference regular season or tournament titles in the last decade, have won three NCAA tournament games in the last five years– including a victory over Texas A @  M -Corpus Christi in a First Four game last March, and this could be the program’s best team ever. The Houston-based school, has three of its four leading scorers from last year’s First Four winning team in guard PJ Henry and fowards Karl Nicholas and John Walker III.
Nicholas was a first team All-SWAC and Defensive Player of the Year. Walker, who aveaged 10.2 points and had 22 points against ASU, joined Nicholas on the pre-season All SWAC team. The Tigers competed hard against the Sun Devils, limiting them to 34 percent shooting and outrebounded ASU, 50-41.
Coach Johnny Jones, who has built a winning culture Texas Southern, must be confident in his talent. He has scheduled five ranked teams

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Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

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