|
June 21 Notebook
By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
June 21, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – LOWES MOORE, the last Mountaineer to play in the NBA in 1983, says he’s very surprised that it has been 23 years and counting since another West Virginia University player has made it to the league.
| |
 |
| |
Guard Lowes Moore was the last Mountaineer to appear in an NBA game in 1983 with the San Diego Clippers.
WVU Sports Commnications photo |
|
The executive director of the Mt. Vernon Boys and Girls Club for the past 14 years, Moore believes a number of former West Virginia players had the potential to make it in the NBA.
“You definitely have to have one great thing you can do in order to play in the league or you have to be multi-dimensional,” Moore said recently.
The standout WVU guard played a full season with the New Jersey Nets in 1981 and parts of two seasons in 1982 and 1983 with the Cleveland Cavaliers and San Diego Clippers.
Today, Moore’s focus is helping mold youngsters into being productive citizens.
“The kids are exposed to much more than what I was exposed to growing up,” he said. “Of course you had the temptations of drinking, drugs and having sex, but now they can almost see this everywhere.
“We had little access to guns and knives and those types of things where there is a lot of access to that today,” he said. “The whole gang this is totally out of control.”
Moore says his club uses things like sports, drama and dance as carrots in helping kids steer clear of making the wrong choices and going down the wrong paths.
“The club’s responsibility is to support parents and the community to help produce productive citizens,” he said. “Nobody talked to me about being a pro when I was growing up. But we were taught to be good men and productive citizens.”
Moore has enlisted a couple of Mt. Vernon natives in his effort to grow the Boys and Girls Club. Nationally known actor Denzel Washington was a member of the Mt. Vernon Boys and Girls Club while growing up with Moore, and NBA standout Ben Gordon recently donated $10,000 won on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune to help buy new backboards and rims for the center.
Moore hopes to have a second facility constructed across town by 2008.
“When I came back we had about 25 members and here we are 14 years later and we now have 1,700,” Moore said proudly.
Briefly:
Be sure to catch an expansive feature on Moore and 6-5 guard TONY ROBERTSON – the last two Mountaineers to play in the NBA – next week as part of MSNsportsNET.com’s NBA draft coverage.
When West Virginia signed LOWES MOORE in 1976 the Mountaineer basketball program was on a high – literally. Mountaineer assistant basketball coach JIM AMICK stopped an Eastern Airlines flight from Pittsburgh to New York to land the star guard.
“I had played at the Dapper Dan in Pittsburgh and the plane came back to the tarmac so he could come on and sign me right there on the airplane,” Moore recalled.
The Parade All-American guard from Mt. Vernon, N.Y., turned down offers from North Carolina and Rutgers to sign with West Virginia.
“It was a very beautiful place and I fell in love with the campus right away,” Moore said of his decision to attend WVU. “During the recruiting process I fell in love with Coach Amick and he treated me as if I were one of his sons. I felt like I would be safe and comfortable.”
Moore says he was satisfied with his basketball and academic experience at West Virginia University.
“I had a wonder experience at West Virginia and if I had it to do all over I would have done it again,” he said.
GARY McPHERSON, Mountaineer Athletic Club senior director of development, is resting comfortably at Mon General Hospital after undergoing successful hip replacement surgery. WVU team Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. DAVID STOLL performed the procedure.
MIKE GANSEY continues to work out for NBA teams in preparation for next Wednesday’s NBA draft. According to last Friday’s Cleveland Plain Dealer, Gansey has a workout scheduled with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers this week. Gansey grew up a big Cavs fans.
And former Cavalier GM Wayne Embry says he’s a big Gansey fan.
“He keeps growing on you,” said Embry. “He plays the game of basketball the way it should be played. He makes big shots. He likes to take big shots. He's a legitimate factor. When you look at two-guards, I don't know why you wouldn't put him in your top 10.”
Sacramento player personnel director Jerry Reynolds believes Gansey could sneak into the first round. “Once you see him up close and personal, there's a lot to like,” said Reynolds.
ESPN.com’s most recent draft rankings have Gansey rated the 34th-best professional prospect. Six-eleven center KEVIN PITTSNOGLE is currently 56th on the list.
Gansey or Pittsnogle are looking to snap West Virginia’s streak of eight consecutive years without a player being selected in the NBA draft. The last Mountaineer player to go was 6-11 center GORDON MALONE to the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1997. Malone was a second-round pick.
There is a good possibility that West Virginia over the last two seasons will have faced nearly half the players selected in this year’s NBA draft. Of the 27 draft prospects the Mountaineers have gone up against the past two seasons, 12 could go in the first round, according to NBAdraft.net. Among those 12 are probable lottery choices Tyrus Thomas of LSU, Rudy Gay of Connecticut and LaMarcus Aldridge of Texas.
Nine possible picks played at the WVU Coliseum this past year. NBAdraft.net projects 16 Big East players, including West Virginia’s Mike Gansey and Kevin Pittsnogle, to be drafted next Wednesday.
The return to school of Pittsburgh 7-foot center Aaron Gray now gives the Panthers the inside track on the 2007 Big East men’s basketball title and a possible Top 5 finish. Pitt has seven key returners from last year’s 25-8 team that lost to Syracuse in the Big East tournament championship game last spring.
Other Big East teams expected to be strong in 2007 include Georgetown, Connecticut, Marquette, Villanova and Louisville. All six made Andy Katz’s summer Top 25.
Our condolences to Coach BILL STEWART and his family for the passing of his mother BOBBIE in New Martinsville on Monday.
More strong economic data impacting Morgantown was released today by the U.S. Census Bureau and analyzed by the economists at WVU’s College of Business and Economics.
Morgantown realized the largest population gain in the state from 2000 to 2005, adding 1,634 residents during the first half of the decade. The only other West Virginia city larger than 10,000 to gain population was Martinsburg in the Eastern Panhandle, which increased by 1,049 residents.
The state’s four largest cities Charleston, Huntington, Parkersburg and Wheeling each lost population. Morgantown is the state’s fifth-largest city with an estimated 28,292 residents as of 2005.
I caught a sneak preview of the 2006 men’s basketball highlight DVD and it is tremendous. It’s a great tribute to an outstanding senior class and the video is currently on sale through the Mountaineer Ticket Office by calling 1-800-WVU GAME. I have been told that pre-orders will be shipped in a few weeks.
Yours truly stopped over at the Puskar Center Tuesday afternoon and while gathering some interviews I noticed that the new Donald J. Brohard Hall of Traditions inside the Milan Puskar Center is nearing completion. Once it is finished, I highly recommend anyone visiting the stadium to check it out.
I also got a chance to talk to junior defensive tackle Keilen Dykes and I can tell you that he passes the eyeball test. Dykes says he weighs 300 pounds right now and he looks like he doesn’t have an ounce of fat on him.
Even though strength and conditioning coach MIKE BARWIS runs a tough shop, senior offensive guard Jeremy Sheffey says the summertime is an opportunity to relax before the start of another grueling season.
“The summer is a lot more relaxed,” he said. “Even though we’re working hard the atmosphere is more relaxed. We’re not around Coach Trickett and stuff like that. I go fishing a lot and I get out and go do things.
“Last weekend I went to the beach with some guys (Ocean City, Md.); we worked out in the morning and then went to the beach,” said Sheffey. “We do little things like that to keep our minds off things.”
Women’s basketball coach MIKE CAREY is adding a nationally ranked recruiting class to an already deep and talented team that nearly upset its way into the NCAA tournament last spring. The Mountaineers knocked off Louisville, St. John’s and Rutgers at the Big East tournament before falling short in the championship game on Connecticut’s home floor.
The Mountaineers will also have the services of three-time all-Big East performer Meg Bulger, who missed most of last season with a serious knee injury. Carey welcomes eight newcomers including Auburn transfer Sparkle Davis and Michigan State transfer Melanie Small.
Five-foot-11-inch guard Lateefah Joye from Okaloosa-Walton Community College is the No. 9-rated junior college transfer in the country, according to All Star Girl’s Report.
Former WVU standout pitcher CHRIS ENOCHS has given up professional baseball and is back in school finishing up work on his degree. Enochs was a first-round draft pick (11th overall) by the Oakland A’s in 1997.
Have a great weekend!
 Print View  Email
|
