The Big South Conference is as small a small conference as you can find in Division I basketball, comprised of a hodgepodge batch of public and private oddball schools scattered throughout Virginia and the Carolinas. The conference tournament champion traditionally goes on to play well for the first half against a much more powerful super team in the first round of March Madness, and then get crushed in the second half. These are the fourteen student-athletes who done scored the most in the past four years of Big South Conference men's basketall tournaments...
#1: Travis Holmes (VMI guard; 140 points in Big South tourneys '07-'09) - Travis and his twin brother Chavis set the blistering pace that VMI used to confuse Big South opponents the past couple years, and score an early season victory over Kentucky last year as well. VMI never did win the Big South title though. Travis was drafted into the NBA D-League last fall by the Utah Flash, but nothing ever came of it, and as far as the internet can tell me, he's not playing anymore.
#2: Chavis Holmes (VMI guard; 127 points in Big South tourneys '07-'09) - Chavis, however, has continued to pursue basketball dreamage over in Europe, starting for Caja Rioja in the Spanish League.
#3: Michael Jenkins (Winthrop guard; 109 points in Big South tourneys '06-'08) - Helped lead Winthrop to conference titles all four years in college, from 2005 to 2008, and was tournament MVP that last year. Moved on to win the prestigious Montenegrin Cup in the Adriatic League, which I'm not even sure what country that is, and now plays for the Walter Tigers Tuebingen in Germany.
#4: Mike Jefferson (High Point guard; 109 points in Big South tourneys '06-'08) - Has furthered mastered the art of being a big fish in a small pond by starring for the Geneva Devils of the Swiss League last year, and now starring for IR-Reykjavik in the Icelandic league this year. I guess next year he'll star in the Finnish league or some other second tier European basketball league.
#5: Arizona "AZ" Reid (High Point forward; 105 points in Big South tourneys '06-'08) - Ha! Arizona is starring for a Finnish league team now, namely something called UU-Korihait Uusikaupunki, which I imagine is hard to squeeze onto a basketball journey.
#6: Craig Bradshaw (Winthrop forward/center; 94 points in Big South tourneys '06 and '07) - A New Zealand-based Fijian who played in America, who was tournament MVP in 2007, and has since bounched around the world here and there, but seems to end up each year in the Australian National Basketball League, which is where he'll probably have the best shot to keep his career on chill mode, as a starter, close to home, and getitng paid to bounce the basketball around.
#7: Reggie Williams (VMI forward; 94 points in Big South tourneys '07 and '08) - Williams is the epitome of a small college dude who doesn't give up and scratches and claws his way towards an NBA dream, even if for just like a 10-day contract at some point. After finishing his college eligibility in 2008, he's played in a prominent pre-NBA draft tournament, hooked up in the 2008 NBA Summer League for the Mavericks, got drafted into the CBA but went to play in France for a year instead, came back for NBA Summer League 2009, which got him drafted into the NBA D-League on the Sioux Falls Skyforce, where he is starting and starring (in front of the sparse crowds that you'd expect from the D-League), averaging over 26 points a game.
#8: Anthony Smith (Liberty guard; 84 points in Big South tourneys '06-'09) - Spent some time in a prominent NBA-aspirational summer league last summer, and stars for Cornella in the Spanish League this year.
#9: Reid Augst (UNC-Asheville forward; 83 points in Big South tourneys '07-'09) - For a small-sized whiteboy playing college basketball at the highest low level of Division I, sometimes there's nothing left to do afterwards but go sell insurance for your dad's company.
#10: Bryan Smithson (UNC-Asheville guard; 82 points in big South tourneys '07 and '08) - Bryan gave it a post-collegiate shot, signing on and starting for a Bosnian League team, but got dropped before the end of the season and is out of the basketballs now.
#11: Kenny Thomas (Radford guard; 81 points in Big South tourneys '07 and '09) - Continues his dream in Switzerland playing for Lausanne Basket.
#12: Taj McCullough (Winthrop forward; 81 points in Big South tourneys '06-'08) - After a solid collegiate run with the Winthrop team that won the Big South title four years in a row, he actually had a good showing in the NBA Summer League in 2008 for the Wizards, got drafted by the Erie BayHawks of the NBA D-League, but had a stint with the Wizards in the NBA before getting sent back down to the D-League to finish out the year. The past year has not been so Americanly prominent, as he played in the Israeli Premier League and now starting for VEF Riga in the Latvian Basketball League.
#13: Torrell Martin (Winthrop guard; 77 points in Big South tourneys '06 and '07) - After finishing college playing in 2007 (Big South tournament MVP in '05 and '06), Torrell Martin - a crazy-style dreadlocked hyphy ass dude - had a brief preseason flirtation with being a member of the Orlando Magic, before launching on a professional career that has gone as follows: ASCO Slask Wroclaw (Poland), Kepez Big Antalya (Turkey), Kavala/Panorama (Greece), and now starting for Eisbaeren Bremerhaven in Germany's top league.
#14: Jack Leasure (Coastal Carolina guard; 76 points in Big South tourneys '06-'08) - A native of Rochester, New York, with a porntastic name, ever since his run at Coastal Carolina he's tried to catch on with the Rochester Razorsharks of the Premier Basketball League, only to end up in Austria last year and this year starting for the Taranaki Mountain Airs in New Zealand. When you can't cut it in whatever the PBL is, I guess the best thing to do is play for the Mountain Airs. It would seem like a good idea to say, "I wish I had a Taranaki Mountain Airs jersey," but I'm sure the quality level of a lot of these foreign leagues when it comes to materials is probably less than youth league basketball here in America.
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