The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference doesn't get the kitschy love that the CIAA does, even though both started out as Division II all-black college conferences. In 1979, the MEAC upgraded to Division I status, and this has really been the cause of conference affiliation switching for HBCU (historically black colleges and universities) in the mid-Atlantic ever since. Since 1995, a number of Division II teams from the CIAA (Hampton and Norfolk State at first) have moved up to the MEAC for Division I athletics, and Winston Salem State, which moved up a couple years ago, and hasn't even earned post-season eligibility yet, is moving back down already. But the MEAC tournament, with a few of the schools being basketball only (meaning no-football, and then all the other sports nobody cares about), is a happening affair. I guess the main difference is in Division II, the CIAA winner has a shot to win the national title, whereas in Division I, the MEAC champion has a pretty good shot at being relegated to the ridiculously unfair play-in game. Nonetheless, here are your top 14 point scorers from the previous four years of MEAC basketball tournaments...
#1: Tywain McKee (Coppin State guard; 184 points in MEAC tourneys '06'-09) - Tywain McKee is about the best thing the MEAC has seen in decades. He was first team All-MEAC from 2007 through 2009, MEAC tournament MVP 2008, conference Player of the Year in 2009, and actually an All-American honorable mention as well. Yet that's still a big big fish in a small pond, and post-college, he signed with the Wollongong Hawks in Australia, but has been out with injury since back in January.
#2: Reggie Holmes (Morgan State guard; 134 points in MEAC tourneys '07-'09) - Still in college; will speak upon him tomorrow.
#3: Tony Murphy (Norfolk State guard; 128 points in MEAC tourneys '06-'08) - I remember Murphy taking over some game I watched on the TVs like mad; he had game. He was drafted by the Dakota Wizards of the D-League, played for the New Jersey Lightning in the Eastern Basketball Alliance, which I had never heard of before, but looked up, and they have like six or seven teams in Virginia alone. It looks like some minor league old basketball gym from 1958 type bullshit where dudes refuse to let their dream die that I'm gonna have to go check out. Now, Murphy starts for Angrabasket/Palmeiraspark in Portugal.
#4: Rashad West (Hampton guard; 114 points in MEAC tourneys '06-'08) - A most perfect small-time pro basketball post-college career for the former Hampton Pirate. Drafted simultaneously by the East Kentucky Miners of the CBA and the Idaho Stampede of teh NBA D-League. Chose Idaho, but got released before the season started, so he ended up starting for Obera Tennis Club in Argentina. Last summer, did well in the Eurobasket Summer League held in Las Vegas, which is basically a tryout for European teams, and he got signed by Gestiberica Ciudad de Vigo in the Spanish Gold League, but he then he split Spain last November.
#5: Roy Bright (Delaware State forward; 108 points in MEAC tourneys '07 and '08) - Actually started out collegiately as a hot prospect with Cincinnati, but behaviored his way down to Delaware State, where he starred for two years. After college, he's been all over, in American minor leagues I've never heard of (who are the Buford Majic?) and being a bit player in Latvian League. He was signed last fall by Baerum Basket as a potential starter in Norway, but was released one month later. Not exactly the high profile career you'd expect from a former high school phenom who was North Carolina Player of the Year in 2004. Still, if we all were successful, everybody would feel like it was status quo. The world needs flameouts.
#6: Corey Lyons (Norfolk State guard/forward; 105 points in MEAC tourneys '06-'09) - A kid from New York City who goes south to play at an all-black college, and has no professional history afterwards. I would imagine though that basketball is still part of his life, and often times you can make money without being a professional. This is not to suggest something nefarious about Corey Lyons, because he finished college and is probably a straight acting bro like anybody else. But there are streetball leagues, playground hustles, and shit, somebody has to play for the Washington Generals. Just saying, is all.
#7: Michael Deloach (Norfolk State guard; 88 points in MEAC tourneys '07-'09) - Still in college.
#8: Lamar Twitty (Florida A&M forward; 81 points in MEAC tourneys '06-'09) - Lamar Twitty, after his Senior season last year, has apparently fallen off the face of the earth. At least the internet-ified earth, which of course is a really in-depth and deep accounting of a small slice of the real world.
#9: Marquise Kately (Morgan State forward; 81 points in MEAC tourneys '08 and '09) - Actually from the West Coast, and started his collegiate career at California, before transferring all the way across the fucking country to Morgan State for some reason. Out of basketball now, perhaps still ghostriding a Greyhound back to the Bay Area.
#10: Chris Brown (Norfolk State guard; 73 points in MEAC tourneys '06 and '07) - Oh man, this is why the Eastern Basketball Alliance has to be awesome. Post-time at Norfolk State, Chris Brown went on to be the owner/general manager/starting guard for the Virginia Fastbreak, who played one season in the EBA last year. They no longer exist, but nearby there is now a team called the Tru-Hope Trailblazers, and these teams are a clusterfuck of former Division I guys, juco players, and guys who never got into anything after high school. It can only be the greatest thing ever. I hope they have a giant three-day tournament to crown the EBA champion somewhere within a three hour drive of me.
#11: Ed Tyson (Maryland-Eastern Shore guard; 67 points in MEAC tourneys '06-'08) - Post-MEAC, no longer in the sport of professional basketball. Another of many Baltimore kids on the northernmost teams of the MEAC member roll.
#12: Leslie Robinson (Florida A&M guard; 66 points in MEAC tourneys '07 and '08) - Post college, Leslie went back home to the Chicago area, and is playing for the Chicago Steam of the latest incarnation of the ABA, which has teams sprout up and disappear yearly in rapid and wacky fashion.
#13: Jermaine Bolden (Morgan State guard; 64 points in MEAC tourneys '08 and '09) - Morgan State is located in Baltimore, and Bolden is a Baltimore kid. They tend to recruit Baltimore's more awesome, less desireable kids, meaning guys not necessarily good enough to get into a private school at a young enough age on basketball to then get into a major program. Bolden is out of college now, still in Baltimore (I am guessing) but now with a college education. Think how Bodie or Omar could've turned out with a similar opportunity.
#14: Brian Greene (Florida A&M guard/forward; 64 points in MEAC tourneys '06 and '07) - Most successful recent Rattler post-collegiately, after a quick stint with the Jacksonille Jam of some league called the Premier Basketball League, he made a name for himself in the Ukraine, bounced through Slovenia briefly, and now starts for Antalya Buyuksehir Belediye in the Turkish Basketball League. Mad daps.
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