The Southern Highland Reader

From the because-I-just-can’t-help-myself department, here are a few basketball notes:

1. The Augusta Chronicle tells its readers that an entrepreneur’s plans to launch an all-white men’s professional basketball league in the southeast are meeting with an oddly tepid response.

In a statement, the All-American Basketball Alliance announced that “only players that are natural born United States citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play … “.

The league is the brainchild of Don “Moose” Lewis, a professional wrestling promoter, who calls himself the league’s Commissioner and says he seeks to start teams in 10 or so southern cities.

“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” he told the Chronicle. “I don’t hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here’s a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like.”

The Atlanta Journal suggests that the whole thing might be a publicity stunt.

For the sake of Moose’s wallet, I hope so, because everybody who wants to sit and watch white guys play catch is over at the softball field.

2. The Washington Post’s Tracee Hamilton holds forth today on the NCAA’s notion to expand the NCAA men’s basketball tournament from its current field of 65 teams to 96.

This from the folks who can’t pull together a playoff system at all on the football side of things.

Writes Hamilton:

What is it about corporate greed that, when a company is making a kabillion dollars, it immediately begins wondering, “How can I make a kabillion and one dollars?” Capitalism is great, as long as you don’t screw up the product. The expanded field would definitely screw up the product.

Since the field expanded to 64 teams in 1985, has there ever been a year when you watched the Selection Show and thought, “Man, 31 teams got hosed.” No. There have never been 31 teams who deserved to make the field but didn’t. One or two, maybe. Not 31.

3. Former Western Carolina star Kevin Martin, a Sacramento King, is one of the top scorers in the NBA. But he gets a lot of his points at the foul line, and all that foul-drawing has been tough on his 6-7, 185lb. frame. He’s been injured for great swaths of each of the past three seasons.

He’s back on the court now, trying to form a cohesive backcourt with rookie sensation Tyreke Evans.

Moreover, he’s trying to add to, not disrupt, the chemistry that got the young and dynamic Kings off to a hot start. So far, not so good: the Kings have lost four straight since his return. To be fair, the losses were on a tough eastern road swing, but the team’s chemistry problems are evident.

CLEMSON–Trailing 56-51 with eight minutes to play, Western Carolina looked to be in a decent spot to make a run Tuesday night at Littlejohn Coliseum. Instead, the Catamounts went stone cold from the field and gave up a 23-6 run down the stretch to lose 79-57 to the 24th-ranked Tigers.

The loss was Western’s first in ten games, and drops the Cats to 10-2.

WCU was without the services of last week’s Southern Conference player of the week Mike Williams, a guard who scored 24 points in Western’s win at Louisville Dec. 12. Williams twisted an ankle in practice over the weekend.

Read more here from ESPN
Read more here from WCU
Read more here from Clemson
Asheville Citizen-Times staffs the game

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s men’s basketball team rose another two spots to number six in the CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll this week  — despite having had the week off for finals — and resumes action tonight at AP no. 24 Clemson.

According to the Asheville Citizen-Times the Catamounts will be one player short, due to a practice injury over the weekend, but the WCU coaching staff did not divulge which player would likely miss tonight’s game.

Western has been off since its Dec. 12 win at Louisville.

Sports Network preview here.

Football

2009-12-19 – WCU coach Dennis Wagner announces mid-term transfers: defensive back Reggie America (Coffeyville, Kan., CC/Junction City, Kan., HS); defensive lineman Walt Woolwine (Garden City, Kan., CC/Ashland, Kan., HS); offensive lineman Dan Polaski (Hargrave, Va., Academy/Long Meadow, Mass.; HS); and quarterback Casey Turner (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge HS). Turner is a transfer from Connecticut.

2009-12-19 – Wagner turns down Kansas.

2009-12-15 – 2010 schedule includes NC State, early date with Appalachian. Story here.

2009-11-29 – Cats sign Tuscola fullback/linebacker John Austin Chambers.

2009-11-29 – In an interview at halftime of last week’s Duquesne game, Coach Dennis Wagner told Catamount basketball broadcaster Gary Ayers that he and his staff planned to try former North Buncombe star quarterback Randy Pressley, who redshirted this year, on the defensive side of the ball in the spring.

2009-08-20 – Veteran Charlotte Observer sportswriter Tom Sorenson has climbed the stairs at E.J. Whitmire Stadium many times during his career. Here he writes about Brad Hoover, who used to run those very stairs (A hint; it’s the Observer’s annual “remember Green Bay” piece).

2009-07-24 – Former WCU standout Darius Fudge was named the Indoor Football League rookie of the year last week. Fudge, who plays for the Wichita Wild, was also a first-team all-league running back selection in the 20-team league. Fudge ran for 936 yards and 31 touchdowns this year. Also honored was Lamont Reid, another former Catamount who was a first-team linebacker for the Wild. A quick look at the Wild roster shows five former Catamounts; in addition to Fudge and Reid, there are Carlton Bailey, Kevin McAlmont and Andre Brown.

2009-07-16 – More on Bumpus from the Muskogee (OK) Phoenix:

“I’ve talked to him and he’s excited,” Muskogee coach Matt Hennesy said. “He had some injury problems at Oklahoma and was pushed back on the depth chart. He wants to get on the field. Jonte also had an offer from Cal-Poly.”

Hennesy said Bumpus, who had 92 tackles and nine sacks in his senior year (2007) at Muskogee, has three years of eligibility left. He was signed by WCU assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Andy Follett, who was at Missouri State.

“(Follett) signed Jaryd Horn and Andre Anderson to Missouri State,” Hennesy said. “He recruited (Muskogee) hard and that’s how Jonte knows him.”

2009-07-14 – The Catamounts have bolstered their defensive line by bringing in Oklahoma Sooner transfer Jonte Bumpus. Story from the Oklahoman. High school info (from OU): Recorded 92 tackles and nine sacks as a senior in Oklahoma’s 6A Class … also recorded 10 tackles for loss, nine forced passes, and three fumble recoveries … named first-team all-state by The Oklahoman and Tulsa World … defensive lineman of the year in district 6A-4 … collected 96 tackles and four sacks as a junior … also a track and field athlete … coached by Matt Hennesy.

• Three-star Rivals.com
• No. 32 defensive end in the nation (Scout.com)
• No. 30 weakside defensive end in the nation (Rivals.com)
• No. 8 in Oklahoma top 30 of 2007 (Rivals.com)

2009-07-10 – Ja’Quayvin Smalls here and here.

Notes: Among the players who won’t return in the fall are a couple of very familiar names: Quintin Phillips, a senior linebacker with a nose for the ball, and Adam Hearns, an athlete who has seen time at quarterback and wide receiver. A source close to the program says that “nobody is gone that the coaches wish was still around”. More evidence that Coach Dennis Wagner’s my-way-or-the-highway philosophy applies regardless of talent level.

CULLOWHEE–The Asheville Citizen-Times’s Keith Jarrett reports that Western Carolina University head football coach Dennis Wagner has turned down an offer to join new Kansas coach Turner Gill as an assistant coach.

Wagner said he was offered the job as offensive line coach and assistant head coach by Gill, the former Nebraska quarterback who left the head coaching job at Buffalo to take over the Jayhawks.

“Turner offered me the job Saturday night and I turned it down Tuesday morning,” Wagner said.  “I told him it was in my best interests to stay at Western Carolina.”

Blog post here.

CULLOWHEE–Ryan Fagan of the Sporting News has a long question-and-answer session with Catamount senior forward Jake Robinson.

Here’s a snippet:

SN: You guys received a couple of votes in both the AP and coaches poll after beating Louisville. Is that pretty exciting for the school?
JR: It is. The students and faculty are really buying into what we’re doing now. The last couple of days here at school, everywhere I go, it’s “Oh, what a great win guys, you guys are unbelievable,” or, “We saw it on TV.” It really is good for the school, for the recognition. It’s not historically a great basketball school or a great basketball program, so for us to get some recognition and some attention is good.

Here’s the piece.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s red-hot basketball team has ridden a nine-game winning streak and Saturday’s upset of Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals to a number eight spot in the most recent CollegeInsider.com mid-major poll, released Monday night.

The Catamounts are up from 15 the week before.

Western has also risen to number 10 in the national RPI rankings.

A variety of national polls are reflecting the success of coach Larry Hunter’s team. Read more here from the university’s sports site, catamountsports.com.

Read a feature from Tyler Norris Goode in Tuesday’s Asheville Citizen-Times here.

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina built a 17-point second half lead, then fought off a strong rally from the Atlantic Sun Conference’s Campbell Camels to record a 66-59 win before some 2,700 fans at the Ramsey Center.

Junior college transfer Mike Williams, a guard, came off the bench to lead Western with 16 points.

The win was the eighth straight for WCU, which is ranked 15th in collegeinsider.com’s mid-major poll, and 23rd in the national RPI standings.

Western’s team, which was stuck in Peoria for a day-and-a-half after Monday’s win over Bradley because of weather delays, has played four games in eight days, and adds another — at Louisville on Saturday — before breaking for final exams.

Here’s a game story from the Asheville Citizen-Times’s Tyler Norris Goode.

An excerpt:

One of the flashy banners hanging above the pep band for the first time Thursday night listed off Western Carolina’s short list of success as a Division I men’s basketball program: Two Southern Conference division titles (1996, 2009) and a SoCon tournament title and an NCAA tournament appearance in 1996.

Thursday’s win won’t be commemorated on the banner, but WCU is off to its best start since opening the 1958-59 season with a 15-1 mark.

[Western's Jake] Robinson also reached a personal milestone with his 1,000th career point when his 3-pointer gave the Cats’ a 59-50 edge with 3:33 to go.

All the X’s and O’s here from catamountsports.com.

STATEWIDE–The Charlotte Observer reports that state health officials now say Lyme Disease can be contracted in North Carolina. For years, officials thought the tick-borne ilness was unlikely to be contracted here.

An excerpt:

Based on the new evidence, Dr. Megan Davies, state epidemiologist, said the state is now working to get the word to doctors, who for years were reluctant to even test patients for Lyme because it wasn’t considered much of a possibility.

“What we’re trying to communicate to physicians is that it’s possible to acquire Lyme in North Carolina, so don’t hold to an old belief,” Davies said, noting that she and others are meeting with infectious disease doctors at the state’s medical schools to get the word out.

Read the story here from the Observer.

CULLOWHEE-Western Carolina hosts Campbell tonight in a clash of two teams off to banner starts.

Western (8-1) and Campbell (5-1) both moved up to Division 1 competition in the mid-1970’s, and both are off to their best starts since that move.

Campbell, which is 0-15 in Cullowhee over the years, has beaten East Carolina and North Florida this year, and lost by 11 to Virginia Tech.

Western jumped from 31st to 23rd in the national RPI ranking after its Monday night win at Bradley, and moved to 15th in the collegeinsiders.com mid-major poll Monday afternoon. In addition to the win at Bradley, the Catamounts have topped Duquesne and SoCon foes Furman and Wofford.

Western meets Rick Pitino’s Louisville squad Saturday in Louisville.

More on tonight’s game from the Asheville Citizen-Times and the Sanford Herald.

REGIONAL-The ongoing conflict over usage rights on the Chattooga River is worth following, if, for no other reason, as a harbinger of things to come.

In its December issue, Blue Ridge Outdoors writer Graham Averill does a nice job of making the issue clear, and the magazine throws in maps, a timeline and a “headwaters highlights” section.

Here is Averill’s lead:

For three decades, paddlers have yearned to paddle the pristine waters of the Upper Chattooga River. Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service finally granted limited access of the Upper Chattooga to paddlers, but a flurry of legal threats—including a legal challenge from the paddling community—prompted the Forest Service to rescind their decision a few weeks ago, once again leaving boaters high and dry.

Paddlers have been banned from the entire 21-mile headwaters of the Chattooga and its tributaries since 1976, after the U.S. Forest Service divided the river in two parts due to a series of user conflicts. Citing fistfights, slashed boats, and gun play, the forest service separated the two user groups: Boating would be allowed on the lower Chattooga, but the upper 21 miles of the river and its headwaters would be reserved for fishing.

Another clip:

Many conservation groups, including Georgia Forest Watch and the Chattooga Conservancy, support the current zoning of the river into boating and non-boating sections. Other popular recreation areas like Tsali and Bent Creek are also zoned; some trails allow mountain bikes, ATVs or horses, while others are designated foot traffic only. Anglers also support the current zoning of the Chattooga, saying that it’s a more-than-equitable compromise: the 36-mile lower Chattooga is given to boaters, while the 21-mile upper Chattooga is protected for fishermen and hikers seeking a wilderness experience.

Ironically, no parties concerned in the Chattooga access issue seemed to be happy with the Forest Service’s recent decision. Soon after it was announced, the Forest Service was threatened with legal action from all sides: four separate appeals were filed by boaters, anglers, and conservation organizations. As a result, the Forest Service withdrew its decision to fully consider the concerns raised by the user groups.

Averill sources the Cullowhee-based group American Whitewater quite a bit in the story, and offers quotes from all sides.

Read the story here.

COLUMBIA–Wayne Tolleson, perhaps Western Carolina’s last two-sport star, played baseball and football for the Catamounts in the seventies.

He went on to a ten-year major league baseball career with the Rangers, White Sox and Yankees.

Tolleson, a Spartanburg native, has been named a member of the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame class of 2010.

2009-12-08 – Slam Online’s Joey Whelan’s take on Western’s win at Bradley:

Western Carolina out of the SoCon took down Bradley last night, significant because the MVC is looking stacked this season and because the Catamounts are now looking pretty at 8-1, their only loss coming to Texas. The rest of the early season schedule includes the aforementioned win over the Braves, solid victories over conference opponents Furman and Wofford and the win to hang your hat on for now, an 83-77 squeaker over Duquesne. This is an offense by committee with six players averaging between six and 11 points and five averaging been four and six rebounds. It’s always hard to gauge how these hot starts can carry over into the near year, but with the type of balance Western Carolina is showing, I like them in the SoCon to make some noise.

2009-12-08 – WCU beats Bradley.

2009-12-07 -Western Carolina’s mens basketball team enters tonight’s game against Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, with six straight wins in its back pocket, and a 7-1 overall record.

The Catamounts rose today to 15th in the collegeinsider.com mid-major poll.

The Cats are coming off of consecutive league victories over Wofford and Furman, and Western is ranked 97th in the Sagarin college basketball rankings from USA Today. Bradley, which competes in the Missouri Valley Conference, is 93rd. On the other hand, the Cats are 32nd in the national RPI rankings, Bradley 86th.

Western is playing a steady — and luxurious — ten-man rotation, and has had six different high-scorers in eight games. The Catamounts have shown flashes of potential on offense, including a record-setting night from three-point territory in a victory over Duquesne, but have hung their hats on their defense. Western is forcing 21 turnovers per game, good for a nationally fifth-best turnover ratio of 7.8. The Catamounts are ranked eighth in steals.

Tonight’s game is the first of a three-year three-game series with the Braves; two in Illinois, one in Cullowhee.

2009-11-29 – WCU at #52 in the national RPI, one spot behind Bradley, who Western plays next week.

2009-11-29 – Western Carolina forced 29 turnovers in a comfortable 75-59 win Saturday at Gardner Webb. As the the Shelby Star reported, Western beat the Runnin’ Bulldogs at their own up-tempo game. Brandon Giles, a senior all-conference selection, had 24 points after a quiet start to his season. This was Larry Hunter’s first win in four tries against Gardner Webb.

2009-11-26 – WCU tops Duquesne (post)

Baseball

2009-12-09 – Baseball early signees.

2009-12-06 – The College Baseball Blog on Catamount team visit to Elida Home.

2009-07-10 – Asheville Reynolds standout picks Western.

2009-07-07 – Nice feature on pitcher Corey Martin (drafted by the Cubs) from the Yadkin Ripple.

2009-07-07 – Complete rundown of Catamounts in the minors from Catamountsports.com.

2009-07-07 – Former Catamount and recent Arizona Diamondbacks draftee Brent Greer jackin’ em in Yakima.

2009-07-07 – Ross Heffley, rising sophomore, recorded an odd stat line for the Orleans Firebirds in the prestigious Cape Cod League during a recent 9-3 win over Bourne. Heffley registered just one official at-bat, going 0-for-1. But he had three sacrifice bunts and a sacrifice fly with two RBI.

2009-07-07 – Western’s 24-23 win over Eastern Kentucky last season brought back memories of a 32-16 loss to Ohio State in Cullowhee almost three decades ago. I watched that one as a junior high kid, then about a decade later saw the Cats rally from about ten runs down with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to beat App.

Western Carolina’s men’s basketball team had a pretty good Monday — the Cats jumped ten spots to number 15 in the collegeinsider.com mid-major poll, then jumped all over Bradley in the second half for a 75-67 win in Peoria, Il.

Western got 21 points from Jake Robinson, and after trailing 56-46 midway through the second half, tore off a 23-4 run to secure the win.

Read the game story here from the Peoria Star-Journal

Read the game blog here from the Peoria Star-Journal

Another note or two here

Track and Field

2009-11-30 - WCU track and field releases 2010 schedule. From Catamountsports.com

2009-07-14 - Former Catamount sprinter Manteo Mitchell performs well at US National Club Championships, has decision to make. From Catamountsports.com

2009-06-03 – Senior Manteo Mitchell has received an at-large bid to the NCAA track and field championships.

2009-05-19 – Signee Brandon Hairston of Carver High in Greensboro wins two state championships. Read more here

Coach Danny Williamson’s track and field teams are fresh off another phenomenal year. The men won first at the SoCon Track and Field Championships, the women finished second.

Mike Williams

CULLOWHEE–Western Carolina’s mens basketball team got 25 points from former Pisgah star Jake Robinson and broke a record with 17 team three-pointers en route to a 83-77 win over previously unbeaten Duquesne Wednesday at Ramsey Center.

The game was the third in three days for Western in the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts CBE Classic, a subregion of which the Catamounts hosted.

Western won convincingly over Arkansas-Monticello and Binghamton in games on Monday and Tuesday.

Duquesne came in with a win over Iowa under its belt, but needed overtime to put away the Boll Weevils of Div. II Arkansas-Monticello Tuesday.

Western’s Mike Williams, a junior guard who transferred from Jackson State, was named tournament MVP.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (staffed the game)
Coverage from ESPN
Duquesne athletics writeup
WCU athletics writeup

SYLVA–Ja’Quayvin Smalls, a Western Carolina University football recruit who died during an off-season team workout, passed away from “acute lethal cardia dysrhythmia due to cardiomyopathy” according to autopsy results released today.

Smalls also carried the sickle cell trait, according to Dr. Wm. Lawrence Selby, who performed the autopsy at Harris Regional Hospital.

In his report, Dr. Selby noted that Smalls had “a history of sickle cell trait, past positive PPD, and irregular heartbeat with PVC’s during fever approximately 5 years earlier.”

Selby told Tyler Norris Goode and Jon Ostendorf of the Asheville Citizen-Times that he had no clear evidence that the sickle cell trait played a role in Smalls’ death. At question in the national sports media after Smalls’ July death was whether testing for the sickle cell trait — which WCU did not perform — might’ve prevented the death.

Coverage from the Asheville Citizen-Times here.

CHAPEL HILL–Sylva native and Smoky Mountain High product Cetera DeGraffenreid, now a junior guard at North Carolina, is ACC player of the week.

From UNC:

DeGraffenreid played one of the best all-around games of her career against Coastal Carolina, scoring 20 points and adding eight assists, eight steals and six rebounds in 29 minutes of action. The eight steals tied a career-high for the junior from Cullowhee, N.C. DeGraffenreid followed that performance with a 22-point, four-rebound, three-assist outing against UNLV on Sunday. The guard was a perfect 10-for-10 from the foul line against the Rebels, with several coming down the stretch to secure the win.

Read more here

Cetera DeGraffenreid

CULLOWHEE–The online basketball publication SLAM features WCU sophomore Harouna Mutombo in this Sunday post.

Mutombo, nephew of NBA great Dikembe Mutombo, was named Southern Conference Freshman of the Year last year, as well as to the SoCon All-Conference second team.

Here’s an excerpt from the story:

Playing in a mid-major conference, Mutombo’s exploits were regularly outshone by the bright star that was Stephen Curry at Davidson last season. Regardless, Harouna made a huge splash in the Southern Conference leading the Catamounts in both points (14.4) and rebounds (4.6) while placing second in assists (68), steals (56) and blocks (16) and minutes (30.4).

And it didn’t stop there. After he finished up his college season, Canada Basketball invited him to train with the National Team as they prepared for the World Championship Qualifying Tournament where he would be under the tutelage of not only Team Canada’s head coach Leo Rautins but also Raptors’ Maurizio Gherardini and Cavs assistant coach Mike Malone learning the international game, even playing a few exhibition games in Spain for Canada.

In a related matter, a Texas blogger wondered last week whether Harouna would adopt his uncle’s famous finger-wagging “no-no” after blocking an opponent’s shot. That remains to be seen, we suppose.

No-no.