ADONIS GANTT
I finally got a chance to catch up with former Wichita Southeast point guard Adonis Gantt, who just completed his freshman season at Cowley — and he was in decidedly good spirits Monday afternoon.
So with that said, let me get this out of the way first: He wants to transfer to Hutchinson Community College.
Got a couple of phone calls from parents this afternoon — parents who would prefer to remain unnamed, for now — telling me their side of the story about what’s going on in the aftermath of Steve Eck’s defection from Cowley College to Hutchinson Community College.
So here’s the skinny: Six kids want out, I won’t put their names out there yet, but they’re high profile kids with Division I talent. In-staters and out-of-staters alike. And some, if not all, want to join Eck at Hutch.
One problem. The parents are telling me that Cowley is not going to grant their releases/transfer exemptions, which means they would have to sit out for a year. The two parents I talked to said they had meetings with Cowley AD Tom Saia and new head coach Tommy DeSalme to let them know their kids wanted out and that was when they got denied. According to KJCCC commish Bryce Roderick, the only guaranteed out you have as a transfer within the Jayhawk is if you transfer to a junior college in your home county. Ex.: If you go to Garden City High School then go play for Hutch, then you can transfer to Garden City C.C. and you don’t have to sit out. That won’t help in most of the cases here.
My take? It is well within Cowley’s right not to let them out. But should they? I don’t know enough about it yet to say. There’s a lot of gray area in this bad boy. I’ll be on the horn with the respective parties this weekend.
But I know this: This one is going to get ugly before it’s all said and done.
I’m out.
-TA
JACEY JUDEN
UPDATED: 3/28 JUDEN HAS SIGNED WITH NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE … INFO THANKS TO COWLEY SID RAMA PEROO.
One of the first assignments I had as a stringer at The Eagle — this would have been spring 2004 — was covering
Jacey Juden as a freshman pitcher at Ark City HS. She was nails then, and apparently just keeps getting better.
Now she’s killing it at Cowley, as evidenced by last season’s glut of honors –First-Team All-Region VI, First-Team All-Conference and was a unanimous choice as the Jayhawk East Conference Most Valuable Player — and is back with more of the same this year and hit up Labette for 16 Ks yesterday. Juden signed with Arkansas out of high school after the Razorbacks beat out Alabama and Oklahoma, actually went to school there for a couple of weeks, bailed, and headed home because she missed AC. Hey, there’s no place like home. Can’t knock that. But if she’s hoping to stay close, I’m sure the Shockers wouldn’t mind having her in their rotation. I’m trying to figure out if she’s committed anywhere yet and will update as such.
here’s the release from Cowley on the victory over Labette:
GARRIUS HOLLOMAN
It’s Monday and I need to get a hold of Garrius Holloman, but Eddie Holloman, his father, is screening calls at the family’s house in Wichita and I don’t blame him. It’s 70 in Wichita, early evening. The wind has died down momentarily. He wants to be outside, not bothered.
The first person that answers the phone at his house says he’s not there. Wait, I tell this person, I’m really just trying to get a hold of Eddie’s son, Garrius. I’m with the Wichita Eagle. Sports. I’d really like to talk to Garrius.
Oh, person on the phone tells me, You mean Big Eddie? Not little Eddie, right?
JACK CROWDER III
Incredible performance out of the Jayhawk, so I thought I’d boil it down to a little Journalism 101:
Who: Jack Crowder III, 6-foot-4 sophomore forward at18th-ranked Cowley College (W. Southeast ‘07)
What: 43 points, 9 rebounds, 7 threes, 2 steals and 14 of 15 from the charity stripe … Tigers win 93-91 in OT at Coffeyvile to force what seemed like (two weeks ago, at least) it was damn near impossible, a tie for first in the Jayhawk East with the Red Ravens.
Where: Nellis Hall, deep in the heart of SE Kansas
When: Wednesday night
Why: Because that’s how he’s wired — play hard, never quit
How: My guess is that it’s probably because his last two coaches have been Carl Taylor and Steve Eck …
Here’s the full release from Cowley SID Rama Peroo, with a great quote from Coach Eck at the bottom:
GARRIUS HOLLOMAN
Just learned that Cowley freshman forward Garius Holloman is out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Holloman, a 6-foot-6 Wichita East product, was averaging 7.3 points and 3.6 rebounds per game for the 11-1, No. 4-ranked Tigers. He tore it while playing 1-on-1 with a teammate. Tough break for him but I’m sure he’ll bounce back.
There’s lots of stuff going on with our state colleges and jucos — thought I’d catch up with everybody in a Lutzian-style quick hits form. Had a couple of days off (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and filled it up with a WSU basketball game (thanks Carol and Charlie), the new Bond movie, lots of laundry and a round of golf. Not a bad mid-week weekend. I call it the I Am Legend shift.
Let’s roll it:
UPDATE: CROWDER SCORED 31 POINTS IN COWLEY’S WIN OVER COLORADO NORTHWESTERN FRIDAY NIGHT IN LIBERAL. THAT’S CALLED EAGLE KARMA, PEOPLE.
I’ve got an article in today’s paper on Cowley guard/forward Jack Crowder III, a Southeast product tearing it up for the No. 5-ranked Tigers and Steve Eck. I got to watch Crowder play last season at the Region VI tournament and he had a HUGE dunk in the semifinals — like caught everybody by surprise HUGE — and
CROWDER III
I’ve been curious about him since. Gotta love the way dude plays … always attacking. I also got to talk to Coach Eck … and found out he hates the Internet! And blogs. But not necessarily this blog, he made sure to point out, which I thought was nice of him because he’s definitely been mentioned on here before and will definitely be on in it again in the future. His reasons for not liking the internet? It gives people a green light to be vicious and say terrible things without any real accountability. Something we’d like to avoid here, of course.
There is no shortage of potent volleyball matches and great storylines headed into the weekend, with the Wasbhurn-Emporia State tilt Friday in Topeka getting top billing.
ARICA
Where to start with this one? Two top ten teams squaring off (Washburn is No. 9, ESU is No. 10)? The MIAA
ASHLEY
title on the line? Or the sister vs. sister battle between Emporia State All-American hitter Arica Shepard and twin sister Ashley, the top hitter for Washburn?
I’ll take ‘em all.
The Hornets are on a 19-match winning streak, and are 8-0 in MIAA play. They’ve never won an MIAA title. Washburn’s two conference losses were on the road to ranked opponents Truman State (No. 12) and Central Missouri (No. 14). I’m otherwise occupied, otherwise I’d be up the Turnpike to see this one. Go if you can and let me know about it. Will all of Rossville be there? I hope so.
All of the schools from the Jayhawk Conference — East and West — convened in Wichita this morning at the Airport Best Western for Media Day, and as always, much hilarity ensued.
There were a lot of highlights from the day … I got to see a lot of old friends and colleagues, and an old college classmate who is now the cream of the crop for women’s coaches on the junior college level. There’s a lot to be said for finding a place you like, close to home, and building something out of nothing. Emily, are you listening?
Let’s run this down. We’ve got a lot to go over.
1. Steve Eck, Steve Eck, Steve Eck.
ECK
Coach Eck and Media Day are an interesting fit. I walked into the hotel at the same time as he did and asked what he thought of these things. I got a look, and a laugh. There’s a lot of bluffing that goes on at these things, and Coach Eck, while he isn’t bad at putting on a poker face … isn’t fooling anybody. That’s just the way it is. And his team got picked to finish first, which I’m sure irked him to no end. I talked to a lot of coaches who say they’ve signifigantly scaled back their recruiting efforts in Wichita since he took over. One look at his roster (eight City League kids) lets you know why. They’re not sure how bad he’s hurt yet, but Southeast’s Adonis Gantt (a Division I signee at Georgia Southern) hurt his knee at a jamboree in Dallas over the weekend, which is bad news. On the good news front, last year’s leading scorer, Chris Rhymes, tore his ACL at the Region VI Tournament and the Tigers finished second without him. He’s doing well at Cal State-Fullerton, thank you very much. Good for Chris.