Was NC Central basketball primed for another NCAA appearance? Now we will never know
LeVelle Moton wishes he was in Dayton, Ohio right now. In fact, he wishes he was anywhere with his basketball team.
Dayton just happened to be a destination spot for the Eagles, after winning three straight MEAC tournament titles, the First Four in Dayton was the next stop. It had become a routine for NCCU: win three games in Norfolk, return to Durham, pack bags for Dayton. Wash, rinse, repeat.
And even though they would have loved to explore a new city this year, Dayton would have meant more success and another tournament title. The Eagles were the regular season champions, so even if they didn’t win the MEAC tournament, they were guaranteed a spot in the NIT. So no matter what, Moton would have been somewhere with his team this week preparing for a basketball game.
At least Dayton was familiar. He would have taken Dayton again if that meant they were still playing basketball. But they aren’t. Last Thursday, due to the spread of the Coronavirus, basketball across the country was shut down. The Eagles were 24 hours away from playing in their fourth straight MEAC tournament semifinals.
But the MEAC took the cue from the rest of the nation and canceled its tournament. Even after that happened, Moton still hoped there would be an NCAA tournament, or at least the NIT. When all postseason games were canceled, Moton and his team returned to Durham with a weird feeling in their guts. Everyone wants to win their final game — NCCU did, 92-75 over Delaware State on Wednesday — but nobody wants to see the season taken away from them like this.
“We’re in a space we’ve never really been in, both as coaches and players,” Moton told the N&O on Monday. “You always want to win the last game, but you never knew winning the last game would cause you so much pain.”
NCCU was trending in the right direction when the plug was pulled. They had won six games in row, their 17 point win over the Hornets was one of their most lopsided wins in weeks. The streak included an 86-80 home win in the regular-season finale over rival North Carolina A&T, giving the Eagles the outright regular-season title.
Moton’s team was defending like he wanted, playing with confidence, having fun, looking like the Central championship teams of old. He finally had the team playing up to its potential, how he needed them to play if they were going to win a fourth straight conference tournament. Two days before they got the chance, the higher ups blew the final whistle, and NCCU returned to Durham with no welcoming party and no hopes of going to the Big Dance.
Moton will lose one senior from this team, and it’s an important piece. Jibri Blount was the MEAC Player of the Year, after averaging 19.3 points and 9.3 rebounds this year. Blount, a 6-7 forward from Pittsburgh had three 30 point games and ended his NCCU career with 16 points and 12 rebounds against DSU.
Blount didn’t score a single point in 11 minutes against North Dakota State last season, his lone NCAA Tournament trip with the Eagles, but Moton talked to him about how life goes on. There is still plenty of basketball in Blount’s future.
“The main thing for him right now is not crying over spilt milk or wallowing in this misery,” Moton said. “Life (doesn’t) stop, so right now we are in the process of interviewing agents and securing his future so he can go out here and get paid to play the game he loves.”
GRAND SCHEME
Moton has said over and over again that only one team gets to win their last game and hold a trophy. This season was an exception. Several teams won a game, then found out that was the last game moments later.
While they were in Norfolk, Moton doesn’t even remember who told him the tournament was canceled. He just remembers going to the arena early on Thursday to watch the NCCU women play and having a weird feeling, like he wasn’t even at a basketball game. He called the last few weeks something out of a movie. He knows, big picture, that calling off sporting events was the right call.
“It was a need to protect student-athletes and people across the country.,” Moton said. “You can put things into proper perspective and its proper context and put competition on the back burner.”
He recognizes the safety and the health of citizens is way more important than risking it all to see a basketball game. Moton realized how serious this was when the NBA suspended the rest of its season last Wednesday night.
“The world understands now,” Moton said. “The NBA stopped playing basketball. The NCAA tournament canceled basketball. Once that happens North Carolina Central can be OK not playing basketball.”
BRIGHT FUTURE
Each season the turnover on Moton’s roster is usually pretty high. Next year will be unique. Blount is the only player with no more eligibility. Of course there could be a player who transfers out, but if everyone stays put, Moton will return 12 players from the 2019-20 team. That number doesn’t include senior guard Randy Miller, who only played in eight games before suffering a season-ending injury. Moton hopes that Miller can get an extra year of eligibility next season. He’s only bringing in one high school player, Farmville Central guard Justin Wright, and will hope to find a big man on the transfer market. He also had two players who sat out last season who will be eligible in 2020-21.
C.J. Keyser, will be the top returning scorer (18.5) and was an All-Conference selection as a junior. He’ll also return point guard Jordan Perkins, who will need 149 assists next year to become the school’s all-time leader in that category. Blount carried the team early on until everyone settled in on their role, Moton said. But once they started focusing on the team, the Eagles were hard to stop. With so many pieces returning, Moton already knows the expectations will be sky high next year. But that’s nothing new in Durham.
“We could lose 10 and they will say North Carolina Central will win it all,” Moton said. “We are accustomed to that. The standard is the standard. Our thing is no external expectations are going to be higher than what we expect from ourselves. It’ll be the same fight, just a different round next year.”
This story was originally published March 18, 2020 at 12:06 PM with the headline "Was NC Central basketball primed for another NCAA appearance? Now we will never know."
