Advertisement - scroll for more content
The University of Hawaii’s men’s basketball program had a dismal 6-20 record during the 1969-70 season. Coach Red Rocha turned the program around by adding a strong recruiting class with Dwight Holiday, Freeman, Nash, Penebacker and Davis. Dwight Holiday was a junior college star at Hartnell College in Salinas, California, who said he once scored 56 points. Holiday said he received scholarship offers from La Salle University in Philadelphia and the University of Detroit, but didn’t want to leave California. While working at Dick Bruhn Family of Stores in Salinas, then-Hawaii assistant coach Bruce O’Neal called him there trying to convince him to play for the Rainbows. “[O’Neal] kept calling the store,” Dwight Holiday, 71, recalled. “And this old white man that worked there said, ‘Who’s this man that keeps calling the store from Hawaii?’ I said, ‘They want me to play there.’ And he said, ‘If I could go to Hawaii, I would go.’ So, I went. I didn’t think about it that deeply. I didn’t know it was that far and across water.” Holiday, Nash, Freeman, Davis and Penebacker became the starting five of the most beloved Hawaii basketball team after it put the program on the map nationally. They also happened to be the school’s first all-Black starting five.
Coleman is holding an event in Dearborn, Michigan the week after the All-Star game to honor Gervin and Washington, but that is not the main purpose of the event. The Detroit chapter of the Retired Players Association is trying to raise $20 million for a full makeover of the Saint Cecilia gym, which has been more or less shuttered for the past 4-5 years. “I used to take the bus down there for a quarter at 8 in the morning, eat lunch at Burger King, play ball all day and not leave until 9 o’clock at night,” said Earl Cureton, who played in the NBA, in Italy, in Puerto Rico, Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico before returning to Michigan, where he is now a team ambassador for the Pistons and also calls University of Detroit games as a broadcaster. “Kids these days do not have a safe place like that where they can be surrounded by role models, and we want to bring that back. It kept you around the right mentors and the right people.
Frank Russell, a basketball star from a famous local basketball family who played at the University of Detroit and briefly in the NBA and after his playing days became a fixture in Pontiac and Oakland County youth initiatives and media, has died. Russell died Monday, the university confirmed. He was 72 and recently contracted COVID-19, friends said.
Advertisement
After the Warriors’ practice Sunday afternoon at Detroit Mercy, I watched for about 20 minutes as Cousins participated in a 5-on-5 scrimmage. My biggest takeaway was that, if it were the playoffs, he could play now and contribute. He was throwing down alley-oop dunks and moving with relative ease. At this point, Cousins just needs to improve his conditioning a bit to be completely game-ready.
Though nothing was announced, we hear the Heat summoned these 10 players to audition at a free agent camp this week: shooting guards Rodney McGruder (who played on its D-League team in Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Quinton Upshur (Northern Arizona/Portugal); Brandan Kearney (University of Detroit); Juwan Howard Jr. (son of the Heat assistant/played in Spanish League) and Jabril Trawick (Georgetown/Sioux Falls), plus forwards Okaro White (FSU/Greece), Xavier Gibson (FSU/Greece), Kevin Tumba (Belgium), Kenny Gabriel (Auburn/Turkey) and 6-11 Norvel Pelle, a skilled shot-blocker who was the No. 1 center in the 2011 high school class, failed to qualify at St. John’s and has played in the D-League, Taiwan and elsewhere since. Players who finished this past season in the NBA cannot be brought in for workouts before July 1.
Now Howard Jr. begins a longshot process of trying to earn his own championship rings so he can pass them out to family members, just as his dad did in 2012 and 2013 during the tail end of his career. "Yeah, they've got my name on them," Howard beamed inside the Pistons practice facility. The University of Detroit graduate was one of six players who worked out at The Palace in front of Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy and his staff. Others were power forwards Bobby Portis (Arkansas) and Kevon Looney (UCLA), and guards Will Cummings (Temple), D.J. Newbill (Penn State), Dom Pointer (St. John's).
Everybody in the NBA wants top get their hands on the next Hassan Whiteside — a late bloomer who been a force in the middle for the Miami Heat. The guy who may fit that profile is Eli Holman, formerly of the University of Detroit and now playing in China where he finished one assist shy of a triple-double in Game 1 of his team’s first-round playoff series. There are some remarkable similarities between their stories. But whether Holman jumps to the NBA after the Chinese playoffs or remains overseas remains an open question. For now, I have heard that there are three NBA teams interested, but that number should grow after Holman’s near triple-double of 15 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists in Game 1 of the Guangsha-Liaonang series. Holman is 25, like Whiteside, and other similarities are remarkably coincidental, to say the least.
Advertisement
Today's includes the third player from the University of Detroit Mercy known to have worked out for the Pistons, with Ray McCallum and Doug Anderson the others. It's heavy in forwards, but it ends with a guard who led his team in both scoring and assists. And it begins with a Southfield native: A'ustin Calhoun, PF, 6-7, 232, Bowling Green Robert Covington, SF, 6-7, 210, Tennessee State
Minnerath, a 6-foot-9 senior power forward from the University of Detroit Mercy, worked out for the Washington Wizards last week and is scheduled to work out for the Pistons on Wednesday. Minnerath used a last-minute invitation to the Portsmouth predraft camp to impress some NBA scouts. He averaged 14 points per game at Portsmouth and was one of the standout players. Since then he has interviewed with the San Antonio Spurs and Utah Jazz. "Portsmouth definitely got me a little more exposure at the right time after the season was over," said Minnerath. "I think teams have seen things during the year and I've been able to bring those things to the workouts. Maybe they didn't think I could shoot as well or maybe teams thought I couldn't do some other things and I'm showing that I can." As far as feedback, he said, "Everything so far has been positive what they've been saying to me afterward."
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement