NORFOLK, Virginia -- Jeff Short admits he sometimes peruses the NCAA scoring stats just to see his name ahead of players from powers like Duke, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.The online list proves two things: that Short, after a major detour that had him buried on the bench of his hometown team, has finally arrived, and that what he's doing at Norfolk State is not a dream.
Short, a 6-foot-4 native of the Bronx, N.Y., leads the MEAC and is 15th in the country with 20.0 points per game entering today's 6 p.m. showdown with rival Hampton.
Only four players in the nation have made more field goals than Short's 156, and the guard is a big reason the Spartans (14-9, 7-1 MEAC) remain contenders for a regular-season title with just eight games left.
But Short, a product of New York City's fabled AAU system, came by it the hard way. Basketball was his way out of an adolescence fraught with temptations like gangs, drugs, violence and other distractions.
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