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FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Midway through the first half, the Fayetteville State Broncos needed a spark. Jarmel Baxter provided one. And for a while, that was enough.
But the Broncos couldn’t overcome 22 turnovers and 28 fouls and Virginia Union had four players score in double figures to rally past Fayetteville State 82-77 on Monday, Dec. 12, in a nonconference game between CIAA foes.
Damion Harris battled foul trouble to score 12 points, matching Wesley Simmons and Calvin Brown for team-highs. Coredeo Hill, who added an emphatic dunk as the Panthers (5-4) used a late run to put the Broncos away, added 10 points.
But for a while, it looked like Baxter was going to carry the Broncos (2-4) to a victory. The sleek 6-3 guard scored ...
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Virginia State men's basketball coach Darryl Jacobs put it best: It was not so much what Virginia Union did, but what his team did not do.
The game was tied at halftime, but the Trojans shot only 18.5 percent from the field after the break, while the Panthers remained consistent. The glaringly irregular performance led to a familiar result in this lopsided CIAA rivalry. Virginia Union defeated Virginia State 67-54 in the Big Apple Classic at Madison Square Garden.
"(We) can't go 5 for 27 in the second half and expect to win a basketball game," Jacobs said while staring down at the statistics sheet. "It's not going to happen." Jacobs said his team lost intensity. VUU, on the other hand, shot 55.6 percent in the first half and 45.5 percent in the second.
Panthers coach Luqman Jaaber said his team remained consistent because it was not intimidated by the bright lights ...
Winston Salem, NC - It's a safe bet that when coach Connell Maynor and his staff reviewed the tape of WSSU's 22-17 win over Elizabeth City State they had to be encouraged.
One reason for that would be the crispness of the offense despite the bevy of mistakes. When the Rams weren't getting penalized their offense was very good. They started out scoring on three of their first five possessions of the game, and that's pretty good for an opener.
The task this week will not be any easier because the Rams will play at Virginia Union on Saturday. The Panthers, who are coached by Michael Bailey, who flirted with the vacant AD job at WSSU before Bill Hayes was hired, are 2-0 with two straight shutouts.
The Panthers have beaten St. Aug's and Benedict. On Saturday the Panthers won 27-0 and will look to avenge last year's loss to the Rams.
The NFL draft is a strange way to enter the workforce. Imagine watching ESPN Saturday and hearing that in the fifth round you've been selected by Presbyterian Hospital, Duke Energy or Charlotte Magazine. Don't you wish it were Sunday, and the draft had ended, and you knew what would come next?
"No," says David Mims. "I want to see how it plays out."
Mims, 23, was an All-Southwestern 4A offensive tackle at South Mecklenburg High and three times All-CIAA and twice Division II All-America at Virginia Union. He guesses he'll be selected Saturday in the fifth round of the NFL draft. His agent, Greg Linton, hopes for the fifth round.
Linton works for Hall of Fame Sports out of Canton, Ohio. Mims and his mother Regina and father Davvie and an uncle and an 80-year-old grandmother and few close relatives and friends will fly to Canton Friday morning.
David Mims is expected to be drafted in
the 5th or 6th Round of the 2011 NFL Draft
Virginia Union offensive tackle David Mims has worked out for the Kansas City Chiefs, Detroit Lions and the Baltimore Ravens, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation.
He has also visited the Ravens this month.
The imposing lineman is 6-foot-8 and 331 pounds after playing at nearly 350 pounds for the majority of his career. Mims bench pressed 225 pounds 29 times at his Pro Day workout, running the 40-yard dash in 5.32 seconds. He registered a 4.8 20-yard shuttle, an 8.1 on the three-cone drill, an 8-6 broad jump and a 27-inch vertical leap. Mims' workout numbers are superior or equal to many of the top tackle prospects.
The Division II All-American and All-CIAA selection is an imposing blocker who displays a mean streak. Although he played left tackle in college, Mims is regarded as a classic right tackle for the next level.
Virginia Union University's 2-Time
All-American, David Mims
OWINGS MILLS, MD -- Virginia Union offensive tackle David Mims visited the Baltimore Ravens this week, according to a league source with knowledge of the situation. The hulking Virginia Union offensive tackle is 6-foot-8 and 331 pounds after playing at nearly 350 pounds for the majority of his career.
Mims bench pressed 225 pounds 29 times at his Pro Day workout, running the 40-yard dash in 5.32 seconds. He registered a 4.8 20-yard shuttle, an 8.1 on the three-cone drill, an 8-6 broad jump and a 27-inch vertical leap. Mims' workout numbers are superior or equal to many of the top tackle prospects.
The Division II All-American and All-CIAA selection is an imposing blocker who displays a mean streak. Although he played left tackle in college, Mims is regarded as a classic right tackle for the next level.
Every season there are a handful of small-school players who seemingly come out of nowhere, which is where they really are on the college football landscape, and make it into the NFL. Let's use today's 2011 NFL Draft prospect profile to look at one player who might fill that bill this time around.
David Mims is a massive (6-foot-8, 331 pounds) offensive tackle from Virginia Union. Wes Bunting of the National Football Post was sold on Mims after watching his Pro Day. He wrote:
At 6-8, 331-pounds he’s definitely more of a right-sided player at the next level who is going to need some proper time to develop. However, physically and athletically the guy certainly possesses an NFL caliber skill set. He carries his weight well, has a thick base, long arms and displays natural fluidity and change of direction skills through contact when engaged.
Mims also still has a ton of upside to his game and after his impressive pro day workout he definitely has scouts buzzing about his long term potential. I spoke with a scout this weekend who told me following his workout, "Unfortunately he’s not a sleeper anymore."
When I was going over small school tape this summer, I was instantly intrigued by the size of Virginia Union OL David Mims who at 6-8 and 350+ pounds was at the time one of the bigger prospects in the entire draft. Now, it was pretty obvious that he didn’t have a firm grasp on what he was doing from a technique standpoint. However, for his size he was an impressive athlete with a long, strong set of arms, could bend and displayed some natural explosion off the football.
He was an absolute dominant force at the D-II level and really opened my eyes with his ability to get out to the second level, breakdown and just destroy opponents on contact.
Virginia Union University has handed the keys to its men's basketball program to Luqman Jaaber, a 30-year-old regarded as a young gun in the coaching business.
Jaaber takes the place of Willard Coker, who guided the Panthers to a 55-25 record in three seasons, but whose contract was not renewed last week.
The new coach was named the 1999 Times-Dispatch player of the year as a senior at George Wythe. In 2005, he helped Virginia Union win a national championship under coach Dave Robbins, who regarded Jaaber as a coach on the floor. Robbins often would ask Jaaber to pass along a certain instruction to the team, only to find that Jaaber already had done so.
Videographer: jsjunot; Virginia Union University introduces Luqman Jaaber as the Panthers' head men's basketball coach on March 30, 2011.
Virginia Union University named Luqman Jaaber to become the eighth coach in the history of the VUU men's basketball program, it was announced at a press conference in the Wilder Library on March 30.
Jaaber was introduced as the Panthers' head coach by VUU President Dr. Claude G. Perkins and Athletic Director Michael Bailey.
Jaaber, 30, had been an assistant coach for the VUU men's basketball team in 2008-09 and 2009-10 and was the captain of VUU's 2005 National Championship Basketball Team.
Virginia Union will not renew the contract of men's basketball coach Willard Coker, who confirmed the decision Saturday. The administration notified him Thursday. Coker was hired in 2008 to replace legendary coach Dave Robbins, who won 713 games and three national championships with the Panthers.
Coker served as an assistant for 23 years under Robbins and was described as a perfect fit to take over the program. In three seasons, Coker had a record of 55-25.
In his first season, the Panthers advanced to the NCAA tournament. In the last two, they were eliminated in their first game of the CIAA tournament.
CHARLOTTE, NC – For only the second time in school history the Livingstone men’s basketball has advanced to the semifinals of the 2011 CIAA Basketball Tournament after a thrilling 59-58 upset victory over the Panthers of Virginia Union University, the second-seeded team out of the CIAA’s Northern Division.
“This win says a lot about our program with a victory over a team like Virginia Union,” CIAA Coach of the Year James Stinson said. “It shows our players that we are not second-rate to anyone.”
Livingstone, the third seed out of the Southern Division, advances to Friday’s semifinals against the winner of the Winston-Salem State/Fayetteville State contest. The semifinal contest is scheduled for a 9 p.m. tip on Friday at Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, NC. This is Livingstone’s first trip to the semi-finals since 1998.
Virginia Union University's Braxton Byerson scored 21 points while teammate Gregory Redford grabbed 11 rebounds, but Livingstone College downed VUU 59-58 in the quarterfinals of the 2011 CIAA Tournament on March 3 in the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, N.C.
The loss ended VUU's season and gave the Panthers a final record of 15-9.
VUU trailed by 10 at halftime, 39-29, but fought back in the second half to take a three-point lead with 1:15 left in the game, but Livingstone was able to hit the shots to win the game.
Don't let the touch of gray in Charles Oakley's hair lead you to think he's going soft. "Everybody that knows Oak knows how he is. He only knows one way - tough," Charlotte Bobcats center Kwame Brown says. "That's how he played. That's how he is as a man. He's straightforward and in your face."
Oakley might be 47 years old now - eight years removed from his NBA playing career - but the toughness that defined him remains. It's one of the reasons he was called to join coach Paul Silas' staff as an assistant after Larry Brown was fired.
The thick, muscular 6-foot-9 frame that was instantly recognizable to a generation of NBA fans remains.
RICHMOND, Va. -- As Andrew Jackson and the rest of the his Winston-Salem State teammates skipped into the locker room after dispatching Virginia Union 59-54 Saturday night, they couldn't help but brag.
"We are deep," Jackson said as he high-fived a bystander. And the rest of the Rams agreed as their solid 10-man rotation wore down the Panthers. The Rams got 17 points from Shelton Carter, who had one of his better games of the season, and 14 more from Jackson as they picked apart a zone defense that usually is one of the CIAA's best.
The Panthers (3-4, 1-1 CIAA) employ an extended 2-3 zone to make teams shoot over them, but the Rams penetrated it at key times and never were really threatened after building an 11-point lead at halftime.
In March 1941,Virginia Union scheduled a game against the Harlem Globetrotters. What followed was one of the most devastating losses in Union history, and the repercussions still can be felt today.
Before 1947, Virginia Union didn't have its own basketball court. The Panthers played at either the Municipal Recreation Center or on the stage of the Richmond Landmark Theatre, then known as The Mosque. They didn't have a bus, either. Fans would drive players from campus to the court, watch them play and drive them back.
The Belgian Building, the current home of Virginia Union's basketball team, wasn't built in Richmond. It was constructed in 1939 for the New York World's Fair. The federal government awarded the building to VUU in 1941.
The worst trip Hi Rise Brown ever endured went from Dubai to London to New York to Miami to Brazil to Argentina. The journey lasted 37 hours. "Everyone got their bags except me," Hi Rise said.
Just as the name suggests, a big part of being a Harlem Globetrotter is traveling to all corners of the earth. Hi Rise, a 6-5 forward from the Chicago area, has flown on a Blackhawk helicopter in Iraq and walked on the Great Wall of China.
In their 84 years, the Globetrotters have visited 120 countries. Handles Franklin, a 6-1 guard from Harrisburg, Pa., has been to more than 50 countries in his four years as a Globetrotter.
NEW YORK -- Braxton Byerson swiveled toward the Spike Lee seats at Madison Square Garden and yapped with the fans at yesterday's Big Apple Classic. He had just hit an important 3-pointer at the end of the first half to solidify a lead Virginia Union (2-0) did not relinquish in a 66-46 win over rival Virginia State (1-4).
Byerson soaked in the moment. His screams stretched through the iconic arena. His post-shot swagger made him the game's most theatrical performer. But it was his scoring -- 26 points, trumping the 23 he scored on the same court last season -- that made the difference in the victory.
"Coach said when I first got here, 'You're a crowd pleaser,'" Byerson said. "It just always stuck with me. I just get in touch with the crowd when they start talking to me. It just gives me energy. I feed off it. I tend to play better when I feed off it."
New York, NY - The Big Apple Classic has announced that hip hop legend Doug E. Fresh is confirmed to participate as a host at the fifth anniversary of the Big Apple Classic on Saturday, December 4, 2010 at Madison Square Garden.
Doug will host the drumline competition portion of the CIAA and MEAC basketball thriller that is known for bringing heart-pounding basketball, electrifying drumlines and other southern black college traditions to the tri-state area. The Big Apple Classic is the only basketball tournament that showcases teams from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) at the world famous Madison Square Garden.
This year's Big Apple Classic starts on December 3 with a kick-off party at Greenhouse and continues on December 4 with rival games between CIAA schoolsVirginia State Universityand Virginia Union Universityand MEAC schools Hampton University and Howard University. Games start at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively.
Thousands of alumni, students, celebrities and other basketball fans are expected at what has become one of the most highly anticipated family and social events of the year. Last year's Big Apple Classic drew more than 10,000 attendees, including celebrities such as Gayle King and the Rev. Al Sharpton. Other highlights include an essay contest for high school students, a Black college fair, a drumline competition, and musical guests.
Event tickets are $29.50 and $54.50. A portion of ticket proceeds will be donated to Every Child USA to support efforts to improve the quality of life of America's children through literacy, health and opportunity.
For a $5 discount per ticket (active starting on Wednesday, Dec. 1) or more information, visit www.thebigappleclassic.com
Internationally celebrated as "The Human Beat Box," Doug E. Fresh rose to fame in the 80's and 90's with hip hop mega hits like "The Show/La Di Da Di," "Keep Risin' to the Top," and "All the Way to Heaven." He remains a highly sought after performer and continues to draw fans of all ages and backgrounds. Doug has been featured on American Idol and most recently he is enjoying new-found attention from the dance craze, The Dougie, which is sweeping college and professional sports games nationwide. The pop culture dance pays homage to Doug's signature dance moves and his iconic status in hip hop as "The World's Greatest Entertainer." The Dougie reached critical mass recently when CNN invited Doug into the studio to teach Wolf Blitzer "how to do The Dougie."
About the upcoming Big Apple Classic, Doug offers: "I think that what the Big Apple Classic is doing to support young people getting an education is very important. Education is key. We are coming to a basketball game, but education is still the focus and I respect that. It's positive and it's fun and that's what I'm all about."
RICHMOND, VA - The Virginia State University football team tallied three touchdowns on offense and two on defense en route to a 35-7 drubbing of Virginia Union in a CIAA game on Saturday. The matchup, which was the 101st between the two teams, came 380 days after VUU hung a school-record 490 rushing yards on VSU in a 31-3 blowout.
The Trojans counted those days, eagerly awaiting the opportunity to turn the table on their cross-town rivals. "I definitely marked in on my calendar," said VSU running back Antwain Lyde. "This was a time when we had to get our revenge from last year."
And that's exactly what the visitors did on a beautiful afternoon at Hovey field in Richmond.
Virginia Union University's Jerell Washington rushed for 150 yards and a touchdown, but Virginia State University downed VUU 35-7 in the Panthers' home finale of the 2010 season.
Washington's yards came on 27 carries and accounted for VUU's only score on the day. VUU's Antonio Harris had eight tackles on the day while Fletcher Redd had two sacks. The loss dropped VUU to 3-6 overall on the season and 3-4 in CIAA play. Virginia State raised it's record to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in CIAA play.
Virginia Union University's Tarian Donaldson rushed for 81 yards and a touchdown, but Elizabeth City State University downed VUU 17-14 in Elizabeth City, N.C., on October 9.
Donaldson became only the third Panther in the last 10 years to reach the 2,000-yard plateau in his career. The senior running back from Virginia Beach, VA, now has 2,022 career yards. Andre Braxton and Elihu Smith are the other Panthers to rush for more than 2,000 yards in their careers during the last decade.
Elizabeth City State’s football team’s motto this season is “Seal the Deal.” On Saturday, the Vikings had several chances to seal the game and ultimately had to turn to a handful of backups to secure a 17-14 win over Virginia Union.
Fans at Roebuck Stadium Saturday noticed a new structure on the home side. A new chancellor’s suite was installed last week and will remain in place for Elizabeth City State’s final two home games. The building is a temporary structure that filled an immediate need Vikings’ officials saw.
MURFREESBORO, N.C. - The Chowan University football team picked up their first win of season this afternoon after beating Virginia Union University 35-34 in CIAA gridiron action. Playing in their first-ever televised event, Chowan held on to the one point win despite a late surge by the Panthers.
Chowan's Robert Holland hauled in 11 passes for 144 yards and three touchdowns to help propel his team to victory. The Hawks improve their overall record to 1-4 and their CIAA record to 1-1. The Panthers fall to 1-4 overall and 1-2 in the league after today.
Chowan collected 345 yards of total offense in the game with 234 yards coming through the air. Chowan's Steven Carroll came in for relief of starter Cameron Stover to throw for 183 yards on 19 completions. Carroll also threw three of today's four touchdowns. Stover, still nursing a shoulder injury, left the game in the second quarter but completed six passes for 51 yards and hooked up with Holland to put Chowan on the board in the first quarter.
A furious Virginia Union University comeback in the waning seconds of a regionally televised football game fell just short as Chowan University escaped with a 35-34 win over the Panthers in Murfreesboro, N.C., on October 2.
Trailing 35-21 with less than three minutes left to play, backup quarterback Cheston Hickman, playing in place of the injured Aris McGlone-English, led a seven-play 60-yard drive to pull the Panthers to within 35-28. Hickman capped the drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Andre Winston with 1:22 left to play. Union then recovered the ensuing onside kick at their own 36-yard line.
Raleigh, NC - Shaw quarterbacks combined for six touchdown passes as Shaw handily defeated visiting Virginia Union 57-27.
Starting quarterback Kevin Atkins (right) threw for 212 yards and four touchdowns on the evening, while Quinshon Odom came in with the second team in the fourth quarter and added 103 yards and two touchdowns of his own – one a 60-yard bomb that was pulled in by Tyrone Craig in the endzone.
While the Shaw defense gave up some big plays at key moments, including a 25-yard touchdown pass from Panther quarterback Aris McGlone-English to Andre Winston as the clock hit zero at the end of the first half, they also managed to hold Virginia Union scoreless in the first and third quarters.
HIGH POINT, N.C. - Winston-Salem State came home to the CIAA and looked quite comfortable, routing Virginia Union 47-13 last night in front of about 9,000 at Simeon Stadium.
Playing at their home away from home, the Rams (1-0, 1-0 CIAA) dominated in their first game as a Division II program since 2005. It was such a festive atmosphere that those four previous lost seasons in transition trying to go Division I seemed like a distant memory.
Coach Connell Maynor did something not even Bill Hayes had done. Hayes, the school's athletics director who hand-picked Maynor to replace Kermit Blount, lost his first game as head coach of the Rams in 1976. Maynor was all smiles after opening with an easy victory.
"We can't live in the past," Maynor said. "These are the 2010 Rams and we have a great defense with Coach (Kienus) Boulware and we just have to keep scoring points every week."
