This week on TSL Sports Talk, SWAC Commissioner, Duer Sharp, joined us to talk about the SWAC tournament and The Celebration Bowl. Check out some highlights below.
Sharp on the difficult decision he had to make in suspending Texas Southern Womens Basketball players after their brawl with Southern:
Well, its always difficult because you dont want to take anything away from student athletes. Theyre young and they happened to make a mistake and the NCAA playing rules state that, if you do those types of things, you have to sit out a game. It was unfortunate. I was actually working and my staff was working with the NCAA, trying to see if there was some way we could assist both institutions, but its not in the playing rules. So we werent allowed to do that. Once we got that out of the way and we were able to re-seed the womens bracket, it just allowed the coached to focus on basketball.
Later on, Black College Sport Page editor, Lut Williams, joined us to talk more on the SWAC tournament.
Williams on if Hampton is hot right now or if they were underachieving throughout the season.
Im not sure if its underachieving or being hot right now.If anything, maybe a little bit of both. But I think the deal is this: The MEAC was probably more balanced this year, even though North Carolina Central was atop dog, undefeated during the regular season and conference play. When you had teams like Maryland Eastern Shore and Howard, who have been perennial bottom feeders, becoming the third and fourth teams in the conference, pushing people like Hampton and even Delaware State back a notch or two, it was probably the most competitive MEAC race in quite some time. Central certainly a favorite and I think it was a little bit of a surprise that the lost in the tournament, but keep in mind, Delaware State had them beat in Durham earlier in the season and were pretty much looking forward to and wanted to play Central and did knock them off. I think Hampton just had the right mix. Hampton has three guardsbetween 511 and 61 that were really dominant during the tournament.
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