WSSU basketball coach Cleo Hill Jr. has been round basketball royalty all his life — however even he needed to admit that his program’s current recreation at NBA All Star Weekend was wonderful.
The crew obtained the prospect to play within the third-annual NBA HBCU Traditional towards CIAA rival Virginia Union on Saturday on the 2023 All Star Weekend.
“I believed it was undoubtedly a long-lasting reminiscence,” Hill stated again in his workplace on Tuesday. “And it’s nice that not solely the convention can have this type of expertise; the college — each universities — Winston-Salem State and Virginia Union, and the coaches however extra importantly for me the managers and the student-athletes, it’s one thing that they are going to always remember.”
The boys’s basketball crew, cheerleaders, and Purple Sea of Sound Marching Band have been flown out to Indianapolis. The crew took half in photoshoots and neighborhood service within the days earlier than the sport. The vacationers additionally obtained to see — and meet — a few of the high gamers within the recreation.
“Simply being that there’s so many various entities of the picture shoot and three level contest, that dunk contest, the precise All-Star Recreation, the precise recreation that we performed, assembly sure gamers, assembly Kevin Durant, Luka Doncic, my man Ant Man, after which Steph Curry,” Hill continued. “It was simply it was simply good to fulfill and even see all these gamers obtained an opportunity to see LeBron and Giannis, so it was undoubtedly an amazing expertise. “
Whereas Hill says it was nice, he admitted retaining focus was a priority.
“There have been movie classes, there have been scouting reviews, there have been walkthroughs, there was shootaround — it was follow,” Hill stated. “And we wished to make the primary factor, the primary factor at the moment when it was movie session, not eager about LeBron or Giannis or anyone. And the identical factor with scouting reviews, identical factor with follow shootaround. However when these occasions have been performed — the enterprise was performed. We had a blast. It was good. It was rather a lot alumni there as effectively. So it was nice.”
Apparently Hill and his assistants — Ricky Wilson and Lance Beckwith — did a stable job of focusing the squad. WSSU led for higher than 35 minutes and got here away with a 64-47 win over Virginia Union.
Hill stated the sport had a “CIAA Championship-level really feel” to it.
“I believed it was a really good crowd after we got here out. However once I left with like 8 minutes to go, it appeared prefer it was jam packed and also you noticed all people there. You noticed all of the folks from ESPN, all of the folks from TNT, those that do the interviews with the NBA gamers. Everyone was sitting courtside, cameras in every single place. And I believed my guys simply did an amazing job in specializing in the duty at hand throughout timeouts. You didn’t see them wanting on the actors, though there have been stars sitting proper subsequent to me and I didn’t know all of them. The younger woman from Energy (Guide II: Ghost) was sitting there and proper subsequent to Stephen A. Smith and his bodyguards. And, you realize, I noticed afterwards that there have been a few extra stars on that very same aspect of the bench. So I believed they did job and simply specializing in the duty.”
Now Hill’s problem is to get his crew again to the enterprise of profitable on the highway. WSSU at the moment holds the very best general file within the CIAA at 17-8, however have misplaced all 4 of its CIAA Southern Division highway video games to date. This week it is going to journey to 2 traditionally powerful gyms to play at in C.C. Spaulding towards Shaw College and C.E. Trent at Livingstone. Then will probably be again as much as Baltimore to defend the CIAA title.
Hill could be very aware of Shaw, having coached on the Raleigh-based faculty from 2008 by 2015. WSSU got here away with a tricky 72-70 win at residence earlier this month.
“I’m certain they most likely suppose they’re totally different now. We expect we’re totally different now,” Hill stated of Shaw. “I believe for us it’s going to be on the defensive finish. Protection and tempo — how we deal with the storm on a senior day. Generally we all know we may go both manner, however it needs to be good. It needs to be enjoyable.”
