Archives For Jerome Kersey

Alumni Day This Saturday vs Radford

February 12, 2013 — 1 Comment

You know you’ve made it big when you’re enshrined as a bobblehead. Congrats Jerome!

Longwood will welcome in-state rival Radford Saturday for a 2PM tip in Willett Hall. The game will mark Longwood basketball’s annual Alumni Day where all Longwood alumni are invited back to partake in the day’s events.

Twenty or so former Lancers players will return to play in an alumni game at 11AM, including former NBA star Jerome Kersey. Last year Longwood gave away Elwood bobbleheads for Alumni Day but this year the giveaway will Jerome Kersey bobbleheads.

Beginning at 1PM the new Bedford atrium will be opened to all alumni for a pregame social. The social will include free appetizers and discounted drinks for all alumni and guests. Also, be sure to get your tickets for Saturday’s game early, the last two home games have had over 1,400 fans and Radford is sure to be a bigger draw.

You can buy your tickets in advance and learn more about Alumni Day HERE

Also learn more about the basketball reunion and schedule HERE

We look forward to seeing all the Lancers alumni in attendance Saturday afternoon!

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Should Antwan Carter’s Number be Retired?

February 22, 2012 — 2 Comments

We all know by now that the Lancers have a new all-time scoring leader in Antwan Carter. Carter also will leave Longwood with the second most rebounds in program history, behind Jerome Kersey, and with around forty double-doubles. So does Antwan’s number deserved to be retired? Currently the only numbers retired in Willett Hall are #52 (Kersey) and #54 (Colin Ducharme). Kersey’s resume included ten school records, leading the country in rebounding, was the Virginia Player of the Year, and he was also a two-time Division II All-American. Kersey was also the only Lancer to be drafted in the NBA when he was taken in the second round by the Portland Trailblazers in 1984. Ducharme was only at Longwood for a year but he lead the Lancers to a DII Final Four appearance, was a first-team All American, and was also the Division II National Player of the Year in 2001. Kevin Jefferson, LU’s previous scoring leader, does not have his jersey retired but is in the Athletics Hall of Fame at Longwood.

So given the bar set by Ducharme and Kersey, does Carter deserve to have his #4 up on the wall of Willett Hall? Personally, I struggle with this question.  Antwan has been a tremendous player in a tough situation, and I don’t want to penalize him for that situation and a lack of opportunities in the postseason. However, as tremendous as Carter’s accomplishments are he has played in an era with more games and has not received any national or state recognition beyond the Independent level. Kersey and Ducharme were dominate players on the Division II and All-Americans, Antwan is a very good player and would likely be a first or second teamer on the All-Big South team, but I feel as if that is not good enough to have your number immortalized in Longwood lore. Is AC a tremendous player? Yes. Should we be grateful for what he has done as a Lancer? Yes. Is he one of the greatest of all time for LU? Yes. Does he deserve to be in the LU Hall of Fame? Yes. Should his number hang in Willett? No.

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Longwood Legend Set to Return Saturday

February 8, 2012 — Leave a comment

Longwood’s most legendary athlete will be returning to Farmville this weekend for the Lancers matchup with the Red Hawks of Seattle. Former NBA champion Jerome Kersey will be in town for alumni day! Kersey won a title with the Spurs but is most famous for his eleven years in Portland where he was an iron man and was part of a legendary Blazers team with Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Cliff Robinson, and Danny Ainge.

Longwood’s all-timer scoring leader Kevin Jefferson will also be in town for the event. Both Jefferson and Kersey will likely be watching Antwan Carter who is likely to surpass both on the all-time scoring list. More recent Lancers from the Division I era who will be in attendance will be Dana Smith, Maurice Sumter, and Billy Robinson Jr.  There will be an alumni game at 11 AM open to the public.

No word yet on if any of these alumni can suit up for the shorthanded Lancers.

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Lancers By the Numbers: January Edition

January 31, 2012 — Leave a comment

It feels as if Longwood hasn’t played a basketball game in forever and I’m sure I speak with many fans when I say I can’t wait to get stank out of my mouth from the debacle at Florida Gulf Coast. I thought with it being the last day of January we’d take a look at some interesting numbers surrounding our Lancers with ten games left in the season.

RPI: 305

The Lancers RPI should get a tremendous boost in all sports next year once we join the Big South. Our strength of schedule takes a huge drop off every January once conference play gears up elsewhere and we basically have to find other teams with a schedule abnormality to play. Also losing at home to Navy and Canisius really has brought us down, those our two game that we should have won. Our RPI is actually better than  Liberty, William & Mary, Hampton, and Radford at this point. Our highest rated opponent left is Gonzaga, who is currently ranked 21st in the RPI.

Offense: 74 points per game (69th), 15 assists per game (47th)

Offense has certainly not been the problem for this edition of the Lancers. Mike Gillian’s crew ranks in the top quartile for both points per game and assists per game in the nation. Martiz Washington and Jeremiah Bowman have created quite the backcourt duo in Farmville.

Attendance: 6,730

Longwood is averaging just over 960 spectators for games in Willett Hall. Having three homes games while the students were gone didn’t help (VMI, Seton Hall, NJIT). The Lancers have five home games left and I think the goal should be to hit 15,000 for the year. That means just over 1,450 people at the rest of the games, that’s about 80% of Willet Hall. I think we can do it, especially with the Big South celebration and Elwood bobblehead day on tap. Lets make the last five games loud in Willett!

Antwan Carter: Records

Keep an eye on Antwan Carter the final ten games of the year at Longwood. The senior is going to go down as one of the all time greats at LU. He’s currently third on the all-time scoring list with 1,668 points in his career, only Jerome Kersey (1,756) and Kevin Jefferson (1,806) have more points than Carter and both are Longwood Hall of Famers. Carter needs to average 14.1 points per game to pass Jefferson. As a point of reference he is already averaging over 18 points per game this year for the Lancers and should have big days versus Southern Virginia, Washington Adventist, UVA-Wise, among others. Carter is still chasing Kersey for all-time rebounds also, he has 910 to Kersey’s 1,162. Carter would have to average 25 rebounds per game, so that milestone is likely out of reach.

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