- March 29th, 2006, 2:43 pm
#9613
Scarborough asked me to post on the site. Said you guys needed some additional perspective when discussing this subject. I'm a former LU guy. Went to school in Lynchburg from spring '88 through fall '89 (four semesters). Spent one year sitting out from transfer, dressed varsity one semester, then told Coach Meyer I was leaving prior to '89-'90 season. So in two years I was eligible to play for exactly one semester. Nevertheless I practiced with the team for two years. And every day for two years I had the privilege of guarding Bailey Alston.
I'll never forget my first practice at Liberty. Steve Farquhar asked me if I was a good defensive player. I answered in the affirmative. He said, "Good, you can guard Bailey. He's right there, number 10." I didn't think twice about it. I'd played a lot of ball all throughout the Midwest with a ton of really good players, many of who's names you'd recognize. Over the next two hours Bailey went over, around and through me, at will, and thoroughly embarrassed me. He asked me, during the course of practice, if I'd really intended on remaining at Liberty since I clearly couldn't hack it. This type of mistreatment of my game went on for the remainder of the season. Bailey wasn't the nicest of people, which is part, I think, of what made him so incredibly tough. He was the Alpha male on the court. And we all paled in comparison.
With the Spring semester spent in the weight room and nature finally working to my advantage over the summer (I grew and inch and gained 20 pounds) I thought I would be much more ready for BA (our nickname for Bailey) the following year. I felt quite confident about it actually. I shouldn't have. I was much better than the previous year, but at that time he was only playing with me. This time it was worse. At least for a while.
You might think that I'm just inept. Unathletic. That's not true. I can tell you that I was 6'3" and 200 pounds. A multisport athlete and could do a two handed 360. I was defensive player of the year for two years at my next school after I left Liberty. It wasn't that I was not up to the task. Bailey was just that much better. And it wasn't just me. He embarrassed everyone in practice. We used to run a wing close out drill. It was a 1 on 1 defensive drill. Bailey dunked on everyone. And what is sad is that we knew exactly what he was going to do. Fake left and go right, one dribble and try to hammer on us. People used to count numbers and jump positions in line so they wouldn't get matched up on him. Farquhar, Chaz Richardson and Harden were notorious for this. One time Scar cheated and fouled BA on his dunk attempt on this drill. BA got him the next time and let him know about it.
And it wasn't just our team that he did these type of things to. Bailey was probably the best player on the East Coast. He got 27 on Clemson the week after they pounded UNC by 20 at Chapel Hill. Clemson had Dale Davis and Elden Campbell. Two ALL Star NBA 7 footers. BA danced all around them. Cliff Ellis (Clemson coach) was quoted after the game saying that he'd love to have Bailey. All coaches felt that way.
Maybe I should tell you about his breeding. Do you know who his aunt is? Florence Griffith-Joyner. For you young cats you may know her as Flo-Jo. Women's 100M Olympic Gold Medalist and anchor to the 4X100 Gold Medal team. I think that she's passed now. Tragic heart attack. But she was a blood relative (I believe BA's mom was her sister). Bailey was fast. He routinely ran 100s under 11 seconds in conditioning. A good 10 yards ahead of the rest of us. He was quick. BA had a left to right studder crossover that was his ace in the hole move. When the shot clock ran down he took the ball at the top of key and drove. He used that move. In practice I'd seen it a hundred times, knew it was coming, cheated like crazy to stop it and rarely did so.
Bailey was strong. At 6'3" and 180 pounds he looked like a twig, but he could bench press 300 pounds. He had a vertical reach of nearly 9 feet. In short, he was a physical freak. The type of guy that would insure you had a bad game if you had to guard him.
In two years of playing against the guy I can only remember outplaying him in two or three practices. That's it. I was young and getting better every day, most of it because of him. After searching for his weeknesses for so long I was able to find a couple that I could occasionally use, but usually his speed made up for it. He was just that tough. I look back on it now and I have to laugh. Since BA I've been able to play against a lot of other really good players. My two years of chasing him around and dueling with him made it immensely easier. I think of some of the times when I made him angry. When I would try to play more physically, I outweighed him, or would stupidly talk smack in an attempt to get him riled and off his game. Those were the days when he made it impossible for me to dribble the ball more than once. If it bounced a second time he had it and left me in his wake, then would tell me how pitiful I was.
As nasty as BA was I have to give him some credit. When he finally realized that I wasn't going away, and how much I wanted to be a better player he started coaching me and even playing 1 on 1 with me after practices and at spring pick up games. He had special rules though. He couldn't shoot inside the lane. I never won. Though I wouldn't ever say we were friends we did finally manage to get along and I think he was well intentioned and certianly helpful. Whether or not he knows it, and I doubt he's even thought about it, the fact that he was so phenomenal made anyone around him, who played against him regularly, just that much better. He alone did miracles for me. It's too bad he played at LU at the dawn of it's D1 era. He was the whole show back then. Well, Scar would chip in 3 or 4 here and there. When Tim no longer had to guard BA he came out of his shell. At any rate as good as Hildebrand was, and I saw him play a couple of times, he could do nothing with BA if he had to play him. Trust me on this. The man was unstoppable. But that's no insult. No one could deal with him. I could go on for along time about Bailey. Describe how he played, which was really remarkable, or relive some of the things he did. But I'll stop here.
Now I will check and see if any of decide to stomp on my comments.
I'll never forget my first practice at Liberty. Steve Farquhar asked me if I was a good defensive player. I answered in the affirmative. He said, "Good, you can guard Bailey. He's right there, number 10." I didn't think twice about it. I'd played a lot of ball all throughout the Midwest with a ton of really good players, many of who's names you'd recognize. Over the next two hours Bailey went over, around and through me, at will, and thoroughly embarrassed me. He asked me, during the course of practice, if I'd really intended on remaining at Liberty since I clearly couldn't hack it. This type of mistreatment of my game went on for the remainder of the season. Bailey wasn't the nicest of people, which is part, I think, of what made him so incredibly tough. He was the Alpha male on the court. And we all paled in comparison.
With the Spring semester spent in the weight room and nature finally working to my advantage over the summer (I grew and inch and gained 20 pounds) I thought I would be much more ready for BA (our nickname for Bailey) the following year. I felt quite confident about it actually. I shouldn't have. I was much better than the previous year, but at that time he was only playing with me. This time it was worse. At least for a while.
You might think that I'm just inept. Unathletic. That's not true. I can tell you that I was 6'3" and 200 pounds. A multisport athlete and could do a two handed 360. I was defensive player of the year for two years at my next school after I left Liberty. It wasn't that I was not up to the task. Bailey was just that much better. And it wasn't just me. He embarrassed everyone in practice. We used to run a wing close out drill. It was a 1 on 1 defensive drill. Bailey dunked on everyone. And what is sad is that we knew exactly what he was going to do. Fake left and go right, one dribble and try to hammer on us. People used to count numbers and jump positions in line so they wouldn't get matched up on him. Farquhar, Chaz Richardson and Harden were notorious for this. One time Scar cheated and fouled BA on his dunk attempt on this drill. BA got him the next time and let him know about it.
And it wasn't just our team that he did these type of things to. Bailey was probably the best player on the East Coast. He got 27 on Clemson the week after they pounded UNC by 20 at Chapel Hill. Clemson had Dale Davis and Elden Campbell. Two ALL Star NBA 7 footers. BA danced all around them. Cliff Ellis (Clemson coach) was quoted after the game saying that he'd love to have Bailey. All coaches felt that way.
Maybe I should tell you about his breeding. Do you know who his aunt is? Florence Griffith-Joyner. For you young cats you may know her as Flo-Jo. Women's 100M Olympic Gold Medalist and anchor to the 4X100 Gold Medal team. I think that she's passed now. Tragic heart attack. But she was a blood relative (I believe BA's mom was her sister). Bailey was fast. He routinely ran 100s under 11 seconds in conditioning. A good 10 yards ahead of the rest of us. He was quick. BA had a left to right studder crossover that was his ace in the hole move. When the shot clock ran down he took the ball at the top of key and drove. He used that move. In practice I'd seen it a hundred times, knew it was coming, cheated like crazy to stop it and rarely did so.
Bailey was strong. At 6'3" and 180 pounds he looked like a twig, but he could bench press 300 pounds. He had a vertical reach of nearly 9 feet. In short, he was a physical freak. The type of guy that would insure you had a bad game if you had to guard him.
In two years of playing against the guy I can only remember outplaying him in two or three practices. That's it. I was young and getting better every day, most of it because of him. After searching for his weeknesses for so long I was able to find a couple that I could occasionally use, but usually his speed made up for it. He was just that tough. I look back on it now and I have to laugh. Since BA I've been able to play against a lot of other really good players. My two years of chasing him around and dueling with him made it immensely easier. I think of some of the times when I made him angry. When I would try to play more physically, I outweighed him, or would stupidly talk smack in an attempt to get him riled and off his game. Those were the days when he made it impossible for me to dribble the ball more than once. If it bounced a second time he had it and left me in his wake, then would tell me how pitiful I was.
As nasty as BA was I have to give him some credit. When he finally realized that I wasn't going away, and how much I wanted to be a better player he started coaching me and even playing 1 on 1 with me after practices and at spring pick up games. He had special rules though. He couldn't shoot inside the lane. I never won. Though I wouldn't ever say we were friends we did finally manage to get along and I think he was well intentioned and certianly helpful. Whether or not he knows it, and I doubt he's even thought about it, the fact that he was so phenomenal made anyone around him, who played against him regularly, just that much better. He alone did miracles for me. It's too bad he played at LU at the dawn of it's D1 era. He was the whole show back then. Well, Scar would chip in 3 or 4 here and there. When Tim no longer had to guard BA he came out of his shell. At any rate as good as Hildebrand was, and I saw him play a couple of times, he could do nothing with BA if he had to play him. Trust me on this. The man was unstoppable. But that's no insult. No one could deal with him. I could go on for along time about Bailey. Describe how he played, which was really remarkable, or relive some of the things he did. But I'll stop here.
Now I will check and see if any of decide to stomp on my comments.
. You are right about his jumper being a big broken but he didn't need it. He was probably our 5th or 6th best shooter on any of the 3 teams he played on here but he could hit a big shot. If we would have had a big man, we would have won a ton of games. My soph and half my Jr year, no one even tried to guard me when I was in the game and I had my way on offense. When we were seniors I was the point and he was the 2 and we saw more triangle and 2's than a 10th grade geometry student. I had to work 10 times harder to even get the ball and to get a shot. That is what makes Larry Blair great in my opinion. Having played with a defense geared to stop me I know how hard it is. He makes it look easy at times. I am no where near the player Blair is but I gotta believe I can relate a little to a defense geared to stop you and how tough it is.
- By ATrain