Cleveland: Mississippi Produced Number of Colleg, Pro Basketball Stars

Monta Ellis Photo courtesy of bleacher report.com

Lancaster, Othella, Ronnie, Jesse, Hollywood, Mo…

Long-time Mississippi basketball fans already know where this is headed.

The former Chris Jackson, Literrial, Antonio…most recently, Devin…

The list goes on and on.

Mississippi has produced many basketball prodigies. Most we recognize by first name only. Most have left the state to play college ball.

And then there were those who skipped college ball altogether. Jonathan Bender signed with State, then chose NBA money instead. So did Monta Ellis. Big Al Jefferson, who averaged 43 points and 18 rebounds a game as a senior at Prentiss, signed with Arkansas before skipping college. Now in his 12^th NBA season — hard to believe, isn’t it? — he averaged 17 points and nine rebounds per game this season.

Now comes Malik, and if you don’t know Malik Newman by his first name only, you really don’t keep up.

His signing with Mississippi State last week ends a parade of exits by Mississippi’s most coveted basketball talents to out-of-state schools. And whether you pull for Ole Miss, State, USM or any of our basketball-playing schools, part of you should be happy to see the exodus end.

Finally, one of our best, has decided he can achieve what he wants to achieve at the college level in Mississippi. He could have gone to Kentucky, LSU or Kansas or anywhere else he wanted — including overseas to play as a pro. Significantly, Ole Miss was also among his finalists. He chose Mississippi State. He will play at least one season at in Starkville.

So it is that before he ever coaches a game at State, Ben Howland has won his first huge victory. Granted, State had the edge of Horatio Webster, Malik’s father who played for the Bulldogs. But, clearly, Newman wasn’t headed to State prior to the coaching change. Howland’s previous success at UCLA — and the fact he coached NBA All-Star and Newman idol Russell Westbrook there surely didn’t hurt.

Mississippi State basketball just got a lot more interesting. So did college basketball in Mississippi.

In recent recruiting seasons, Mississippi schools — primarily Ole Miss and State — have done a much better job of keeping the best Mississippi football players in Mississippi. The home-state recruiting success has been reflected on the scoreboard, especially last season when both were ranked among the top three in the nation for a pinch-yourself-on-the-arm couple of weeks.

No doubt that football success came in large part from the Mississippi schools’ ability to keep the top homegrown talent — traditionally some of the best in the country — at home.

We will see if Newman’s signing with State could be the start of something like that.

Remember, it doesn’t take nearly as many star-quality players to turn a basketball program around as it does in football. Before Newman, State already had added Velma Jackson star Quindarry Weatherspoon (no relation to USM great Clarence Weatherspoon, one of the great ones who stayed home) to its talent pool. Newman and Weatherspoon, who has sky-high potential, can make State better in a hurry. Howland knows he needs more talent — and depth — inside to get where he wants to be.

Key point: Newman is the kind of talent you can use to attract talent. He can do for the men’s program what Victoria Vivians has done for the State women.

Yes, Newman very well could be a one-and-done player, entering the NBA after one college season. He already has an NBA body. We will see. But even Russell Westbrook, who averaged 28 points a game for Oklahoma City this past season, played two seasons for Howland at UCLA.

And if Newman stays only one season, his signing nevertheless has ended a long trend. If you are a fan of basketball in the Magnolia State, that is a good thing.

Rick Cleveland (rcleveland@msfame.com) is executive director of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum.