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Southern Picks Basketball Coach from Central State

By Nikki G. Bannister
Black College Wire

Coach Michael Grant

When Southern University�s Jaguars take to the floorboards next fall, a new coach who has pledged not only to win but to restore luster to the team�s glorious tradition will guide them.

By a vote of 11-4 on May 16, the Southern University System Board of Supervisors approved Michael Grant as the new men�s basketball coach, snagging him away from Central State University�s men�s team.

�. . . I am going to take a lot of pride in this; I am going to take a lot of pride in the university and we�re going to make sure that this basketball team plays hard,� said Grant after the vote. At Central State, Grant�s Marauders compiled a 126-94 record during his six-year tenure. The team finished last season with a 23-11 record and went to the second round of the 2000 NAIA Division I National Tournament.

�I am recommending Grant because I believe that he is the person that Southern needs right now,� said Southern University-Baton Rouge Chancellor Edward Jackson in a statement. �He has a commendable record. He is an excellent disciplinarian and has an excellent record as a coach.�

During former head coach Ben Jobe�s first stint on �The Bluff� in the late 1980s and early �90s, he had a 193-101 record and led the Jags to the NCAA tourney four times. He also took the team to one NIT tournament. But when Jobe returned to Southern after four years at Tuskegee, the team suffered two consecutive 20-game losing seasons and posted a disappointing 16-40 record.

In talking with Southern�s board about his plans, Grant stressed that he wanted to bring respectability back to the team. Southern�s rich basketball tradition produced such standouts as current player Avery Johnson, the late Charlotte Hornets guard Bobby Phils and former Chicago Bulls forward Bob �Butterbean� Love.

�I want to put this program back on the map . . . and the way that we are going to do this is by winning games,� said Grant.

Grant says he was not surprised that the board�s vote was not unanimous. �Well, that�s fine . . . that�s all a part of it. I think that any time you make a decision in picking a football or basketball coach, and the board has that approval, you�re going to have people who are not going to be in your corner the whole way. . . . I have to win those people over,� he said.

�Now that I am the basketball coach, I hope that the ones who didn�t vote for me surround me and give me all the support that I need.�

That Grant�s teams have a 90 percent graduation rate was not enough to win over Johnny Anderson, one of the four board members who opposed Grant�s selection. �I don�t think he is right for the university to get our program where it needs to be,� Anderson said.

Nonetheless, Grant plans to settle in Baton Rouge by July 1 and says he is bringing in a new staff.

Whoever plays for Southern will definitely be playing for a defense-oriented team. Grant stressed that he wants his team to make scoring difficult for all opponents. He also said that the current team members were excited to meet him and have expressed their support.

Grant knows that in succeeding Jobe, he will be filling big shoes, but he is not swayed. �Ben Jobe is a legend and he is a hall of famer,� Grant said. �But I feel that I can win, and winning cures a lot of things.�

Nikki G. Bannister, of Southern University, has been sports editor of The Southern Digest.

Posted May 23, 2003