Several NBA scouts ventured into unfamiliar territory Thursday night. They were in the Chicago State University gym to see Eastern Illinois` 7-foot, 280-pound center, Kevin Duckworth.
But a much smaller player, a point guard from Chicago State, gave the scouts an eyeful of blocks, points and steals.
”Some people came up to me before the game and said such and such are here,” said Chicago State`s 5-10, 170-pound guard, Darron Brittman. ”I just tried to stay calm and not do anything any different than I always do.”
Business as usual for Brittman meant 22 points, 3 blocked shots, 8 steals and 5 rebounds to lead the Cougars to a 92-76 victory.
”Knowing they were here helped me,” added Brittman, who leads the nation in steals with 4.7 a game and had never, as far as he knows, had a scout come to see him at CSU. Bulls` vice president Jerry Krause and one of his scouts were among those in the crowd of 2,200. ”Opportunity doesn`t come here very often,” said Brittman, ”so when you see it, you have to be good.” Chicago State coach Bob Hallberg has been trying to convince people for the last month that Brittman is good enough to play pro ball and that his Cougars are good enough to be invited to a postseason tournament.
To accomplish the latter, the Cougars wanted to do more than win Thursday. They wanted to win big.
”We have to blow people out to get people to take a good look at us,”
said guard Paul Beene, who had 20 points.
This wasn`t exactly a blowout, but it was never in doubt either. With Brittman and Beene hitting shots from 20 and 25 feet out, CSU led 42-25 at halftime. And though the Panthers were able to close to 76-68 with 3 minutes 16 seconds left, the Cougars came back with six straight points to sail to their 72d consecutive home victory and a 21-6 record. Eastern fell to 16-10.
Sophomore Stanley Jones, a 6-7 forward, scored the first of those six points on an offensive rebound for what Hallberg called ”the key basket in the game. They`d closed to eight points and we really needed that one. We missed the shot but he got that big rebound.”
It also was Jones who had to guard Duckworth, who`s averaging 18.5 points a game. Duckworth had 8 points in the first half, when the Panthers hit only 8 of 23 field goals (35 percent), and finished with 21 points and 8 rebounds. Jon Collins led Eastern with 23 points.
Sophomore forward Shawn Bell led CSU with 26 points and 6 rebounds, going 11-for-16 from the floor.
Eastern had also played Wednesday night at Wisconsin-Green Bay, winning a make-up game 59-58.
”We needed to play with more intensity. We looked tired, not so much physically as mentally,” said Eastern coach Rick Samuels. ”We`ve played some, but not a lot of teams as quick as they were. But I don`t know if we`ve played a team with the shooting range they have.”
Brittman played with his right hand bandaged. He jammed his thumb about a month ago and hasn`t been able to give it time to heal. It hurts and throbs during games, he said, but not enough to stop him from shooting and hitting.
”I think Brittman`s eyes lit up a little when he heard about the scouts,” said Hallberg, whose team yelled ”22! 22! 22!” (Brittman`s number) after the game.
Hallberg added he didn`t anticipate his team would win as easily as it did. The Cougars have trouble getting quality competition to play them in their tiny gym. Eastern was supposed to be the team that had a good chance of breaking the homecourt winning streak. Hallberg had never beaten Eastern before, losing to EIU three times–including last season`s finale 81-77 in Charleston.
”We came out very motivated to play,” said Hallberg. ”I think we`re really starting to smell the roses, and thinking about the possibility of a tournament is a great motivator.”
