Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 13, 1992 TAG: 9203130041
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LOUISVILLE, KY. LENGTH: Medium
Clarence Weatherspoon, the only three-time player of the year in Metro Conference basketball history, is about to become a rich man. He may play Weatherspoon his last college game today for Southern Mississippi, but he will be among the top dozen picks in the NBA draft in June.
On the eve of the 17th Metro tournament, Weatherspoon walked off with one of the nicer pieces of Metro hardware for the fourth straight year. He was the league's top freshman in 1988-89, and he has been the Metro's best player since.
Yes, he has a big head, but we're only talking cap size. Weatherspoon is about as unassuming as someone 6 feet 5 3/4 and 245 pounds can be.
"I'd just as soon be wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and playing basketball," Weatherspoon said Thursday. "I'm not a flashy guy. When I was growing up, all me and my friends did was play basketball and baseball.
"We didn't hang around the streets. Shoot, there weren't that many streets to hang around."
That would be in Crawford, Miss., where, 'Spoon confirms, the recent construction of apartment buildings has boosted the population past 500. It's eight miles southeast of Starkville, and, as Virginia Commonwealth coach Sonny Smith, would say, "isn't the end of the world, but you can see it from there."
Smith recruited Weatherspoon when the well-traveled coach was at Auburn. Another Metro coach, Jeff Mullins of UNC Charlotte, got a visit from Weatherspoon, who also considered Tennessee and South Alabama.
"I went to Southern Miss because it had just won the [1987] NIT and they were losing four starters," Weatherspoon said. "I thought I could go in and earn a position and start. Other places, I might have sat on the bench for two years before getting a chance."
Weatherspoon knows about waiting in line. He's the youngest of 14 in his family. He lived in hand-me-downs until he burst their seams.
He played for the United States' teams in the Goodwill Games in 1990 and the Pan American Games in 1991. With that international experience, he would have had a great chance at playing in the Barcelona Olympics, until the NBA stars were called to clean up the gold-digging U.S. embarrassment.
"That's OK," Weatherspoon said. "We're sending our best players. I learned a lot getting that experience."
After two NCAA first-round disappointments, Weatherspoon's Southern Miss career is ending on a losing note. On a 12-15 team that isn't much more than 'Spoon-fed, he has faced just about every defensive ploy except the Patriot missile.
Still, he led the Metro in scoring with a 22.0-point average and was first in blocks (2.6 per game), second in rebounding (10.4) and field-goal percentage (.569), and he added range to his numbers, hitting an incredible 24 of 49 jumpers from 3-point land. He also will graduate in four years.
Because of his size, Weatherspoon has been compared to Charles Barkley, but there's little else about the quiet Mississippian that brings to mind the NBA star whose nickname might as well be "Surly Charles."
Last weekend, Weatherspoon became the first Southern Miss basketball player to have his uniform number (35) retired. The only other Golden Eagle to receive that honor was former All-Pro punter Ray Guy.
Wherever he goes in the NBA, Weatherspoon won't be the highest-paid pro in his hometown. The San Francisco 49ers' All-Pro receiver, Jerry Rice, hails from Crawford, too.
by CNB