Snow Coach Covets Nic Job
They met at midcourt and exchanged handshakes.
Snow coach Jon Judkins, after his club thrashed North Idaho College 108-85 on Wednesday at the Region 18 men’s basketball tournament, told retiring NIC coach Rolly Williams: “We’re going to miss you. You’ve done a great job.”
Williams nodded, congratulated Judkins and walked into retirement.
Later, Judkins acknowledged interest in replacing Williams at NIC.
“Very much so,” said Judkins, who has a 56-36 record in 2-1/2 seasons at Snow. He replaced Elliott Anderson midway through the 1993-94 season, when Anderson had health problems.
“Rolly’s a great guy. He’s helped our league more than anything else with what he’s done and accomplished. It’s going to be sad not seeing him around,” Judkins said.
“I kind of hated that we did that to Rolly,” added Judkins, alluding to his team’s blistering shooting and easy win.
Williams, Thompson honored
The day wasn’t a total loss for Williams and NIC.
Williams was voted Scenic West Athletic Conference coach of the year. Troy Thompson was selected to the first team and Eric Sanchez made second team. Both are sophomore forwards.
Other first-teamers were league most valuable player Kevin Simpson of Dixie, Eastern Utah’s Versile Shaw, Utah Valley’s Scott Benson and Southern Idaho’s Marcus Wallace and Rusty Yoder. Simpson, Shaw and Benson will be nominated for All-America honors.
Second-team members were: Ricks’ David Isaacson, Dixie’s Keon Clark, Snow’s Andrew Mavis, Salt Lake’s Matt Pinkney and Utah Valley’s Derrick Elliott, a former NIC player.
Honorable mention selections were: Utah Valley’s Brad Willden, CSI’s George Brown, Ricks’ Kris Cox, Snow’s Kevin Carlston, Dixie’s Kawika Akina, Eastern Utah’s Noel Jackson and Ime Udoka, Salt Lake’s Johnny Robison and Greg Blake, Treasure Valley’s Sidikie Kamara and Colorado Northwestern’s James Barnett and Heath Jolley.
Topsy-turvy tourney
Per usual, the regular season basically accounted for zip at the Region 18 Tournament.
The first two games resulted in upsets - No. 3-seeded NIC lost to No. 6 Snow and No. 5 Southern Idaho tripped No. 4 Eastern Utah 63-58. No. 2 Dixie put an end to the underdogs’ run by bombing No. 7 Ricks 92-67.
Last year, seventh-seeded NIC pulled off two upsets before losing in the title game. Two years ago, Salt Lake was seeded sixth, won the regional and went on to place fifth at nationals. Also that year, No. 8 Eastern Utah shocked No. 1 Dixie on Dixie’s home floor in the first round. “It’s unbelievably competitive,” Snow’s Judkins said.
All-universe, day one
Dixie’s Clark, who has signed with UNLV, had 21 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocked shots in the rout of Ricks. He only played 26 minutes.
Several of his field goals were rimcollapsing dunks, and he often shot DOWN at the bucket.
The wiry, 6-foot-11 Clark missed the first part of this season with academic trouble. When Clark became eligible, he was a virtual non-factor. No more.
“We took it right at him in our first game, took him right out of the game,” Salt Lake coach Norm Parrish said. “The second game, our kids were scared of him.”
, DataTimes