Men's Basketball | 11/20/2014 1:35:00 AM
ABILENE – The ACU Wildcats return to action Saturday when they host the highest-profile opponent to ever play a game at Moody Coliseum when the Duquesne Dukes arrive on a day when ACU will honor one of its greatest players and coaches during a halftime ceremony.
Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. at Moody Coliseum and the game can be heard on 98.1 FM The Ticket and can also be watched on www.acusports.com. All students and faculty and staff at schools in Abilene, Wylie and the Big Country will be admitted free to the game with ACU hoping to put a big crowd into the coliseum.
The Wildcats are 1-1 overall after a season-opening win over Hillsdale Free Will Baptist and a loss Wednesday night at Tulsa. The Dukes, meanwhile, are 1-0 after opening their season last Saturday with a win over Bluefield State.
Saturday's game marks the second meeting between the two teams and will see ACU trying to even the series at one win apiece. Duquesne beat ACU last year, 94-75, in the season-opener for both teams in Pittsburgh, Pa. A special halftime ceremony is set to honor former ACU player and head coach Dee Nutt, for whom the court at Moody Coliseum is being named.
Duquesne will be the most accomplished NCAA Division I program to ever visit Moody Coliseum. The Dukes began play in 1914 and have only ever played at the NCAA Division I level. The program has made five appearances in the NCAA Tournament and has been a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference since 1976 (minus the 1992-93 season the Dukes were members of the Midwestern Collegiate Conference.
The Dukes have also made 17 appearances in the NIT – the latest in 2009 – and two appearances in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI), the latest coming in 2011. The Dukes won the NIT in 1955 (beating Dayton, 70-58) when that tournament was the equal of the NCAA Tournament.
Former Duquesne star Chuck Cooper was the first African American to be drafted by an NBA team as he was drafted by Boston with the first pick of the second round of the 1950 NBA Draft. He played four seasons with the Celtics, then was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks before ending his carer with the Ft. Wayne Pistons.
Duquesne's other most famous former player is Norm Nixon, who was the 22nd overall pick in the 1977 NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers. Nixon played for the Lakers for six seasons and helped the "Showtime" Lakers win NBA championships in 1980 and 1982, both over Philadelphia.
Duquesne will enter Moody Coliseum for Saturday's game at 1-0 after a 91-51 win over Bluefield State (NCAA Division II). Derrick Colter poured in a game-high 26 points in Monday's win to lead the Dukes. The 5-11 junior went 8 of 9 from the field, including 7 of 8 from 3-point range in 23 minutes of action. Colter's career-best seven 3-pointers were one shy of the program's single-game record.
Duquesne is in its third season under head coach Jim Ferry, who joined the Dukes after leading LIU Brooklyn to back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in 2011 and 2012. The Dukes return four starters – Colter (9.1 ppt and 2.5 rpg), Micah Mason (10.6 and 2.8), junior forward Jeremiah Jones (6.3 and 3.4) and senior forward Dominique McKoy (9.7 and 7.2) from last year's team, which finished 13-17 overall and 5-11 (tied for 10th) in the Atlantic 10 Conference.
The Wildcats enter today's game coming off Wednesday night's 65-39 loss at Tulsa. ACU hit just 15 of 55 shots from the field (27.3) on a tough shooting night.
Leading scorer
Parker Wentz (15.0 points per game) scored just seven points against the Golden Hurricane to snap his streak of double-digit games at 16 going back to last season. Junior forward
Austin Cooke led the Wildcats with 12 points and is averaging 6.0 points and 7.5 rebounds per game for ACU. Senior guard
Harrison Hawkins is averaging 13.0 ppg, while
LaDarrien Williams is averaging 9.0 ppg.
Nutt is one of the most influential figures in the history of ACU men's basketball.
Nutt – who passed away in April 2012 at age 84 – is being honored today at ACU with the dedication of the playing floor at Moody Coliseum in his honor. Nutt was inducted into the ACU Sports Hall of Fame as part of the 1987-88 class, the second class in the hall's history.
An all-state high school player in Clifton, Ariz., he was an all-conference guard for the Wildcats during his playing career, which spanned 1946-50.
Nutt, a 1950 graduate of Abilene Christian, was one of the school's all-time great men's basketball players. He was a three-time
all-Texas Conference first team selection (1947-48, 1948-49 and 1949-50), and finished his career as the school's all-time leading scorer with 1,143 points in 89 games.
Nutt was the Texas Conference MVP in 1947-48 after leading the Wildcats to a 17-7 record and the conference title as a sophomore. Nutt was named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Basketball all-America first team in 1950 after leading ACU to a 13-10 record and the third of what would eventually be four straight Texas Conference titles. The Wildcats were a combined 58-32 in Nutt's four seasons as a player.
In 1955 he replaced legendary A.B. Morris as the Wildcats' head basketball coach.During his first 14 seasons as the Wildcats' coach (1955-69), they were 199-156 and won seven conference championships: four in the Texas Conference and three in the Southland Conference. Nutt directed the Wildcats to seven NCAA regional tournament appearances, including in 1965-66 when they won the regional title and reached the national quarterfinals.
The Wildcats won Texas Conference titles in 1956-57, 1958-59, 1959-60 and 1961-62, and claimed Southland Conference titles in 1964-65, 1965-66 and 1967-68. The three ACU teams from 1963-66 are three of the best in Wildcat men's basketball history, compiling a combined record of 56-25 and three straight appearances in the regional tournament.
Nutt resigned in 1969 to become coach of the national team of Mexico for the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia, and 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, West Germany. Before returning for another two-year stint as the ACU men's coach in the late 1980s, Nutt served as superintendent and head basketball coach at Abilene Christian High School.
