Former ODU player leads Norway team to first place
Our series on local players in overseas pro basketball continues with a former Old Dominion player from Williamsburg.
Rookie pro Xavier Green has helped spark the BK Kongsberg Miners to first place in Norway’s BLNO (an acronym for Basketligaen Norge). They were on a five-game winning streak before an 81-65 loss Jan. 29 to Gimle BBK, though Green grabbed 11 rebounds and equaled his season high of 30 points in that game.
Green, 26, a Williamsburg Christian Academy graduate, was at ODU for five seasons. He redshirted in 2016-17, played as a reserve the next season and was a regular starter in his last three. He was the Conference USA Tournament MVP in 2019, when ODU took the championship.
He spent his final NCAA year last season for Maryland as mostly a reserve, but he’s leading the Miners with 21.6 points and nine rebounds per game. At 6-foot-6 and 205 pounds, he’s a tough matchup.
The Miners are 20-4 and atop an 11-team league. Green is averaging far more than the 7.4 points and 3.3 rebounds he produced in his five NCAA seasons.
Lacrosse comment: Given the seeming popularity of lacrosse in this area, it was disappointing to see the Professional Box Lacrosse Association suspend play early in its first season.
Its local entry, the Hampton Hammerheads, had started the season 2-1.
The recipe seemed to be good for action and high-quality play, and perhaps it can happen if the league restarts. On the league’s website, pbla.com, CEO Carmen Kesner made a vague statement: “Our vision is to implement a fast, physical, safe and exciting experience for our fans and players. We believe we have been able to create this experience, but we feel there are elements we need to improve upon. For that reason, we are halting the season to reorganize the league and team operations.”
Your guess is as good as ours. Desert discussions: The Tim Donnelly Show, on ESPN Radio 94.1FM, will originate from
Radio Row near the Super Bowl in Glendale, Arizona, at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday this week. Hopefully, that will make for interesting interviews.
Twitter find of the week:
When North Carolina played at Duke on Saturday night, it was the first men’s basketball game between those schools without Mike Krzyzewski or the late Dean Smith coaching since Feb. 25, 1961.
Writer/ broadcaster Lee Pace (@LeePaceTweet) unveiled the sports front page of the next day’s Durham Morning Herald, which carried the headline “Carolina Defeats Duke In Surprising Overtime, 69-66.” Grabbing a rebound on that front page was a Duke player named Carroll Youngkin. His son, Glenn, a Norfolk Academy graduate and former basketball reserve player for
Rice University, is now Virginia’s governor.
Question for readers: As we did regarding expanded playoffs, we want to hear from you on this question and will print some responses: What is your favorite spectator sport and why? Please email edearth@dailypress.com or tweet @sdearth with your thoughts.