Jackson Free Press

An unrelenting rain beat down on the city of Vicksburg on Friday night, July 22. That rain didn’t seem to keep anyone away from the action at the River City Summer Basketball League, or River City League for short.

The stands were mostly filled with friends, family and people from the neighborhood at the Jackson Street Community Center (923 Walnut St., Vicksburg). Local strength and conditioning coach Ehaab Bayoumi worked the players through stretches and how to workout lingering injuries before they start play for the night.

Bayoumi worked for Jackson State University for a short time but is now the strength and conditioning coach for some of the best high-school and college kids in the state. He was quick to run down the list of players he has helped if it looked like a player wasn’t paying total attention to his words.

Several players on the floor are using the River City League to stay or get into shape before the next basketball season starts, including Chris Hyche.

Hyche is a former Provine High School and JSU star and is getting ready to resign with the World All-Stars, the team that now travels the world to get beaten by the Harlem Globetrotters. He hopes to be able to work his way onto the Globetrotters’ roster.

Jackson Showboats guard and ABA All-Star Will Werner is also using the league to get ready for the upcoming season. Werner burst on the scene at last year’s River City League to earn a spot on the Showboats roster.

Former Wingfield and Belhaven star Krayleon Winston has been a long time Showboat. But he has flirtations from the D-League and a contract offer from the Jacksonville Giants, a more established ABA team.

For some players, such as former Mississippi Valley State University star Jurmelle Hall, the RCL is a chance to get noticed again. Hall is working to get his basketball career going but had a rough night, as a lingering injury kept him off the court.

But for others, the RCL might be their only chance to continue their basketball career. Darrie Ollie spent some time at East Mississippi Community College and had a tryout at Coahoma Community College, but his grades have kept him off the court in college. He was highly coveted by MSVU until his grades derailed his chances of going.

Ollie was one of stars of the night, with a dunk that shook the rim and brought everyone in the house to their feet. He had other rim-rattling dunks and shots that were highlight worthy.

Hyche stole the night with his play. He grabbed alley-oop after alley-oop and slammed it down on just about any defender who tried to hold him. If he wasn’t catching alley-oops, he was throwing them to teammates.

The former Provine star knew he could take over the game at anytime and did when it suited him. He went on a highlight barrage in the …

Media that covers Conference USA has made their preseason football predictions for order of finish in both the East Division and West Division. The predictions will keep expectations high on new University of Southern Mississippi coach Jay Hopson.

The Golden Eagles made one of the best turnarounds in college football, winning the West Division and earning their third appearance in the conference championship game last season. USM finished 9-5 before losing then head coach Todd Monken to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Monken will be offensive coordinator for the Buccaneers this season.

Hopson takes over after a highly successful tenure as head coach at Alcorn State University. He led the Braves to back-to-back SWAC Championships in his last two seasons in Lorman.

The media picked Southern Miss to top the West division for a second straight year, with Louisiana Tech University picked to finish second. Rice University was picked third, followed by the University of Texas at El Paso for fourth. The University of Texas at San Antonio was picked fifth and the University of North Texas was picked to finish last.

In the East Division, the media selected Middle Tennessee State University as the team to beat. Western Kentucky University, last year’s East winner, was picked to finish second, and Marshall University was picked third. Rounding out the rest of the East is Florida Atlantic University at No. 4, Florida International University at No. 5 and University of North Carolina at Charlotte was picked last.

The league coaches selected preseason awards and preseason All-USA team.

Southern Miss quarterback Nick Mullens was named preseason Offensive Player of the Year. Mullens returns for his senior season and will try to improve on last season when he threw for 300 or more yards in 10 games.

The coaches named Mullens to the preseason All-C-USA offense. Joining him is Southern Miss running back Ito Smith. The junior running back led the Golden Eagles in rushing last season and was a big play threat.

Senior center Cameron Tom was also named to the preseason All-C-USA team. He leads an offensive line that improved greatly over the last two seasons.

On defense, the Golden Eagles placed three players on the preseason All-C-USA defensive team. USM had a player named on each level of defense from the line to the secondary.

Those players named to the defensive team were senior defensive Dylan Bradley, senior linebacker D’Nerius Antoine and junior defensive back Picasso Nelson Jr.

C-USA media days are on Monday, July 24, and Tuesday, July 25, in Dallas. USM head coach Hopson will be on hand, along with Mullens and senior linebacker C.J. Perry.