The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

KADEEM Coleby finds himself in a very unique position.

The six-foot, 9-inch Bahamian centre is playing on the Wichita State Shockers, who are taking a perfect 34-0 record as the top ranked team in the 2014 NCAA Tournament March Madness.

While the tournament got started on Tuesday, Coleby and the Shockers won’t be in action until Friday when they face No.18 Cal Poly/Texas Southern in the Midwest Division in Indianapolis. If they are successful, the Shockers will be back in action on Sunday against the winner of the No.8 Kentucky and No.9 Kansas State.

“It’s a good position to be in,” said Coleby in an exclusive interview with The Tribune on Tuesday. “We haven’t played in about two weeks, but we had some good practices and a lot of days off to get our feet up and to rest our legs because a lot of us have been banged up all season. “So a few days off, like today, will only help us to recover and get ready for Friday’s game. We feel confident about the game.”

It’s one thing to go through the regular season undefeated, but in tournament play, it’s either win or go home and Coleby is hoping that Wichita State will be one of the teams to be around at least for the Final Four over the weekend of April 5-7 or even in the National Championship game on Monday, April 7.

“It’s not that we are scared or nervous or anything,” he said. “But they have placed us in the toughest bracket and so we just want to go out there and play basketball at the best level that we can and win as much games as we can and hopefully go as deep in the tournament as we can.”

Although he’s not a regular starter, Coleby has made his contribution by averaging 12.9 minutes per game, shooting 36-for-79 from the field for a .456 percentage and he was 17-for-30 for a .567 percentage from the free throw line as he ended up scoring a total of 89 points.

Coleby, who wears the No. 20 on his jersey, has also pulled down a total of 66 rebounds, an average of 2.9 prg, dished out six assists, made 21 turnovers, blocked 41 shots and had three steals.

“When I played at my other division one school before I transferred, I had a much bigger role to play,” said Coleby, who previously played for Louisiana-Lafayette during the 2011-2012 season as a junior.

“I was the scorer, rebounder, shot blocker and leader on the team. But when I came here, I had to choose a role I had to play because there were a couple of guys playing my position, so the role I chose to play was to be a defensive coordinator, block shots, get rebounds and orchestrate the defence. So I would say my contribution has been very significant in that we are one of the best defensive teams in our league and maybe one of the top ones in the country.”

Over the years, Coleby has had a considerable transformation that started as a prep senior at Christian Life Academy in Humble, Texas where he averaged 12.0 ppg, 10 rpg and 2.0 bpg. He also gained some international exposure as a member of the Bahamas junior and senior national teams.

From high school, Coleby went on to play for Odessa (Texas) College and Daytona (Florida) State College before he moved to Louisiana-Lafayette where he started 30 games, averaging 9.5 points and 4.9 rebounds.

Now Coleby is making the best of his senior year.

“It’s been smooth because I did the whole route. I did high school, the JUCO and D1 and I transferred,” Coleby said. “So I experienced basketball at the toughest level and then at the easiest level because when you come up here, it’s basically hard at the beginning with the offseason training and stuff. But once you get into it, it really lightens up.

“As for JUCO, you have to grind every day for the full time you are there. So I’ve been able to make the transition rather easily. I had one full year of D1 before I came here, so I was ready to go.”

As he prepares to bring his collegiate experience to a close, Coleby, who has already earned a bachelor’s degree in general studies-sociology and is now majoring in ethnic studies, said he would like nothing better to walk away as a national champion.

“That would be spectacular for anyone,” he said. “It’s fun to be able to go to Sweet 16, Elite Eight or Final Four because it could open a lot of doors for you to get a job to go on and play professionally because we will be on TV and will be getting a lot of exposure.

“We’re getting a lot of exposure now because of the undefeated season. But to go deep in the tournament would mean so much, but to win it all would mean the world.”

As a part of an unselfish group of players, coached by Gregg Marshall and led by point guard Fred Van Vleet, forward Cleananthony Early and shooting guard Ron Baker, Coleby said they have taken all of the attention in stride and have become a better team as a result of all the accolades that have been heaped upon them.

“The guys are really not cocky. They are on TV every night, they are spending millions of dollars on us and they are very humble,” he said. “They come in to work every day. No one complains and stuff like that. Everybody is keeping a level head.”

To the Bahamian public who will be glued to the tubes watching the Bahamians playing in the tournament as well as their favourite teams, Coleby said they will go out and play hard every night and not give up.

“All eyes are on and we know that,” he said. “So we’re not expecting anyone to just come down and lay down and play dead. Everyone’s going to put up their best and we intend to do the same. The bottom line is that we want to continue to win as many games as we can and see how long we can keep the winning streak alive.”

As for the possibility of coming back home to play for another team, Coleby said he will have to first see how they finish in the tournament and what is lined up for home once his college eligibility is done as he prepares for the professional ranks.

“I don’t know what kind of time I will have in the summer to play any national team events,” he said. “The national team can get you some exposure internationally some times, if you are doing well. But there’s a lot of things taking place this summer, so if I have some time, I wouldn’t mind playing again.”

In the meantime, Coleby said the focus for him and Wichita State is to avoid getting shocked in their first round match on Friday against No.18 Cal Poly/Texas Southern. The 24-year-old is the son of Dwight Coleby and Annabell Mass.