JAMES JONES
THE SUN HERALD

Three years ago, Dave Whitney returned to the place where he became a coaching legend.

Under Whitney, Alcorn State became the first predominately black school to win games in the NCAA and NIT tournaments. The Braves made five NCAA tournament appearences under Whitney, winning first-round games in 1980, 83' and 84.

This season, Whitney added to his legendary status by reviving the same program that he built into a black college powerhouse.

Three seasons later, Whitney led the Braves back into the NCAA tournament. Alcorn (23-7) won the SWAC tournament title and lost to sixth-ranked Stanford 69-57 in the first round of the West Regional.

Whitney coached at Alcorn from 1970-89 before returning to the Lorman-based school in 1996. He has a overall coaching record of 496-302. Whitney spent 23 of those seasons at Alcorn, compiling a 442-239 record. Whitney spent five seasons at Texas Southern.

"I think the second tenure is more special to me than the first," Whitney said. "You've taken a situation where you haven't won for several seasons. This group has worked hard to overcome all of the negative things they've been through."

The 69-year-old Whitney has a few ideas for the NCAA tournament selection committee.

"For a black school to win an NCAA tournament game, we need to have a good seed," Whitney said. "We can't be seeded 16th and expect to beat a top seed. We need to be seeded either 14th or 15th to have a chance of winning a first-round game."

Whitney, though, didn't enjoy all good times at Alcorn. He was eventually fired in 1989 after posting three straight losing seasons. The Braves went 5-23 during Whitney's last two seasons.

Alcorn went a combined 57-135 under Lonnie Walker and Sam Weaver, the two coaches who replaced Whitney. The Braves were also placed on probation.

Whitney didn't hold a grudge when he was asked to restore Alcorn's winning tradition.

"I never held any animosity toward the university," Whitney said. "I had a lot of good friends here. I had a job to do. I knew I wanted to get it done. I had a lot to gain by coming back to Alcorn."

Whitney knew it wouldn't be easy to rebuild the Braves' basketball program.

"We had a great task in front of us, but it was not insurmontable," Whitney said. "When I came back, I thought we could get the program back to respectability in three seasons. I didn't promise any titles, but I felt we could back into contention. It took a lot of hard work and discipline to get the program back."

Whitney didn't plan on staying long at Alcorn. His goal was to get the basketball back on track before retiring for good.

Whitney is undecided about returning to Alcorn for a 25th season next year.

"It's over for me very soon," Whitney said. "My task was to rebuild the program and have someone replace me as quickly as possible. I haven't talked to the people that I need to talk to. But the program is all right now."

Reuben Stiff, Alcorn's All-SWAC point guard, said Whitney's discipline and intensity was crucial as the Braves won the league regular-season and tournament titles this season.

"We heard stories on how he was strict and always hard on the players," Stiff said. "Whitney was hard on us, but he did it in the right way."

That approach has secured Whitney a place in college basketball history.

James Jones can be reached at (228) 896-2320 or at jones@sunherald.infi.net