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The Court Report: An Analysis By Rob Daniels

GREENSBORO -- If it had been anybody else on the other end of the line, Jerry Eaves might have doubted the veracity of the story: a 6-foot-9, shot-blocking presence who had a sniff from Marshall and nothing else in December of his senior season.

But this was Donnie Salyer, Eaves' high school coach from Louisville, Ky., calling. So the N.C. A&T coach listened, and thus began a story that might have just started a nice, long run.

Thomas Coleman swatted a school-record nine shots -- eight of them after A&T had fallen behind Coppin State by a dozen points in the second half Monday night-- and the Aggies earned a 59-56 victory.

Eaves was reluctant to credit the result disproportionately to the freshman, but Coleman was hard to ignore.

For the rest of the MEAC, a scar was born.

Salyer "told me, 'You might have a steal here,' " Eaves recalled.

That was in December 2006. Eaves was curious enough to dispatch assistant Alphonza Kee to Kentucky, and Kee's word was encouraging. Eaves signed the kid without seeing him, having gotten the recommendation of Salyer, who informally scouts the Bluegrass State for his former point guard.

Just for good measure, Coleman got an additional OK from the Rev. Kevin Cosby, pastor to the Colemans and the Eaves family. It didn't hurt that Cosby played with Jerry Eaves at the University of Louisville.

Coleman played a bit in Monday's first half and entered with his team down double digits to the Eagles, thanks to a stretch of wretched basketball in which the Aggies turned the ball over seven times in nine possessions.

Steamed didn't sufficiently describe the opinion of the coaching staff. A&T had won exactly one game against Division I competition before Monday -- at DePaul of the Big East. The Aggies had lost five straight.

"I believe the DePaul game derailed us," Eaves said. "We thought we were better than we really were, and we stopped working. We had beaten Division III teams, but we hadn't played hard enough to give the fans something to cheer about."

With his team down 48-36 with 10:57 left, Coleman stepped into the void of energy and intelligently rejected everything in sight. His blocks were not rabid swats; they were well-timed, planned suffocation of the Eagles' inside game. In addition to his blocks, he collected 11 rebounds and induced at least three Coppin turnovers while A&T initiated a 17-4 run that changed the game.

"I guess it followed me from high school," Coleman said of his tendency to get in the way. "I had a lot of blocks in high school, and then I came to A&T."

Steven Rush was the chief beneficiary. He didn't make everything Monday, but his timing was superb. His three 3-pointers came in a span of five possessions and put his team up 53-51 with 5:01 to go.

"We had given the effort," Rush said. "By then, it was game-winning time."

Coleman had blocked 22 shots in 14 games before Monday. His next-to-last block against Coppin came with the Aggies down one, and it started a fast break that Angelo Hernandez finished with a layup with 2:04 to go.

The final swat was, officially, inconsequential. It came on a desperate follow attempt with three seconds left and Coppin State down by three. But there really couldn't have been a more fitting conclusion.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@news-record.com