February 6, 200521 yr Prep basketball: Minnesotan scores 90 Roman Augustoviz, Star Tribune February 3, 2005 CASH0203 On a night he wasn't sure he wanted to play, Cash Eggleston ended up making state basketball history by shattering a 47-year-old record. The 5-foot-9-1/2 senior guard scored 90 points Wednesday night as Minnesota Transitions, a south Minneapolis charter school, routed visiting Community of Peace Academy 153-69 in a Metro Lakes Conference boys' high school basketball game. Eggleston also broke the state record for most three-points shots made in a game. His team, a third-year-program with a first-year coach, set the record for most points scored in a game. Eggleston was bothered by a sore left shoulder from an injury suffered the night before in an 80-76 loss to Minneapolis Roosevelt in which he had 19 points. "I really didn't feel like playing," he said. "But I was hitting 90 percent of my three-pointers in warmups so I knew I would have a good game." He broke a record set on Jan. 28, 1958, by Norm Grow, a 6-4 forward for Foley, who scored 70 points -- long before there were any three-point shots. Eggleston shattered that mark in the third quarter, which he finished with 82 points. "Basically my coach [John Sherman] said if I was on fire at the beginning of the first half, we would shoot for the record, Eggleston said. "I had 39 points in the first quarter. I was really hot." As a 10-year-old, when he was already 5-9, Eggleston was considered to be a basketball phenom. But he didn't grow any taller after that, and has mostly been out of the limelight since. The Wolves, 18-3, had scored 100 points eight other times this season. Community of Peace, a St. Paul charter school, is now 2-9. "No. 10 [Eggleston] shot the lights out," said Community of Peace coach Dan Kuss. "We did everything we could to stop him. We went to a box-and-one [defense]. It got to the point that we just tried to get somebody in front of him to cover his eyes, and he still hit [his shots]." The 153 points by Minnesota Transitions was another state record. The old mark was 146 points set by Atwater in 1958. Eggleston made 20 of 25 three-point shots in the game at the King of Grace Church gym in Golden Valley. The 20 three-pointers obliterated a third state record by nine. Eggleston, who transferred from Edina at the start of this school year, went into the game averaging 23.6 points and had made 54 thee-pointers. Kuss said he could tell what Sherman and his Wolves were trying to do and could somewhat relate. "I had the school record of 40 at my high school, so I know what that's like," Kuss said. "I was on fire, too. That was for Fairfax in 1974. "We shook hands and kind of smiled at each other. [sherman] said thanks for being a good sport," Kuss said. "Everybody in the whole place was pretty excited."
February 6, 200521 yr Author A whole different look on the situation Scoring 90 has hidden costs John Millea February 6, 2005 PCOL0206 If anyone in Hollywood wants to make a wacky movie about high school basketball, the script could include: ? A hard-luck visiting team consisting of mostly inexperienced Hmong players. Among the reserves is a kid with one arm. "They're not really used to playing organized ball," said their coach. ? A talented home team, which has routinely scored more than 100 points, deciding this opponent is the perfect foil for an attempt at breaking several state scoring records. The home team's hot shooter, a kid named Cash, gets 39 points in the first quarter, has 62 at halftime and breaks the record of 70 during the third quarter. He finally leaves the game with less than five minutes to play and 90 points to his name. His team escapes with a nailbiting 153-69 victory. ? A winning coach who also works as a sports reporter for a chain of suburban newspapers and who has written extensively about fair play and sportsmanship (note: he's in favor of them). ? A losing coach who tries to be gracious in defeat but says two days later, "Going after the record is one thing ... but if you're going to break the record, how much do you really need to break it by?" Not exactly "Hoosiers," is it? On second thought, a busload of screenwriters couldn't have dreamed up what took place Wednesday inside a little church gym in Golden Valley. The team from Minnesota Transitions, a Minneapolis charter school, throttled the team from Community of Peace Academy, a charter school in St. Paul. Transitions senior Cash Eggleston made a state-record 20 three-point shots on his way to 90 points; his team's 153 points set another record. I'm not sure when this particular basketball game became a circus. Probably soon after Eggleston broke the record of 70, set in 1958 by Norm Grow of Foley High School. I don't blame Eggleston for doing what any basketball player should do: follow instructions. "Basically my coach said if I was on fire at the beginning of the first half we would shoot for the record," Eggleston said after the game. Transitions coach John Sherman has several careers. One is writing about sports for the Sun newspaper chain. Another is running a summer AAU basketball program called Minnesota Magic. Last season Eggleston was suspended from the Edina High School basketball team for reasons that were not made public. He transferred to Minnesota Transitions for his senior year. He plays AAU basketball with Minnesota Magic. The whole scenario has people talking. I received an e-mail Thursday from Bruce Kugath, boys' basketball coach at Shakopee. Kugath's note was titled "How to Create a Basketball Power" and said: 1. Take an AAU all-star team A. Hire its coach 2. Call it a school ... like Minnesota Transitions, for example 3. Play the weakest schedule you can find 4. Pour it on in every game you can 5. Set meaningless records so you get publicity "I love the game and it makes me sad to see it being destroyed by coaches who don't respect it by doing anything to win; i.e., recruiting players, running up the score, etc.," Kugath said. There is no evidence that Sherman recruited any players when Transitions hired him as its coach before this season; it's the first time he has been a high school head coach. Community of Peace coach Dan Kuss said he kept waiting ... and waiting ... and waiting for Transitions to call off the dogs. "They were playing [Eggleston] until I put my freshmen in and right down to some of my B-teamers," Kuss said. "I think that's about the time when they kind of stopped the madness, when my littlest guys went in." Sherman said he considered pulling Eggleston earlier, "but at that point the guys on the team didn't want to go in for him," he said. "They wanted him to continue. It wasn't like it was the last few minutes and he was still out there firing three-pointers." I don't see much difference between "the last few minutes" and the last five minutes. As for Sherman writing about sportsmanship, I guess you can talk the talk and type the type, but actions mean more. The Minnesota State High School League has noticed. Executive Director Dave Stead told me Friday that the MSHSL will be calling Minnesota Transitions this week. Stead wants some answers. "The issue for me, frankly, is the ethical behavior of the coach, of the school, of the administration," Stead said. "We try to make sportsmanship a focus, but it all boils down to the ethical behavior as far as how they act, as evidenced by this scoring record. It's one thing to set a scoring record, it's another thing to embarrass someone. "We're going to be talking to the school and try to figure out who's in charge and what's going on and what their intent was." Hollywood is waiting. John Millea is at jmillea@startribune.com.
February 7, 200521 yr Author Would you expect any less from someone named "Cash"? :lol 679054[/snapback] Supposedly he was a big time prospect as a 5'9 10 year old. Now he's 5'9.5
February 7, 200521 yr Would you expect any less from someone named "Cash"? :lol 679054[/snapback] Supposedly he was a big time prospect as a 5'9 10 year old. Now he's 5'9.5 679065[/snapback] I remember the Twin Cities newpapers had articles on Cash when he was a 10 yr. old AAU "phenom". His father was supposedly around 6'10". But, as you've read, Cash quit growing, as did his game. He did play at Class 4A Edina up to this year, before he transferred. I'm not even sure if his present school is even Class A in Minnesota. Some of the "charter" and Religious school in Minnesota don't participate in state-sponsored activities. The record that Cash beat(Norm Grow's 70 pts in 1958) was also scored in a "blowout"(98-48). The record before Grow had it was 69 pts. Grow scored 20 of his teams 23 points in the 4th quarter to get the record. Norm Grow was 6'5" and ended his H.S. career with 2,852 points.
February 7, 200521 yr Author Didn't Dajuan Wagner score 100 pts in a game his senior year of HS? 679252[/snapback] Yes
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