As expected, Justice Hill's official signing with the University of Arkansas basketball team drew a large, enthusiastic crowd to Little Rock Christian on Wednesday.
Hill, a point guard, orally committed to the Razorbacks basketball team nearly three years ago. There is an emphasis on basketball because he also has become a dual-threat quarterback standout who is receiving attention from universities as a football player. Big schools such as Arkansas and Texas are among the schools who have reached out.
He is quicker than a grasshopper on a hot, greased skillet and makes great decisions. He also will get great advice at home about his future in athletics.
His dad is Fitz Hill, who is the former president of Arkansas Baptist College, former head football coach at San Jose State and former assistant coach at the UA. He is a veteran of Desert Storm and was an outstanding receiver at Ouachita Baptist University.
Fitz took on the extra responsibilities of recruiting coordinator at Arkansas, and the first thing he did was order media guides from every major college in America. He studied them and made suggestions on how to make the media guide more appealing to not only the media but also recruits.
Fitz knows football and basketball, and he recalled Wednesday how Justice came home a few years ago and said he wanted to try football.
The Warriors are 10-1 and will face a very good Texarkana team Friday night in the Class 5A quarterfinals of the state playoffs.
Almost as soon as his high school football career is over, he's headed to Fayetteville to enroll for the spring semester. He can practice with the basketball team or could go through spring practice with the football team.
Dad has made it clear he'll support any decision Justice makes, but it is hard to play two sports because there are only so many hours in the day, and the priority in college is always the education.
The fact Justice is passing up his senior year of high school basketball might indicate he's more interested in football than originally thought.
Fitz Hill also is a driving force, along with the Little Rock School District, behind the OneRock Legends Hall of Fame that will honor six at its inaugural lunch Dec. 6 at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock.
The first class includes Deedee Brown-Campbell, Oliver Elders, Sidney Moncrief, Houston Nutt, Charles Ripley and Wilson Matthews.
Lunch starts at 11:30 a.m.
Sometimes things don't happen in the right place at the right time.
Tuesday night, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock men's basketball team beat Tennessee State 83-67 to go 2-0 on the season. More importantly, it was the 1,000th victory for the Trojans, although it happened on the road.
Tuesday was the first of three consecutive road games for the Trojans, who travel to No. 6 Nevada on Friday and Tulsa on Monday before returning home Nov. 23 -- a 3:30 game on Black Friday -- to host Howard.
In UALR's first victory, Markquis Nowell -- a 5-8 freshman from Harlem, N.Y. -- scored 34 points to get the Trojans by Southeastern Oklahoma in overtime.
Tuesday night, the Trojans were more balanced with four guys scoring 10 or more points, including 14 from Little Rock Fair's Kris Bankston, a sophomore, who also had 8 rebounds and 3 blocked shots in 26 minutes. Rayjon Tucker, a junior, led the way with 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting from the floor.
Sophomore Jaizec Lottie and freshman Nikola Maric both scored 12.
Sports on 11/15/2018