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College Basketball

NC Central aiming for NCAA tournament

Nov 8, 2012

The NC Central coaching staff has one big question heading into the season, how do you replace Dominique Sutton?

"You don't," said NCCU head coach LeVelle Moton. 

Sutton is off to play professional basketball in the NBA developmental league and he leaves a huge hole in this Eagle team

"We were fortunate to get a kid as talented and tough as he," said Moton. "They don't come around these parts."

Senior Ray Willis will have the task of picking up some of the load this year. Like Suttton, he transferred to NC Central two years ago from a bigger program. Willis played at Oklahoma with NBA star Blake Griffin and he's hoping to use what he learned from Blake as he gets ready to be a leader this year.

"It's one thing to have your best player be your most talented player and it's another when your most talented player is your hardest worker," said Willis. "I learned that from watching Blake."

It won't be hard for Moton to motivate his team this year. All he has to do is pop in a video of last year's NCAA tournament.

The 15 seed Norfolk State upset Missouri on basketball's biggest stage and it put the conference in the spotlight.

"I was elated, said Moton. "I was excited. I was cheering as if I was coaching. Seeing Norfolk State, we were extremely proud that they represented out conference, but every individual in this program looked at Norfolk State and said, that could have been us."

So that's what they will work for this year, starting on the road Saturday against Wichita State.