Four former Wildcats will begin postseason play on Wednesday, two in the NCAA Tournament.
Simon Harris (‘04), Brandon Goldsmith (‘14), Chris Clemons (‘15), and Jordan Whitfield (‘17) earned a combined 10 varsity letters at Millbrook, and scored a total of 3,130 career points.
Clemons and Whitfield of Campbell will welcome Miami (OH) to Buies Creek on Wednesday night for the first round of CBI Tournament.
Clemons is in pursuit of history as he sits seven points short of the Camels’ all-time scoring record. The junior point guard has 2,147 career points in college, is averaging 24.5 points per game this season, and was named 1st Team All-District by the NABC on Wednesday afternoon. Clemons lettered three times at Millbrook and earned Cap-8 Player of the Year honors twice, he finished his career with the second most points scored in school history with 1,230.
Whitfield has averaged just under 17 minutes a game as true freshman for Campbell. He has earned three starts, and is averaging 3.2 points per contest and a 32% average from beyond the arc. In mid February, Whitfield earned Big South Conference freshman of the week honors after posting a career high 12 points vs. Gardner Webb and adding 11 more later in the week against Longwood. He earned Cap-8 All-Conference merits in each season at Millbrook, scoring 759 career points in the process. Both he and Clemons sit top-15 in program history in points, Whitfield also holds the school record for assists in a single game.
Goldsmith helped North Carolina Central to the MEAC Conference Tournament Championship on Saturday, becoming the first Wildcat to advance to the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament since Durrall Peterson and Utah State went dancing in 2006. The Eagles will play Texas State on Wednesday evening in Dayton for a play-in game.
A 6-foot-5 junior, Goldsmith has made 21 starts this season, and is average over 16 minutes per game. He currently averages 4.1 points per game, and 2.6 rebounds per contest. At Millbrook, Goldsmith lettered three times, earned second team All-Conference honors as a junior, and was a first team All-Conference member his senior year. He scored a total of 657 points for the Wildcats, tied for 23rd most all-time.
Harris is in the midst of his fourth season as an assistant coach for the Dayton Women’s Basketball program, and will be on the bench for his second consecutive tournament. Harris lettered in both seasons spent at Millbrook then went on to play collegiately at Elon and NC State. He is one of four former Wildcats to play professional basketball, and he tallied 484 career points at Millbrook.
Dayton’s Women’s Basketball team is a No. 9 seed in the tournament, and will play Marquette on Friday afternoon in Louisville.
Harris, Clemons, Whitfield, and Goldsmith are not the only former Wildcats to taste postseason play in 2018. Andrew Evans (‘15) witnessed his UNC Pembroke Braves win its second straight Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship, and advance to the NCAA Division-II Tournament last week. UNCP won at the buzzer in round one, before falling to Queens on Sunday evening. Evans scored 665 career points at Millbrook, and after appearing in four games this season, he tore his ACL for the second time in as many years.
Millbrook currently has 13 active alumni at the collegiate level, ten playing college basketball, and eight playing Division-I basketball or football. The Wildcats have the most active alumni of any basketball program in Wake County, and you can follow along with their progress on social media by using the hashtag #WildcatsInCollege.