Inside the NCAA: One-handed player makes most of chance

The last three years haven’t been easy for Dax Crum at Southern Utah. He hasn’t seen much playing time, the Thunderbirds haven’t won much lately, changed coaches, and he lost his mother to cancer in 2004.

He’s getting by, though, and fairly well since he’s played basketball with one hand all his life.

Born with little more than one small finger for a right hand, Crum has inadvertently fooled players, coaches and fans alike. His parents had the option of transplanting a toe to be another finger, but declined, fearing the body would reject the transformation.

This isn’t some novelty act either. He has 10 DNPs next to his name, but averages six minutes per game. Two weeks ago, he played a career-high 16 minutes, made a 3-pointer and shut down Missouri-Kansas City leading scorer Dane Brumagin.

He chose to walk on at Southern Utah in basketball instead of accepting a soccer scholarship and worked three jobs to pay for school until this semester.

“I’ve coached this game a long time and they ought to build a monument of him,” Thunderbirds coach Roger Reid told Fox Sports.

Velcro shoes were never an option. He didn’t go to school until he learned to tie shoelaces. He jokes about his condition with teammates and opposition alike, especially when the two teams shake hands afterward.

The 23-year-old is married and working toward his MBA while his wife goes through medical school.

He won’t play at the next level, but he wasn’t supposed to play at any level.

“Just those 16 minutes against UMKC were worth it all to me,” he said.

FOOT PAIN FOR AFRICA'S GAIN

That was IUPUI coach Ron Hunter pounding the sidelines in his bare feet last week against Oakland University.

Known to stand and stomp his feet during games, Hunter’s feet were in agony by night’s end, but that was the point.

This was Hunter’s way of raising awareness for Samaritan’s Feet, a Charlotte-based charity which sends shoes to poor nations in Africa.

Hunter met Samaritan’s Feet founder Manny Ohonme last month and was moved by Ohonme — who received his first pair of shoes at 9 years old in Nigeria from a missionary, and eventually earned a basketball scholarship to play at a small college in North Dakota — as well as Hunter’s own recruiting trips to Nigeria and Cameroon.

Thanks to some large-scale donations by a few national companies who caught wind of Hunter’s public appearances, more than 110,000 pair of shoes have been donated — nearly four times the coach’s original goal.

“When we started this I thought 40,000 was going to be tough,” he told the Indianapolis Star. “When they told me before the game we had 100,000, honestly, I almost broke down in tears.”

Hunter and a couple of his players are flying to Africa in July to help distribute the shoes.

KEEPING THE TAR HEELS UNTARNISHED

North Carolina opened its own mini-museum this week in the school’s athletics center. It features more than 40 glass cases worth of artifacts and memorabilia from the storied program.

Among the notables is the floor from the 2005 NCAA championship game and a watch from the 1982 championship given by Dean Smith to the team’s student manager after the NCAA didn’t provide enough for the team.

Who wouldn’t want to ogle over the face mask Tyler Hansbrough wore after he had his nose broken last season?

Perhaps the most interesting tidbit is a letter from Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski addressed to Michael Jordan wishing the future Airness good luck after choosing to play for the Tar Heels.

We know how that turned out.

LOOKING AHEAD

Arizona at UCLA, 7 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. This one goes way beyond any Kevin Love-Jerryd Bayless individual comparisons. The Bruins are moving closer to putting a stranglehold on the Pac-10 championship as most thought they would. The Wildcats have won three straight heading into the weekend, and are a completely different team on both ends with Bayless at point guard. Jordan Hill is going to need help containing Love, UCLA’s unstoppable freshman. If Darren Collison stays hot, the Bruins’ depth and defense make them nearly unbeatable.

BUBBLE WATCH

Actually, Drake isn’t on any bubble this week since it sits No. 8 in the RPI, but it is one of the big surprises of college basketball this season. The Bulldogs are in control of the Missouri Valley Conference with their only loss this season coming at Saint Mary’s in mid-November. The MVCC hasn’t been as strong as the past few years, and the Bulldogs’ remaining schedule only has one team in the RPI’s top 50, so one or two losses could damage their tournament aspirations if they don’t win the conference tournament and receive an automatic bid.

INTRODUCING

Virginia may be having a rough time in ACC play, but Sean Singletary isn’t. His eight assists in the Cavaliers’ overtime loss to Georgia Tech pushed him past the 500 mark for his career, which made him the fifth player in ACC history to record 1,500 points, 500 assists and 400 rebounds. The others are Johnny Dawkwins and Danny Ferry of Duke and Tony Akins and Brian Oliver of Georgia Tech. The 6-foot, 185-pound Singletary is averaging 18.1 points, 6.7 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game.

SAY WHAT?

“The better part of discretion is never taking a stand on anything politically as a coach. But you can’t go to the safe haven all the time.”

Saint Louis coach Rick Majerus, whose views on abortion had him at a Hillary Rodham Clinton rally recently, which ticked off An archbishop, who wants Majerus to be disciplined by the catholic university

Our top seeds: North Carolina (19-1); Memphis (19-0); Kansas (19-0); UCLA (17-2)