Jon Mills started his basketball career in Alabama, and he hopes it doesn't end here.
The Bulldogs will play host to Austin Peay in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament tonight at 7:30 at Seibert Hall. The winner advances to the semifinals in Nashville on Friday, with the ultimate prize an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament for the champion. Mills, a 6-foot-6, 228-pounder from Winfield, is the only player on this year's team from Alabama. It fell to him to school his teammates in the ways of the South, he said.
"There were some other guys from Alabama when I first got here," Mills said, "but now I'm the only one left. You get a lot of comments, but it's fun."
When Mills got to Samford, he made quite an impression. He picked up Atlantic Sun Conference freshman of the year honors in 2001-02 after a redshirt year.
Now in graduate school, injuries and illness kept Mills' first season of promise from blossoming. After starting 21 of 29 games as a freshman and 19 of 28 as a sophomore, he played in only 15 games last season and didn't start any.
A problem with an irregular heartbeat as a sophomore and then a herniated disk last season kept Mills off the court.
This season, he has started 26 of 27 games for the 15-12 Bulldogs, averaging 25.3 minutes per outing. He is averaging 7.3 points a game and making 50 percent of his field-goal attempts. In pre-conference play, Mills was named MVP of the Mohegan Sun Classic after scoring 18 points against host Central Connecticut in Samford's championship game victory.
"We weren't even sure as late as August if we were even going to get him back," Samford coach Jimmy Tillette said. "He's had to try and surmount so many physical difficulties over the past couple of years. I think it's a testament to Jon that he even came back and played.
"He could have said, `Hey, I'm in graduate school. I had a heart problem two years ago, a herniated disk last year.' That's a lot to overcome.
"Jon has just met one challenge after another."
Mills said the fourth-seeded Bulldogs are eager to see No.5 seed Austin Peay (11-18, 9-7) again tonight. Samford beat the Governors 73-71 in overtime at home, but suffered its second-worst loss of the year at Clarksville 76-60 two weeks later.
"They are a tough bunch," Mills said. "They've got a great tradition. I believe either them or Murray have won this conference a ridiculous number of times the last 15 or 20 years. We're hoping to come out and if we give it our best shot I think we'll be OK.
"We're excited about having a home game first. We had a great game here against Austin Peay. We didn't play our best, but we wound up winning the game in overtime, so we have some confidence from that."
The Governors come to Seibert Hall on a three-game losing streak. Austin Peay has stumbled to close out the season, with five losses in its last eight games.
Tillette said the last meeting between his squad and Peay was not representative of the'Dogs' best effort.
"It was a weird week. Jon couldn't practice because of a scratched cornea and (guard) Randall (Gulina) went home to Baton Rouge early Sunday morning when his grandmother passed away," he said. "We didn't get him back until Thursday right before the game. We were really short 40 percent of the guys we normally have out there.
"It was senior night, they were energized and they played well. With all that, we were down two at the half and did not have a good second half."
The Bulldogs will play host to Austin Peay in the opening round of the Ohio Valley Conference tournament tonight at 7:30 at Seibert Hall. The winner advances to the semifinals in Nashville on Friday, with the ultimate prize an automatic berth in the NCAA Tournament for the champion. Mills, a 6-foot-6, 228-pounder from Winfield, is the only player on this year's team from Alabama. It fell to him to school his teammates in the ways of the South, he said.
"There were some other guys from Alabama when I first got here," Mills said, "but now I'm the only one left. You get a lot of comments, but it's fun."
When Mills got to Samford, he made quite an impression. He picked up Atlantic Sun Conference freshman of the year honors in 2001-02 after a redshirt year.
Now in graduate school, injuries and illness kept Mills' first season of promise from blossoming. After starting 21 of 29 games as a freshman and 19 of 28 as a sophomore, he played in only 15 games last season and didn't start any.
A problem with an irregular heartbeat as a sophomore and then a herniated disk last season kept Mills off the court.
This season, he has started 26 of 27 games for the 15-12 Bulldogs, averaging 25.3 minutes per outing. He is averaging 7.3 points a game and making 50 percent of his field-goal attempts. In pre-conference play, Mills was named MVP of the Mohegan Sun Classic after scoring 18 points against host Central Connecticut in Samford's championship game victory.
"We weren't even sure as late as August if we were even going to get him back," Samford coach Jimmy Tillette said. "He's had to try and surmount so many physical difficulties over the past couple of years. I think it's a testament to Jon that he even came back and played.
"He could have said, `Hey, I'm in graduate school. I had a heart problem two years ago, a herniated disk last year.' That's a lot to overcome.
"Jon has just met one challenge after another."
Mills said the fourth-seeded Bulldogs are eager to see No.5 seed Austin Peay (11-18, 9-7) again tonight. Samford beat the Governors 73-71 in overtime at home, but suffered its second-worst loss of the year at Clarksville 76-60 two weeks later.
"They are a tough bunch," Mills said. "They've got a great tradition. I believe either them or Murray have won this conference a ridiculous number of times the last 15 or 20 years. We're hoping to come out and if we give it our best shot I think we'll be OK.
"We're excited about having a home game first. We had a great game here against Austin Peay. We didn't play our best, but we wound up winning the game in overtime, so we have some confidence from that."
The Governors come to Seibert Hall on a three-game losing streak. Austin Peay has stumbled to close out the season, with five losses in its last eight games.
Tillette said the last meeting between his squad and Peay was not representative of the'Dogs' best effort.
"It was a weird week. Jon couldn't practice because of a scratched cornea and (guard) Randall (Gulina) went home to Baton Rouge early Sunday morning when his grandmother passed away," he said. "We didn't get him back until Thursday right before the game. We were really short 40 percent of the guys we normally have out there.
"It was senior night, they were energized and they played well. With all that, we were down two at the half and did not have a good second half."
