Thursday, March 8, 2012

Irving's Dad Has History With Current MAAC Teams

Kyrie Irving is featured in the latest issue of "Sports Illustrated," as a rookie with the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers whose quick start is making fans of that team quickly forget about LeBron James.

Long-time fans of college basketball might recall Irving's father, Drederick Irving, who played at Boston University when that program was a member of the North Atlantic Conference, the predecessor of the America East.

Before that, Irving played his freshman season at Duke (an injury limited him to 11 games) and, then, was the first pick overall in this past year's NBA draft.

What does that have to do with the MAAC? Only a little.

But the NAC, back then, included three teams that, after the 1988-89 season, would move on to join the MAAC ... Siena, Niagara and Canisius.

And all three of those programs saw plenty of the elder Irving over the years as did most teams in that league as the 6-foot-3 guard ran up a career scoring total of 1,931 points, still third-best in the history of Boston University. 

In fact, Boston University captured the NAC's championship at the end of the 1987-88 season, beating Niagara in that year's post-season tournament championship game and knocking off Canisius in the quarterfinals.

By winning the NAC tournament the Terriers moved on to the NCAA event where it suffered an 85-69 setback. Drederick Irving led BU in scoring in that game with 14 points.

The NCAA opponent? Ironically enough, it was Duke where Drederick Irving's son would play at the college level.

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