ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) - Shaquille O’Neal showed up at the Texas high school boys state basketball tournament last month to be honored. He didn’t make it to the Final Four, though.
O’Neal was the only living member of the 2014 class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame who wasn’t on the court for a brief ceremony during a TV timeout in the first half of the Connecticut-Florida game.
The 15-time NBA All-Star and four-time champion was honored in Austin on the 25th anniversary of his San Antonio Cole team winning a Texas state championship.
Former LSU coach Dale Brown - O’Neal’s college coach - did attend, along with former Maryland coach Gary Williams and two-time NCAA championship player Grant Hill for Duke.
The late Zelmo Beaty, who averaged 25 points and 20 rebounds in his career at Prairie View in the early 1960s, was represented on the court.
The others being inducted in November are Howard Garfinkel, who started the first high school scouting service for East Coast basketball in 1965, former Louisville player Darrel Griffith, and former Stetson coach Glen Wilkes Sr.
- Schuyler Dixon - https://twitter.com/apschuyler
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