Thursday, March 09, 2000
Miami Notebook
Mestas goes distance, gets all-tourney team
CLEVELAND — Rob Mestas played all 40 minutes again Wednesday night.
Mestas, the hardest working man in college basketball, was named to the Mid-American Conference All-Tournament team Wednesday after Miami's 61-58 loss to Ball State in the final here.
Teammate Jason Stewart, who had 25 points on top of his 32-point game in the semis, was also named all-tourney.
Mestas' contributions aren't always so obvious. He had 11 points, three assists, three steals and just one turnover Wednesday. He played buzzer-to-buzzer for the 19th time this season. Mestas averaged 39.9 minutes a game this season — not bad for a guy who has had four knee surgeries.
Mestas held tourney MVP Duane Clemens to four second-half points.
“Clemens is a great player,” Miami coach Charlie Coles said. “But Rob's a great player too. That was a classic matchup.”
Future plans
Coles' plans after the game?
“I'm going to leave immediately and break up that team,” he said.
Coles was referring to Ball State. The Cardinals lose Clemens and Mickey Hosier, but return freshman Theron Smith and sophomores Josh Murray and Lonnie Jones.
“They're going to be something else in a couple of years,” he said.
All-MAC
The MAC announced its all conference selections Tuesday. They are: Shaun Stonerook of Ohio, Anthony Stacey of Bowling Green, Tamar Slay of Marshall, T.J. Lux of Northern illinois and Greg Stempin of Toledo.
