And to think that it was started by one coach last year and now it has grown to 300 coaches involved.

Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS — Last year, IUPUI’s Ron Hunter was the only basketball coach to go barefoot on the sideline during an effort to collect shoes for needy children around the world.

This year, hundreds of foot soldiers have joined the cause.

Samaritan’s Feet, the Charlotte, N.C.-based nonprofit organization that distributes the shoes, said more than 300 youth, high school and college coaches have pledged to coach one game barefoot and collect shoes around the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

Butler’s Brad Stevens, South Dakota State’s Scott Nagy, University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Matt Brown, Indiana State’s Kevin McKenna and Detroit Mercy’s Ray McCallum are among the Division I coaches who will go shoeless, the organization said.

When I left Peru, I knew that I had to continue to do this. …The tears on the kids faces that I saw that we couldn’t help were enough to say that I will do this for the rest of my lifetime.
–IUPUI coach Ron Hunter

“I truly appreciate that, and I wish I could thank every one of them,” said Hunter, who will go shoeless Jan. 17 against Centenary. “So many have called. I’m very pleased that they are willing to help.”

Hunter coaches at IUPUI, which stands for Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, a partnership between Indiana and Purdue Universities.

Samaritan’s Feet called him last season to ask him to go barefoot for one game to help collect 40,000 pairs of shoes. By tip-off the of that January home game against Oakland, Mich., the tally stood at 140,000 pairs.

This year, the overall goal of Samaritan’s Feet is to collect 1 million pairs.

“There are hundreds of shoe drives going on across the country,” Samaritan’s Feet spokesman Todd Melloh said. “We’ll take what we can get. Every shoe we raise makes some difference in the U.S. or elsewhere.”

The mission hit home for Hunter last July, when he delivered some of the shoes he helped collect to children in Peru.

“When I left Peru, I knew that I had to continue to do this,” he said. “The tears on the kids faces that I saw that we couldn’t help were enough to say that I will do this for the rest of my lifetime.”

Hunter said he won’t mind the discomfort of going shoeless for a few hours because many of the people in other nations use shoes as their primary mode of transportation.

“The children that have to go barefoot everyday don’t prepare for it,” he said. “It’s a part of life.”

Nagy said it was easy to agree to go barefoot for South Dakota State’s Jan. 23 home game against North Dakota State because his adopted daughter, 5-year-old Naika, is from Haiti. He visited her village three years ago, before the adoption became official.

“I’ve seen from personal experience what many of those kids are going through,” he said.

Nagy’s goal is to collect 500 pairs of shoes during a drive that will end on Feb. 1. He said Naika doesn’t fully understand what he’s doing, but she appreciates it.

“She’s as excited about it as she can be,” he said.

Melloh said there will be a greater emphasis this year on delivering shoes domestically since the economy is struggling. Samaritan’s Feet will conduct two major shoe distributions totaling 1,000 pairs in Indianapolis on Jan. 19, Martin Luther King Day.

Hunter’s decision to become the first coach to go barefoot got national attention. He recently was selected an ABC News person of the year.

It also changed the profile for Samaritan’s Feet. Melloh said the charity is building a library in the African nation of Malawi and sending food to 1,500 South African children this year.

“It has led to other projects,” he said. “We’ve got more resources, more partners. It’s been a tremendous springboard and platform to do that.”

Hunter’s home and workplaces have become shoe warehouses.

“Between my secretary or my wife, I don’t know who gets more mad,” he said. “We get the shoes at school, we get them at my house. Shoes continue to come. I don’t know if I’ve had a day that I have not received shoes.”

Hunter said the shoes are a symbol of something greater.

“It’s a message about hope,” he said. “When we came [to Peru], we brought a little hope to them, that things aren’t sometimes as bad as they seem.”

Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press

Post from: EveryJoe

More Coaches To Go Barefoot For A Great Cause

1. Western Illinois (3-0, 6-8)
2. North Dakota State (3-1, 8-5)
3. Oakland (3-1, 10-7)
4. IUPUI (2-1, 9-5)
5. Oral Roberts (2-1, 4-11)
6. Southern Utah (2-2, 4-11)
7. IPFW (1-3, 6-9)
8. South Dakota State (1-3, 6-10)
9. UMKC (1-3, 5-12)
10. Centenary (0-3, 2-13)

Highlights

SDSU – 2 days before Christmas the Jackrabbits beat Iowa State on the road by 7. While the Cyclones are anything but a powerhouse team, props to SDSU for getting this win and holding Iowa State’s second leading scorer to 5 points on 2-12 shooting.

IPFW – The Mastodons finally broke through for a W in league play with a 100-66 smackdown of South Dakota State (Jan.2). Former Kansas St. forward Deilvez Yearby scored 19, grabbed 9 boards and swatted 5 shots. Former Oakland forward David Carson scored 24.

UMKC senior guard Dane Brumagin – he was named the conference player of the week for Dec.23- Dec.29 after averaging 30 points and 6 rebounds in 2 games.

IUPUI – Beat Southern Utah by 5 without getting a single field goal from star senior guard Gary Patterson (Jan 2). IUPUI got 21 points from their only 2 bench players to see action in the game, Robert Glenn (13) and John Ashworth (8). Back on December 20th IUPUI beat Seton Hall with a Leroy Nobles layup as time expired.

Western Illinois – Just as likely to be the last undefeated Summit league team left as Eric Gordon is to be the future of the NBA. Senior guard David Dubois doesn’t shoot the 3 ball real well, won’t wow you with his athleticism, gets in foul trouble too much, and probably dances like Elaine, but still manages to cram more than 17 ppg down team’s throat.

Lowlights

Centenary – Losers of 7 in a row, it’s not looking good for the Gentlemen, or for my prediction of Centenary winning 8 games in the league.

UMKC – After drawing their conference record to 1-1 with a 8 point win against IPFW early on in December, the Kangaroos have lost their last two league contests by a combined 6 points. In both of the losses UMKC has been down by double digits at the half.

Oakland senior guard Derick Nelson – Head coach Greg Kampe finally announced (Dec.30) Nelson would be redshirted (medical). Nelson tried to come back from a serious foot injury he suffered in practice the day before the season opener but just couldn’t do it.

Southern Utah got out of the gate quickly with 2 straight W’s but has since dropped 2 in a row. I said it wouldn’t last long.

NDSU @ Oakland (Jan.2)

I was fortunate enough to be in attendance as unarguably the two best teams in the league squared off. Neither team had more than an 8 point lead at any one time. I don’t think either coach sat down the entire game and I know neither was delighted with the officiating. NDSU guard Ben Woodside (23.5ppg) was held scoreless in the first half as was Oakland’s center Keith Benson (12.5ppg). Both stepped up their games in the second half but Keith Benson really woke up, scoring 17 (7-7 fts, 5-9 fg). The unequivocal iron man of the game was sickly 6′6 senior Brett Winkleman who only ate a piece of toast before the game because he was ill all day with a stomach virus. Brett not only played 32 minutes, but scored 33 points (6 treys) and had 3 steals. It was not enough.

Oakland’s Erik Kangas, bothered by a calf injury virtually throughout the whole game, drained a 3 pointer falling away with a little over 7 seconds left to give OU the lead by 1. It was his first 3 pointer of the game and it sent the O’Rena into a frenzy of sorts, yet seconds later Ben Woodside zigzagged his way down the court and got all the way to the hoop to attempt a wild (it was made wild by the stout defense supplied by Kangas, the only OU player who seemed to know the game wasn’t over yet) layup that just bounced off the back rim. If the game had been in NDSU’s place a foul would have been likely called in my opinion, as Kangas challenged him and probably got a little body, but Woodside was going at a hundred miles an hour ( just a tad out of control I’ll say). The refs got off the court in a hurry.

These teams meet again on the 29th of January in North Dakota.

I bet NDSU gets the call at the end. Or else head coach Saul Phillips will be right behind them like a hungry lion.

Post from: EveryJoe

Summit League Update

Correspondent duty at its finest by yours truly.

Checking in on the…Summit League

—
Summit League Digest (NOV.21)

The first 10 days or so of the college basketball season has been refreshingly cosmic. My penchant has always been my college hoops fandom. It’s an impulse that will not die.

It’s like Rasheed Wallace snapping “Ball Don’t Lie” after an errant free throw.

It’s, you know, automatic.

Summit League Headlines

–Two days before Oakland’s opener at Cleveland St., star guard/forward Derick Nelson injured his foot. He’ll be out until late Decemberish. A huge blow to not only Oakland, but also to the dozens of participants who selected Derick in their fantasy mid major only college basketball draft.

–IUPUI senior guard Gary Patterson (12.9 ppg last season) has missed the team’s first 3 games because of a broken left hand he suffered in late October.

–0-9. The Summit League’s record versus other DI teams before Oakland’s overtime win @ Oregon on November 17th. And it wasn’t as if Summit League teams were playing perennial powerhouses like UCLA or UNC every game. Some of these losses were against Kennesaw State (yes, they’re DI), San Jose State, Northern Illinois, Cleveland State and Northeastern. UMKC even lost to first year DI team North Dakota. So technically that’s a 0-10 DI record prior to the Oakland win.

The Breakdown

Oral Roberts (1-1) So far in 2 games of action only Robert Jarvis is averaging double figures in points. Jarvis is also averaging 5.5 rebounds as well. Don’t expect that to continue.

Key upcoming games: Nov. 30 @ Mizzou, Conference opener Dec. 4 @ North Dakota State

UMKC (1-2) 5 days after losing to DI newbie North Dakota, the Kangaroos beat Wichita State on the road by 3. Sophomore guard Reggie Hamilton is averaging 15.3 ppg.

Key upcoming game: Nov. 30 @ Florida

IUPUI (1-2) 3 point loss at Indiana on the 18th. 6′5 freshman Alex Young is leading the squad in scoring with 15.7 so far. Good young nucleus needs veteran Gary Patterson back to seriously contend.

Key upcoming game: Nov. 29 @ Western Michigan

IPFW (0-2) The Mastodons have played Xavier and Michigan State thus far and actually had a second half lead against the Spartans before succumbing to their freakish athleticism. Sophomore guard Ben Botts is the only player averaging double figures.

Key upcoming game: Conference opener Dec. 4 @ Southern Utah ( first of 7 straight road games)

North Dakota State (1-0) The Bison doubled up NAIA school Mayville State 128-64 on the 18th–7 players scored in double figures. Star guard Ben Woodside scored 28 in just 16 minutes.

Key upcoming game: Nov. 29 @ Minnesota

Oakland (1-1) Upset Oregon on the road (17th) in overtime with the help of a phenomenal 32 point performance by junior point guard Johnathon Jones. Even more impressive was the fact that Jones only made one three pointer.

Key upcoming games: Nov. 23 @ Iowa, Nov. 25th @ Kansas State.

Western Illinois (1-2) Senior guard David Dubois is averaging 20.3 ppg. He was named to the 100 Club Classic All-Tournament Team.

Key upcoming game: Nov. 28 @ Coastal Carolina.

South Dakota State (1-2) Sophomore guard Clint Sargent is averaging 17.3 ppg and 8.3 rebs/gm. He’s 10 for 20 from downtown thus far.

Key upcoming game: Nov. 29 @ Central Florida.

Centenary (1-2) 6′1 senior guard Nick Stallings scored 31 in a Nov. 20th win against Troy. Guards Chase Adams and Gary Redus II are playing well early on too.

Key upcoming game: Conference opener Nov. 4 @ South Dakota State

Southern Utah (1-1) The Thunderbirds gave the Florida Gators a decent game on the 20th in a 14 point loss. Junior guard Davis Baker had 23 points and 8 rebounds. 6′10 senior John Clifford struggled mightily (fouled out, scored just 5). John wishes Southern Utah could play the likes of DII Mesa State more often (scored 24).

Key upcoming game: Nov. 29 @ Boise State.

The Summit League is what it is. The guard dominated league will pull off a few solid upsets in the coming weeks against those big school beasts, but along the way there will be plenty of blowouts, some camel spider cringe worthy.

I digress.

Post from: EveryJoe

Summit League Digest

–Stephen Curry LAUNCHED 15 three’s against the Sooners yesterday in a 4 point defeat. He only made 6 of them. Taking 29 shots to score 44 points isn’t the type of efficiency a team looks for from their PG.

–Bryant Barr had a lousy game, only connecting on 1-9 field goals.

–Davidson showed their explosiveness for sure. Oklahoma had a 21 point lead and in a blink of an eye Davidson had it down to 7. It was a very entertaining game to say the least, even if I was reminded of my blah high school b-ball days of actually driving past a defender (rare) to only then absolutely brick an 10 foot floater. I’m talking about you Bryant Barr.

–Blake Griffin scored 25 and pulled down 21 boards. Brother Taylor contributed quite a bit too, scoring 16. Willie Warren looked like a stud, some kind of Baron Davis, Anthony Morrow hybrid.

–Indiana squeaked by IUPUI 60-57. Indiana led by 11 at halftime against the cupcake half-brother.

– The Friars of Providence out gunned the Dartmouth… hold on… Big Green. And Friar Blog just wants to be able to watch his friggin team play some basketball.

STAT of the DAY

Seth Curry, Liberty guard and younger brother of Stephen Curry, led the team in scoring with 18, but did so on 17 shots from the field. Liberty got bit by UNC-Asheville 84-56.

Post from: EveryJoe

North Dakota State doubles up opponent

From Yours Truly:

Summit League 08/09

Predicted Order of Finish:

North Dakota State Bison (19-10, 13-5)
Oral Roberts Golden Eagles (20-10, 13-5)
Oakland Golden Grizzlies (18-13, 12-6)
IPFW Mastodons (16-13, 11-7)
IUPUI Jaguars (16-15, 9-9)
UMKC Kangaroos (14-17, 8-10)
Centenary College Gentlemen (11-19, 8-10)
South Dakota State Jackrabbits (13-18, 7-11)
Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks (9-20, 6-12)
Southern Utah Thunderbirds (6-23, 3-15)

What you need to know.

22 out of 31- Conference RPI ranking for the Summit League in each of the last two seasons.

Oregon, Marquette, Oklahoma St., Kansas, Texas Tech, Utah- Casualties at the hands of Summit league teams throughout the past 2 seasons. Does beating Seton Hall count? What about Louisiana Tech, twice? Not bad, not bad. The Summit is not quite knocking on the door of the Missouri Valley in stature as of yet, but at least they’re in the neighborhood. Some will never be in the continent.

Guardplay- Guards rule this conference in more than one way. They not only light up the scoreboard from downtown, but they also grab more than their share of rebounds. Lots. Last season 6′5 Derick Nelson led the Oakland Grizzlies with 7.4, 6′6 Brett Winkelman led the North Dakota State Bison with 8.3, and 6′2 George Hill led IUPUI with 6.8. The big men you will find, and there are some actually, are your rudimentary mid-level giants who usually possess the muscle tone of Kevin Durant and the post-up game of Muggsy Bogues. Besides that, Summit league big men are studs.

Predicted Champion. North Dakota State (#14 NCAA). Coincidentally this happens to be the very first season in which the Bison are postseason-eligible. But the Bison seem to be the consensus these days. And for good reason. The three-headed monster returning for the Bison all redshirted their freshman year so that they would be able to have an opportunity like this. The littlest of the fifth year senior trio, Ben Woodside, scored over 20 ppg last season while also dishing out over 5 feeds. At 5′10, Woodside is a very creative attacker and gauging from the few times I have seen him play in person, he will hoist from anywhere, anytime. The giant of the group is Brett Winkelman, all 6′6 of him. While you already know he’s a terror on the glass, he’s also quite the assassin on the perimeter, hitting 43.8% of his threes last year. Winkleman is an efficient player and one not to shy away from the dirty work. He’d be in any team’s rotation. 6′4 Mike Nelson is the third head of this Bison monster. Often overlooked because of the other two, Nelson just goes about his business, you know, the usual 46.1% from downtown, 13.8 ppg, and 32 mpg. Not a shabby third option. All numbers aside, this Bison squad is downright hungry. They’re ready for the limelight, ready for the Summit league tourney.

Others considered. Oral Roberts, the Summit League representative in the tourney the previous three years, will always be in the discussion for the title. Oral Roberts consistently plays defense year in and year out the way it should be played: stay between your man and the basket. Alright, that may not be their textbook philosophy on defense, but a casual fan watching this team would probably not argue against it actually being THE PHILOSOPHY. Offensively speaking, combo guard Robert Jarvis and forward Marcus Lewis are the only returning players that averaged north of 5 ppg last season. Jarvis is a star though. He’s without a doubt the most streaky player in the conference (16.1 ppg in 29 mpg…off the bench). I’m not real sure Oral Roberts can survive the shoot first mentality of Jarvis as their point guard, but it sure looks like that will be their only chance to make it 4 straight tourney appearances.

Oakland finished third in the conference in 2008. They have one heck of an opening stretch of road games to begin the year. If they can come out of it with an upset or three, it might just be all the confidence this team needs to make a run. Scoring the ball is not a concern for head coach Greg Kampe. Guards Johnathon Jones, Erik Kangas and Derick Nelson all averaged over 14 ppg last season. Nelson has a tendency to try to do too much, but when he plays within himself, he can hurt you in a variety of ways, whether it’s on the offensive glass, in transition, or with an occasional trey. Defense and rebounding seem to be the problem for this team, especially up front. They can usually get away with lackluster defensive lapses against the weaker teams, but losing four out of five to last year’s strongholds IUPUI and Oral Roberts should be an indication of what Oakland must drastically improve on to legitimately be considered a threat . A pair of highly touted freshman (as opposed to lowly touted), 6′9 Jay Thames and 7′0 Ilija Milutinovic, hope to give this lacking front line a boost. Ilija, says coach Kampe, might be just what the doctor ordered: “There is a lot of hype with him and we have never had this much hype about a recruit before. He turned down six figures to play professionally in Serbia because he wants to go to the NBA.” Kampe later referred to Ilija as “very comparable” to Darko Milicic. I’m still not sure what to make of that.

—-

For more, visit Rush the Court.

They have everything covered.

Post from: EveryJoe

Summit League Preview

I equate 40% from the long line with a .300 batting average, or close to it. Obviously the number of at bats, or in this case, three point attempts, figures into how consistent a player performs. Usually a player who can exhibit the ability to hit threes at around a 40% clip will more than likely shoot close to a 100 threes in a season, if not more (the usual). That’s essentially what happened last year in the Summit.

IUPUI, the regular and postseason runner up to Oral Roberts last year, shot a collective 42.3% from the three, good for 2nd best in the nation. North Dakota State’s 40.7% was good for 7th best in the nation (NDSU was not full fledged member of DI yet, so it’s not official).

The Summit League as a whole shot a collective 36.95% from downtown.

The Big Ten is the best conference that is closest in proximity to the Summit League. So we have the Big Ten to judge the Summit League by.

The Big Ten shot 34.89% from downtown (11 teams). *Also take into consideration that many of the Big Ten teams played more games than did most of the Summit League teams.

In fact, in terms of three point production, each team save Southern Utah averaged at least 5 made threes/gm.

The Summit as a whole made 6.359 three’s/gm.

The Big Ten made 6.746 three’s/gm (11 teams). *

This Summit may not make the most threes, but the overall percentage of their makes is sound.

Downtown relocation?

So how will the three point line change from 19 feet 9 inches to 20 feet 9 inches affect this guard oriented league? Certainly teams will not throw it inside more frequently because of the lack of competent post players in the Summit. However, we could see the more capable guards drive the lane and, as defenses adjust by playing better help defense, kick the ball out to lethal outside shooters that just may happen to have some more space to work with.

Oakland Head Coach Greg Kampe sumed up why the line change won’t really be that big of a deal for one of his deep threats, “Most of the ones that (Erik) Kangas takes are a foot back anyway.”

The same can be said for many of the outstanding long ball shooters around the country.

So the toughest adjustment might have to be made by the defense. Can a pedestrian style of zone defense be able to get a hand in the face of the shooters that have an extra foot of hardwood to drift back to?

Certainly an overzealous zone defense allows capable slashers to slice into the zone to find open teammates, inside and outside.

The line change will ultimately force teams to play a little bit more aggressively when playing zone. Good defenses could, however, feast on sloppy teams with inexperienced point guards, making the aggressive zone defense a key facet in their overall game plan. Methodical half court style teams prone to turnovers could play right into the hands of a defense’s desire of forcing the offensive action farther and farther away from the basket.

I’m not sure I simplified anything with this diatribe. Using the Big Ten as a basketball model is probably like using T.O. as a model of humbleness.

Anyhoo, basically the Summit League is full of guards aplenty. Real good ones too, who, for the most part, will make you pay from downtown.

ESPN ShootAround- Summit preview from August.

Post from: EveryJoe

Getting to know the Summit League (III)

-2007/08 was the inaugural season for the Summit League.

-The league was called the Mid-Continent Conference from 1989-2007. From 1982-1989 it was called the Association of Mid-Continent Universities.

May 15th 2007

“Beginning June 1st, the Mid-Continent Conference will be known as the Summit League. The name change is part of the “Summit Plan” to try and turn the league into a premier academic and athletic mid-major conference. The Mid-Con has struggled in recent years to find an identity, as its schools are scattered throughout the country, and it has experienced turnover in member teams. Going forward, the league will consist of: Centenary College, IPFW, IUPUI, UMKC, North Dakota State, Oakland, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State, Southern Utah and Western Illinois. The new logo and name “summit” are meant to suggest the peak of excellence, and not have any association with being located around a mountainous region.”

Collegehoopsnet

-League consists of ten schools from nine different states. Travel budgets explode in this league.

-School enrollment’s range from a little over a 1,000 to more than 27,000.

-Western Illinois is the only member that has been in the conference from the beginning (1982).

-Valparaiso was a member of the conference as recently as 2006/2007. But Valpo apparently wanted to step their game up and arguably did so by escaping to the Horizon League.

-Oral Roberts has represented the league in the NCAA tourney for the past 3 years.

- Oral Roberts President Richard Roberts committed a couple of crimes and thought it would be all ok since God told him to do it.

-For the last two seasons the league has been nestled in the #22 slot (out of 30) in terms of conference RPI strength.

-Former IUPUI Jaguar George Hill chose to forego his senior year and it paid off big time. Selected in the first round of the 08 draft by the San Antonio Spurs.

-Not surprisingly the 08 Summit League’s Conference Player of the Year was George Hill.

-North Dakota State is somewhat of the favorite to take the regular season title and go into the conference tourney with a #1 seed. Collegehoopsnet.com believes they will come out of it with a NCAA berth. Oakland University is picked to be the Bison’s toughest challenger.

-This is the first season North Dakota State and South Dakota State are eligible for postseason play on the DI level.

-The conference tourney will be held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in 2009. The top eight teams qualify.

Enlightened anyone?

Post from: EveryJoe

Getting to know the Summit League (II)

The Golden Eagles won the tourney but their mascot, well, “got owned”.

And it’s worth mentioning that you gotta give it up to those YouTube commenter types.

You can’t make that stuff up.

Post from: EveryJoe

Getting to know the Summit League (I)

But word has it that while the shoes have already been delivered to Africa and will be distributed to the needy children, Hunter and his players have to cancel the trip due to travel concerns in Nigeria.

Hunter and his players will still travel to Lima, Peru later this month where they will deliver 150,000 pairs of shoes and hold basketball clinics for underprivileged children, and helping others who were hit hard my last year’s devastating earthquake.

According to ESPN.com, a new Muslim law that legislates how women may dress and when they can appear in public, caused Hunter to cancel the trip. He said he still may visit the Continent before the season begins.

It’s very unfortunate that this goodwill trip had to be canceled. It would have been wonderful for the players to visit places where some of their ancestors came from, and gain a valuable learning experience that will last a lifetime.

But not only do you have to applaud Hunter and his efforts to raise awareness and for making such a great donation, but also applaud him for taking a stand for something he sees as unjust and potentially dangerous.

Aren’t you glad we don’t have those kind of problems here?

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Post from: EveryJoe

But At Least The Shoes Will Get There

According to the Associated Press, the IUPUI men’s basketball team and Coach Ron Hunter are going to Nigeria to deliver nearly 200,000 donated pairs of shoes to needy children.

Some of you may remember Hunter going barefoot during a game against Oakland to raise awareness and donations, and man did it work. Hunter’s goal was to raise 40,000 pairs of shoes in honor of the 40th Anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death. Fans responded and Hunter raised 110,000 pairs before the game, including shoes donated by fans on the Samaritan Feet’s website.

Hunter’s barefoot gesture was such a big hit that TNT’s Inside the NBA announcers Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith went barefoot during its Mother’s Day telecast before the San Antonio/New Orleans Hornets game.

Many of the shoes have already been delivered to Nigeria as well as Liberia, the Darfur region of Sudan, Washington D.C. and Virginia. Hunter and his team will head to Nigeria to not only deliver shoes. They will visit schools, orphanages, hospitals, as well as holding basketball clinics.

Hunter told the Associated Press that he wants coaches in every sport across the country to go barefoot on a yet-to-be-named Saturday in 2009.

The Samaritan’s Feet website says its goal is to equip 10 million impoverished children with 10 million pairs of shoes in to years.

This is a lofty goal, but realistic with people like Hunter and his team bringing this worthwhile charity to the forefront. Anyone who would like to donate or get involved, please visit the Samaritan’s Feet website at samaritansfeet.org.

Photo: Newscom

Post from: EveryJoe

IUPUI’s Basketball Team Gets Off On The Right Foot