Posted: 6/3/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Josh Birnbaum Illinois' Demetri McCamey raises his arms to get fans to cheer during a game against Minnesota at Assembly Hall on March 8. Illinois defeated Minnesota, 67-58. McCamey and assistant coach Jerrance Howard were among the participants in the Reach USA basketball tour.

Jerrance Howard slept through the first tremor that shook Champaign on April 18 because he was "knocked out in a coma sleeping." The Illinois assistant coach said he felt like he was the only one who did not feel anything from the 5.2-magnitude earthquake centered in southern Illinois.

But Howard felt the quake in China.

Howard departed for China to coach nine collegiate players, including Illinois' Demetri McCamey and Mike Davis, on the Reach USA tour just two days after a 7.8-magnitude earthquake devastated the country.

Howard said he felt three aftershocks during his week-long visit.

"They lasted about four seconds," Howard said. "One time I was in my room, and I just saw the water moving then I felt something underneath me. My heart goes out to those families. It really affected the whole country."

The final two games of the tour were cancelled as players became frightened of the tremors.

"They did get a little scared about the earthquake, and the atmosphere over there was just really tense with the loss of all those people," Howard said.

The death toll from the quake had risen to more than 69,000 by the Sunday of the tournament, but the grave condition did not stop Chinese basketball fans from packing arenas to see who they thought were NBA players.

"It was like 5,000 people or more coming out, so it brought a sense of relief and brought some energy and new life around the country, so they really embraced us," Howard said.

The trip was the first head coaching experience for the second-year Illinois assistant. After coaching the team to a 1-3-1 record against Chinese professional team Shandong Gold, Howard said he sent a text message to Bruce Weber expressing his respect for the Illinois head coach on "a whole 'nother level."

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools

The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.

The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.

If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.