Bryan McCullough, the county’s most recent member of the 1,000-point club, knows where he wants to play college basketball.
“I feel I’m a D-I player. Every scout I’ve talked to tells me that. That’s one of my goals, to play D-I basketball,” said North Rowan’s 6-foot-6 senior post player, who will lead the unbeaten Cavaliers against Avery County at 3:30 p.m. today in the sectional playoff finals in Hickory.
He had just scored 21 points on Wednesday in North’s 63-34 romp over Ledford in the sectional playoffs to reach 1,000 for his three-year career.
D-I, of course, is NCAA Division I, and two of the schools that are at the top of McCullough’s list are William & Mary and James Madison, both members of the Colonial Athletic Association.
“Their league is real hard. I like the Colonial Athletic league. It will challenge me night in and night out,” said McCullough.
Other Division I schools that are recruiting McCullough include Appalachian State, Winthrop, Elon, Charleston Southern, The Citadel and Binghamton (N.Y.).
McCullough has played center and power forward for the 25-0 Cavaliers, but knows he’ll be a perimeter player in college.
“Some schools want me as a 2 (shooting guard), but some schools want me as a 3 (small forward). It just depends on what the need is at that school,” said McCullough.
McCullough started his senior season with 535 career points and didn’t realize 1,000 was special until late this season, when he started thinking about it.
“It was not really a goal, but it was inside my head. I wasn’t going out there to get it, but I knew it would come to me,” he said.
He came into the game against Central Carolina Conference rival Ledford knowing that he had an advantage against a team North had defeated three times.
“The whole year no player on that team could stop me from going to the hole. That’s what I tried to do today. I knew if I kept doing that, I’d been able to get a thousand,” he said.
“It’s kind of secondary to winning a state championship, but it meant a lot to me. There’s a whole bunch of good players that have come through North that could have scored a thousand, but didn’t. I just waited my turn — points year by year — two hundred here, three hundred there, and ended up getting it,” he added.
McCullough became the eighth career 1,000-point scorer in school history when he put back a teammate’s missed shot with 2:18 left in the third quarter. Seconds later, during a timeout, his feat was announced over the public address system, and he gave a triumphant wave to the North fans.
“It couldn’t happen to a nicer young man,” said coach Kelly Everhart of the Cavaliers. “He’s worked very, very hard all year long. He just does everything as a player that you ask him to do.
“Bryan just kept taking the ball to the hole. He kept getting good looks. I don’t know how many putbacks he had there early in the game. I know one time their player turned around and was going to make an outlet pass, and Bryan just snatched it and put it back in.”
McCullough did not miss a second-half field goal or free throw and wound up 9-for-12 from the floor and 3-for-3 at the foul line.
“I’m just tickled to death for him,” added Everhart. “You want to see all kids succeed, but whenever they work as hard as he has, that makes it extra special.”
McCullough isn’t the first member of his family to be a scoring leader on a strong North team. Father Kevin led the 1979 Cavaliers to a 20-6 season and scored 476 points in his career.
“They tell me he was the man,” said Bryan. “He always talks junk to me. Back in that day, I don’t think you had to be that big to play basketball. He was probably about 160 (pounds) in high school. He’s 6-2.”
Kevin McCullough averaged 12.2 on a 1979 North team that almost had five starters in double figures. He ranks 41st on North’s career list.
North’s all-time scoring leader is James Henderson, who scored 1,654 in a career that ended in 1972.
Others who have accomplished the feat have been Edwin Suber (1,467), Jimmy Kesler (1,359), Randy Hutchins (1,302), Antione Sifford (1,102), Jamel Aldrich (1,096) and Benny Craige (1,075).
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