Jeremy Atkinson’s heart was set on North Carolina State from the moment the school contacted him.
He heard from the Wolfpack in November of his senior season at Wilson (N.C.) Fike High School. Atkinson averaged 27 points per game that year, finishing among the leaders in the state.But when March rolled around, NC State asked the undersized, 6-foot-4, 210-pound forward to walk-on. The other Division-I programs that expressed interest in him, including Elon, UNC Wilmington and UNC Greensboro, had filled their scholarships.
‘When I heard from them, I pretty much put all the other schools on the side,’ Atkinson said. ‘I was really wanting NC State, but by the time signing time came around, they really didn’t have a scholarship for me.’
So Atkinson was faced with a decision: play Division-II or take the junior college route.
‘All the Division-II schools were raving for me to come play for them,’ Atkinson said. ‘By that time, I was ready to commit to the home community college in Wilson, which is right down the street from my house, and (then-Louisburg College head) coach John Meeks came to my house and gave me a scholarship to play at Louisburg College.’
That choice turned out to be beneficial for Atkinson. As a sophomore, the forward led the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight of the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II men’s basketball national championship tournament as one of the nation’s most potent scorers. One year later, he finds himself not only playing at the Division-I level for UNC Asheville, but also preparing to play in the Big Dance.
On Thursday, he and the 16th-seeded Bulldogs (24-9) will take on No. 1 Syracuse (32-2) at 3:10 p.m. in Pittsburgh.
The moment will have been a long time coming for Atkinson. If Meeks – now the head coach at Wallace State – had never driven to Atkinson’s home in Elm City, N.C., Atkinson’s dream of playing in the NCAA Tournament might never have come to fruition. Before that point, Louisburg had little appeal to him.
It’s the school at which his mom once played.
‘I told her, ‘Mom, whatever I do, I’m not going to Louisburg,” Atkinson said. ‘And then when I got here at Louisburg (for signing day) I was like, ‘Aw, man.’ I just thought about that time I told her that.’
They laugh about it now, but Atkinson’s initial impression of the school’s gymnasium merited just one word.
‘Bad.’
And Louisburg was his new home.
Sharpening his game at both ends of the court, Atkinson cherished his two years with the Hurricanes. He emerged as a dangerous and potent scorer in his second year, posting averages of 20 points and 11 rebounds per game.
Named a Junior College All-American, Atkinson led the Hurricanes to a three-loss season and a deep postseason run.
‘He’s a guy that when he touched the ball, he couldn’t really be stopped,’ Louisburg head coach Mark Vanderslice said. ‘He can be somewhat maintained at UNC Asheville just because he’s not their No. 1 scoring threat. He’s not their No. 1 go-to guy, but you give him the ball and he’s going to score with the best of them.’
He proved just that during the week of Nov. 24, 2010.
Against Brunswick, he poured in 43 points on 15-of-24 shooting and added 18 rebounds. He posted similar numbers against Catawba Valley en route to being named the Junior College Player of the Week.
But Vanderslice said his intangible contributions – those that don’t show up in the box score – and off-the-court demeanor were equally valuable.
‘He may have averaged 20 points per game, but he was worth 40 just because of the positive encouragement that he brought to the table,’ Vanderslice said. ‘The energy that was sustained through diving on the floor for loose balls, taking charges, the grunt work, the blue-collar type of plays that guys just don’t like to provide for a team, he always did.’
Still, something was holding him back. It was the same attribute that scared off many coaches when he came out of high school. His height.
A 6-foot-4 power forward doesn’t traditionally succeed at the D-I level. And Vanderslice said 6-foot-4 is generous in describing Atkinson’s size.
Atkinson took a nearly 300-mile road trip with his father to Charleston Southern for an official visit. But he left with only a promise that CSU would look over his film and get back to him later in the week.
The call from CSU never came.
Crossing the border back into North Carolina, Atkinson received a different call, from Vanderslice. The Louisburg head coach, a former UNC Asheville player, took matters into his own hands.
Vanderslice called UNC Asheville assistant coach Nick McDevitt and pitched his star forward to McDevitt. Vanderslice and McDevitt were former teammates under longtime and current Bulldogs head coach Eddie Biedenbach.
The UNC Asheville coaching staff gave Atkinson a chance and brought him in for a workout. Vanderslice made one more selling point before the decision was made.
‘I just told those guys, ‘Hey, look, you have to answer yourself a question: Do you want to recruit a player, or do you want to recruit a position?” Vanderslice said. ”If you want to recruit a position, then you can jump in line with every other Division-I school who wanted to pass up on him. Or you can recruit a player and get what they just got, who I think has been a quality addition to their team.”
Averaging 11.7 points and a team-high 6.6 rebounds per game, Atkinson has helped propel the Bulldogs to their second straight Big South tournament title. UNC Asheville dismantled Charleston Southern, 91-64, in the semifinals of the conference tournament.
Replacing John Williams, the only starter UNC Asheville lost last season, Atkinson made immediate contributions. He earned his stripes early in the season, proving to the veterans that he belongs on the court with them.
Leading Utah by 10 points Nov. 26, the Bulldogs had all but secured a victory. Still, Atkinson sprawled out for a loose ball, successfully making the save. He smashed his nose in the process.Stephenson remembers walking up to him after the play and asking why he did that.
‘I just wanted the ball. It was another possession for us,’ Atkinson said as blood gushed down his face.
‘Ever since then, I’ve just known that this kid’s going to be great in our system,’ Stephenson said. ‘He wanted a conference championship just like we’ve had in previous years.’
That feat was completed when the Bulldogs knocked off Virginia Military 80-64 on March 3. A year ago, while Atkinson carried the Hurricanes to the Elite Eight of the NJCAA Tournament, UNC Asheville beat Arkansas-Little Rock in the first round of the NCAA Tournament before falling to Pittsburgh. Senior guards J.P, Primm and Matt Dickey, two of the team’s four returning starters, josh Atkinson for not being a part of that team.
Atkinson will feel that moment for himself Thursday.
‘This is way different than Danville, Ill., the NJCAA Tournament. This is the Big Dance right here,’ Atkinson said. ‘This is what you’ve been wanting. This is what you wanted to go through junior college to get through, the NCAA Tournament.’
sebail01@syr.edu