Augsburg's Devean George playing with Harlem Globetrotters in College All-Star Series

Augsburg's Devean George playing with Harlem Globetrotters in College All-Star Series

MINNEAPOLIS (4/29/99) -- Augsburg College men's basketball player Devean George (Sr., Minneapolis, Minn./Benilde-St. Margaret HS) is playing with the Harlem Globetrotters professional basketball team in a series of three games against a team of college basketball senior all-stars.

George, a 6-8 forward, started for the Globetrotters and scored 11 points in the first game of the College All-Star Series, a 108-87 victory by the Globetrotters in Oakland, Calif., last Sunday (4/25). He also had five rebounds, three assists and one blocked shot.

The final two games are this Saturday (5/1) at 6 p.m. at Detroit's Palace of Auburn Hills and Sunday (5/2) at 1 p.m. at the Firstar Center in Cincinnati. Sunday's game will be aired on a tape-delayed basis on the ESPN-2 cable network, on Monday, May 3 at 6 p.m. (if no NHL hockey playoff game can be aired) and on Wednesday, May 5 at 10 p.m. The College All-Star Series is being sponsored by Denny's Restaurants.

"He is talented, which is the thing you'd want in a kid, but he also has a physical and mental strength that not many college kids his age have," said Mannie Jackson, owner and chairman of the Harlem Globetrotters. "I was sitting with several of the scouts at the (first college all-star) game and they were impressed with his personal discipline. He's strong, both mentally and physically."

George's commitment to the Globetrotters is for the three games of the College All-Star series only, Globetrotter officials said. George was scouted for the Globetrotter squad by team scout Chad Groth, who grew up in the same neighborhood of north Minneapolis as George. Jackson also has ties to the Twin Cities; before purchasing the Globetrotters in 1993, Jackson spent 26 years in Minneapolis at Honeywell, Inc., where he served as corporate officer and senior vice president.

George, a rare NCAA Division III player being considered for a possible pro career, was named to the All-Tournament Team at the Portsmouth, Va., Invitational, the first of three development camps for NBA prospects, earlier this month. The final camp, in Chicago, will be held in early June. The NBA Draft will be held June 30 in Washington, D.C.

George is trying to become the first Division III player drafted by an NBA team since 1991, when Lamont Strothers of Christopher Newport (Va.) was drafted by Golden State. George would be the second Augsburg player ever drafted by an NBA team. Greg Boone, who played for the Auggies from 1979-81, was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers as a late-round pick in 1981, but never played in the NBA.

George was considered one of the top players in Division III basketball this season, averaging 27.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game -- one of only two players in Division III to average at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game. He ended his career with 2,258 points scored and 868 career rebounds, and was named the Most Valuable Player of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for the second straight year this season. The Auggies finished 24-4 this season, winning the MIAC regular-season title and advancing to the Division III national playoffs, each for the second year in a row.

The 1999 College All-Star team boasts some of the country's finest collegians, including: Arthur Lee (Stanford University), Melvin Levett (University of Cincinnati), Jermaine Jackson (University of Detroit), Ademola Okulaja (University of North Carolina), Geno Carlisle (University of California) and Jelani Gardner (Pepperdine University). The college all-star team will be coached by Hall of Famer Pete Newell and former Chicago Bulls and Dallas Mavericks coach Jim Cleamons. Bernie Bickerstaff, who coached for 10 years in the NBA with Seattle, Denver and Washington, is serving as a coaching consultant with the Globetrotters.

Competitive games against the top college basketball players are nothing new for the Harlem Globetrotters. The original series against the College All-Stars began in 1950 and continued into the 1960s before being resurrected again in 1997. Overall, the Harlem Globetrotters own a 20,060-332 lifetime record in their 73 years of entertaining fans around the world. Of the 332 losses, 65 have been at the hands of the College All-Stars.