Foes focusing more on Bulldogs' Nelson

When Georgia Southern coaches met Tuesday morning to go over their scouting report on The Citadel's basketball team, Demetrius Nelson was a prime topic of discussion.

"We were just talking about him and how much he's really developed for them," Eagles coach Jeff Price said of the Bulldogs' 6-8 senior center. "Having missed a year, he's really become a huge factor for them down low. He gives them a whole different dimension that they did not have last year."

Nelson showed just what a difference he can make in The Citadel's most recent game, a 58-57 win over Bethune-Cookman last Saturday. He made 8 of 9 shots from the field and scored 18 points, 13 in the second half, as the Bulldogs stormed back from 14 points down to win.

Consequently, the 6-7 Bulldogs won a game in which they shot just 5 of 20 from 3-point range, including 0 of 8 in the second half. Last season, with Nelson sidelined by a stress fracture in his foot, the Bulldogs had little inside presence and almost certainly would have lost that game.

Heading into tonight's game with Georgia Southern, Nelson has scored 39 points on 14 of 18 shooting in the Bulldogs' last two games, against Bethune-Cookman and South Carolina. He's toned up his 250 pounds and leads the Southern Conference in field goal percentage at 64.9.

"He has great strength down low and can score with his back to the basket," Price said. "He's experienced and smart and changes their team a lot. Anybody in the league would love to have him. I know I would."

The journey to some of the best ball of his career has been a long one for Nelson, a product of St. John's High School. He seemed headed for a standout career after averaging 9.6 points and 6.2 rebounds and shooting a team-best 51.7 percent while starting 14 of 31 games as a sophomore in 2005-06.

That was the last season for former coach Pat Dennis, and Nelson saw his starts, minutes, scoring and rebounding fall off as a junior in Ed Conroy's first season in 2006-07. Last year, he played in just seven games before taking a medical redshirt.

"It's taken two years to get him to this point," Conroy said with a grin after Nelson hit all six of his shots in the second half against Bethune-Cookman. "He's healthy and in better shape, and we've really monitored how we get him in shape without banging him and running him into the ground.

"And mentally, he's really enjoying his improvement and is eager to get to practice every day. I think he's as good as he's ever been."

That's not to say "Meat" doesn't have his issues. He's fouled out of two games this season and has picked up four fouls in four other games. Conroy has challenged him to play solid, mature defense without getting into foul trouble so that he is available for the end of close games.

"We need Demetrius on the floor, and many times he controls that with how he plays on the defensive end," Conroy said. "Against Bethune- Cookman, he played well enough on the defensive end without fouling so that we could use him at the end, and he came up big."

Nelson, who graduated from The Citadel last year and is living at home on John's Island with his parents while finishing out his career, is taking it all in stride.

"I'm healthy this year, and I'm just trying to take my time and play the basketball I know how to play," Nelson said. "I just want to enjoy my last season and go out and play hard."

--Tip-off for today's game has been changed to 6:05 p.m. due to the broadcast of the BCS college football championship game tonight between Florida and Oklahoma.

PRIME 'MEAT'

Citadel senior Demetrius Nelson is playing some of the best basketball of his career this season:

Year G Pts/G Reb/G Comment

2004-05 28 2.6 2.1 Started 2 games as freshman

2005-06 31 9.6 6.2 Shot 51.7% to lead team

2006-07 30 9.0 4.0 Came off bench in Conroy's 1st season

2007-08 7 12.1 5.7 Redshirted with stress fracture

2008-09 13 13.4 5.2 Leads SoCon at 64.9% from floor

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