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Ronald Ross (basketball)

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Ronald Ross
Personal information
Born (1983-02-11) February 11, 1983 (age 41)
Hobbs, New Mexico, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High schoolHobbs (Hobbs, New Mexico)
CollegeTexas Tech (2001–2005)
NBA draft2005: undrafted
Playing career2005–2018
PositionPoint guard
Number10
Career history
As player:
2005–2006Castelletto Ticino
2006–2007Butte Daredevils
2007Albany Patroons
2007–2008MHP Riesen Ludwigsburg
2008Artland Dragons
2009Maccabi Givat Shmuel
2009Maccabi Haifa
2009–2010Artland Dragons
2010–2011Syntainics
2011–2013Jolly JBŠ
2013–2014Apollon Patras
2014Jolly JBŠ
2014ESSM Le Portel
2014–2016Pitești
2016–2017Keravnos
2017Trikala 2000
2017–2018Keravnos
As coach:
2018–2020Texas Tech (graduate assistant)
Career highlights and awards
  • A1 League All-Defensive Team (2014)
  • A1 League All-Imports Team (2014)
  • Second-team All-A1 League (2014)
  • USBL Defensive Player of the Year (2007)
  • First-team All-USBL (2007)
  • Chip Hilton Player of the Year (2005)
  • First-team All-Big 12 (2005)
  • Big 12 All-Defensive Team (2005)

Ronald Ross (born February 11, 1983) is an American retired professional basketball player and coach. He played internationally for a number of years but he is best known for his collegiate career at Texas Tech University.

Playing career

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High school

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A native of the Southwest, Ross starred at Hobbs High School in Hobbs, New Mexico.[1] He was an integral part of three consecutive state championships from 1999 to 2001, including an undefeated campaign as a sophomore in 1998–99 (27–0).[1] Hobbs High School won the 1999 and 2001 state championships at the University of New Mexico's famous home court, The Pit.[1] And while Ross performed well throughout his prep career – having been named USA Today's New Mexico State Player of the Year as a senior – he found himself without any four-year college scholarship offers.[1][2] In one game that season he recorded 38 points, 8 steals, 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 5 dunks.[3]

College

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Ross decided to walk on to the Texas Tech basketball team as a freshman in 2001–02, in spite of his mother's urging to attend one year of junior college instead.[1] It was Bob Knight's first year at Tech and he needed talented walk-ons to begin building his roster.[1] It took until Ross' junior year to earn a scholarship, however.[1] Years later his mother said, "I had to support him. It was expensive and hard at first, but I'd have to say it's worked out."[1] The year he earned his scholarship saw him more than double his scoring average from 4.5 as a sophomore to 10.1 as a junior.[4] He started 31 of 34 games played, and rounded out his season averages with 3.1 assists and 1.5 steals.[4]

Knight made Ross a team captain when he became a senior in 2004–05.[1] Ross was known for his work ethic[3] and later that season garnered praise from Knight, who said "He's an all-time example to kids as to what they can do with what they have."[1] He again substantially increased his scoring average, netting 17.5 points per game to along with 5.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 2.6 steals per game.[4] The 6th-seeded Red Raiders advanced to the NCAA tournament's Sweet Sixteen behind Ross' great play.[1] In the opening round win against 11th-seeded UCLA, Ross scored a then-school record for points in an NCAA Tournament game with 28 (later surpassed by Jarrett Culver in 2019).[1] In the next round against 3rd-seeded Gonzaga, he scored 24 points, including a go-ahead three-pointer with 1:06 remaining as well as two free throws to clinch the Red Raiders' two-point win.[1] Ross garnered several individual accolades. For Big 12 Conference honors he was named to the All-Big 12 first-team and the All-Defensive Team.[2] Nationally, he was named the winner of the Chip Hilton Player of the Year Award, given by the NCAA to a Division I player who demonstrated outstanding character, leadership, integrity, humility, sportsmanship, and talent.[2] Ross finished his collegiate career with 1,174 points.[4]

Statistics

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Texas Tech statistics[4]
Year G GS FG FGA PCT FT FTA PCT REB AVG A AVG TO B S MIN PTS AVG
2001–02 30 5 38 78 .487 17 26 .654 32 1.1 29 1.0 24 1 12 317 93 3.1
2002–03 35 20 68 154 .442 16 26 .615 71 2.0 86 2.5 33 9 56 697 159 4.5
2003–04 34 31 132 268 .493 57 73 .781 117 3.4 106 3.1 57 7 50 981 344 10.1
2004–05 33 31 232 447 .519 74 97 .763 180 5.5 99 3.0 56 3 86 1,138 578 17.5
Totals 132 87 470 947 .496 164 222 .739 400 3.0 320 2.4 170 20 204 3,133 1,174 8.9

Professional

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Following Texas Tech, Ross went undrafted in the 2005 NBA draft.[5] He quickly found a spot playing for Castelletto Ticino in Serie A2 Basket, Italy's second-tier league.[6] After one year he returned to the United States to play in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) for the Butte Daredevils, and then in the USBL for the Albany Patroons.[6] During his time with the Patroons he earned All-USBL first-team honors and was also named the league's defensive player of the year.[7][8]

Overall, Ross' professional career spanned 13 years (2005–2018) and included stops in Italy, Germany, Israel, Croatia, Greece, France, Cyprus, and Romania.[6]

Coaching career

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Texas Tech head coach Chris Beard offered Ronald Ross a position as a graduate assistant in 2018–19.[3] Beard had been an assistant coach under Bob Knight during Ross' college playing career, and there was much mutual respect.[3] Ross took the position, and in his first year the Red Raiders made it to the NCAA national championship game for the first time in school history, but lost 85–77 in overtime.[2] He coached one more season, but upon the conclusion of 2019–20 he resigned, opting to leave the coaching profession to instead to pursue a career in business.[9] He relayed his resignation to the public via Twitter, posting "Coaching has been a blessing and I’m confident in my capabilities to be great at it, but I’ve always been intrigued by business and I’m simply just motivated to conquer a new quest and pursue something different!"[9]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Sickenger, Ken (March 23, 2005). "Texas Tech's Ronald Ross, a Hobbs Alum, Makes a Glorious Return to Pit". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Coach Ronald Ross – Men's Basketball". Texas Tech University. 2018. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d "Ronald Ross eyes next chapter in life with Texas Tech". Hobbs News-Sun. April 1, 2019. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Ronald Ross college statistics". sports-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  5. ^ "2005 NBA Draft". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. 2020. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  6. ^ a b c "Ronald Ross". ProBallers Basketball Stats. 2019. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  7. ^ "USBL Reveals 2007 "All-USBL" Teams". OurSportsCentral. July 10, 2007. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  8. ^ "Former Red Raiders Shining Abroad". Texas Tech University. March 18, 2015. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
  9. ^ a b Williams, Don (May 29, 2020). "Tech sports roundup: Ross to leave coaching, pursue business". Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved July 19, 2020.
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