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Two Crimson Tide Hoops Players Set To Travel

By Randy Patrick Sports

Published: Mon, May 14, 2007 - 11:05 am

Randy Patrick

Two University of Alabama basketball players embark on an adventure of a lifetime today. Demetrius Jemison and Mikhail Torrance began the first leg of their journey to China Monday. The Crimson Tide teammates, who were both freshmen this past season, are part of an eight-man team who will play eight exhibition games in 10 days as part of a May 14-28 cultural exchange trip for Reach USA, a branch of Sports Reach, International. Sports Reach is a Christian sports ministry that uses sports to share the Gospel throughout the world. The team, which is made up of NCAA Division I players, six of them from the Southeastern Conference, will gather together in the U.S. for practice then fly into Beijing on May 16. Torrance and Jemison will be joined by LSU's Garrett Temple, Auburn's Quan Prowell and Rasheen Barrett, Mississippi State's Brian Johnson, Lipscomb's Eddie Ard and Texas Pan American's Paul Stoll. Tom Schuberth, head coach at Texas-Pan American is the team's head coach and his assistant is Auburn administrative assistant Bryan Bartley. Torrance is a 6-foot-4 point guard out of Mobile's Mary Montgomery High School. He played in 21 games for Alabama this season, averaging 3.0 points and 1.0 rebounds. Jemison is a 6-foot-7 forward out of Birmingham's Huffman High School. He played in all 32 games as a freshman at Alabama, averaging 2.9 points and 3.3 rebounds.