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Burras, a late bloomer, has been a star at every stop.
(AP/The News-Star, Michael Meeks)
| Alisa
Burras,
Louisiana
Tech
Class: Senior
Position: Center
Height:
6'3"
DOB:
June 23,
1975
Hometown:
Chicago
High School:
John
Marshall
Vital Stats:
13.6 points per game, 7.6 rebounds, 61.5% field
goals
by Dana
Gelin
Alisa Burras didn't take up basketball until her freshman
year of high school, under duress. "I was getting
taller and taller and my dad was trying to push basketball
on me," says Burras, who was already 6'1".
"While he was pushing it on me, I was
moving away from it. Finally, he made me get on the
team."
Burras' coaches at John Marshall High, Westark Community
College in
Ft. Smith, Ark., and now at Louisiana Tech should all shake
Phil Burras' hand. The opposition may want to have a word
with him,
too.
The girl who didn't want to play basketball was recently
named second-team All-America. Her love for the game
developed along with her skills. "Junior year, I was
playing in a summer league and all of a sudden I was
scoring 30 points a game," she says.
"I said, Oh, this is
fun." Her senior year of high school, Burras finally
moved into the starting lineup. She earned all-state honors
and attention from college recruiters.
Her ACT score wasn't high enough to gain freshman
eligiblity at a Division I school, so she went to Westark,
where two high school teammates were already playing. In
her first year the
Lady Lions finished 35-0 and won the JUCO national championship.
Burras made the all-tournament team. After averaging 22.1
points per game and earning All-America honors the next
season, Burras signed with Louisiana Tech.
As a junior she led the team in points, rebounds, field
goal percentage and blocks. This year the 6'3" center
is averaging 13.6 points per game (all five Tech starters
score in double figures), along with 7.6 rebounds. Her .615
shooting percentage ranks
eighth in the nation.
Burras, who is one of 11 children, still misses the
mega-malls of her native Chicago, but otherwise enjoys the
small-town life in Ruston, La. (pop. 20,000). There the
Lady Techsters are as revered as Burras' beloved Bulls are
in the Windy City. "They're
my team, win or lose," she says of Michael Jordan and
Co. "But I'm looking for them to win this
year."
She's looking for Louisiana Tech to do the
same.
Other Spotlights
March 19: Brian Cardinal, Purdue
March 18: Tim Young, Stanford
March 17: Sarunas
Jasikevicius, Maryland; Adia Barnes, Arizona
March 16: Mateen Cleaves, Michigan; Murriel Page, Florida
March 15: Jason Hart, Syracuse
March 14: Kris Johnson, UCLA
March 13: Lee Nailon, Texas Christian
March 12: Brian Earl, Princeton
March 11: Tyrone Weeks, Massachusetts
March 10: Brett Robisch, Oklahoma St.
March 9: Larry Hughes, Saint Louis
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