Every time one person interviews another person whose name is Solo for a blog post, you already know at the least the title is taken care of. Fortunately, Solomon “Solo” Bozeman, basketball’s reigning Sun Belt Player of Year, is interesting enough to make delving into the following post itself worth your while:
Bozeman, of course, is the guy who in one magical net-swishing March moment lifted UALR from 20 years of NCAA Tournamentlessness to the quasi-promise land of Dayton, Ohio. The star Trojan guard would soon afterward end his career with 18 points in March Madness‘ opener against UNC-Charlotte, an overtime game from which he fouled out before regulation ended.
Although his eligibility is gone, Bozeman still keeps his skills sharp playing with Trojans.
This summer, he played in Dunbar Community Center’s summer basketball league with the likes of former UALR players Mark Green, Darius Eason, Nick Zachary and Bozeman’s classmate Derrick Bails. Their team, “Too Fast, Too Furious,” lost in the playoffs but Bozeman contends they would have done better had he played in a higher percentage of the team’s 16 games.
But training and school limited him to six games, said Bozeman, who’s taking nine hours this fall to finish a UALR master’s degree in sports management.
The classes are online in case his agent, Ben Pensack, helps land him a gig playing in Europe or the NBDL this fall.
Bozeman has tried to stay ready. Along with summer league ball and individual training, Bozeman spent a week in New York City in June training under former NBA All-Star Butch Beard. He said he enjoyed twice-daily skills development sessions alongside former Notre Dame forward Carleton Scott.
Bozeman isn’t the only recent UALR grad with an eye on Europe. He said Bails leaves September 7th to play on a traveling team in Great Britain and France, but didn’t have any more specifics. He added former UALR star forward Shane Edwards left last week for Verona in northeastern Italy to play in that nation’s second-best league. Edwards will join Mario West (Georgia Tech), Jeff Trepagnier (USC) and a surprisingly large Sri Lankan immigrant population.
