Keshun Sherrill starts strong and Ben Madgen is making his dream come true

Sherrill's image is on the team's bus

Keshun Sherrill, the all time scoring leader for Augusta University and the Peach Belt Conference, notched a win in his professional debut, scoring 18 points, dishing 8 assists and grabbing 7 rebounds as New Heroes Basketball topped Weert 81-63 Tuesday in Holland. Sherrill made 8 of 13 field goal attempts and 3 of 6 three pointers, and he also grabbed 4 rebounds. I asked Sherrill in a message after the game whether he was nervous in his first professional outing:

"I would say I was more anxious than nervous," said the pure shooting point guard who racked up 2,333 points in college. "Of course I had the first game jitters, but when the ball went up in the air I was good to go."

Trailing 21-16 after one quarter, New Heroes took command of the game by outscoring Weert 25-5 in the second period. New Heroes led 41-26 at halftime, and the lead only briefly narrowed to as close as 13 once early in the fourth quarter.

New Heroes plays its first home game Sunday.

More news about Jaguars in Europe

Big brother KJ is off to a good start in Germany

After my preseason update about Sherrill and another Augusta University legend, Garret Siler, Augusta assistant Lennie Carlson, who has a wealth of experience playing professionally overseas and coaching at the highest levels, commented that he believed Sherrill will eventually reach a higher level of European ball, possibly in Germany or France. Germany is where Sherrill's brother KJ - who earned All Peach Belt Conference honors in his only season at Augusta University after transferring from UNC Charlotte - is playing. The older Sherrill, who at 6'8" stands a foot taller than Keshun, has averaged 18 points and 11 rebounds in his team's first 6 games. His Bonn II squad's next outing will be this Saturday.

The Sherrill brothers saw each other during the preseason when KJ and his girlfriend watched Keshun play when New Heroes played an exhibition game in Germany. Their close proximity to each other has to help the strain of living in a foreign country. "The next time I'll see him will be Christmas. Instead of coming back to the states I'll go and spend it with them," Sherrill said.

Ben Madgen is living out his dream

This post by Ben Madgen is a must read!
http://www.eurocupbasketball.com/eurocup/features/blogs/2017-2018/ben-madgen/i/896uownnyoqr8cby/ben-madgen-living-the-eurocup-dream

Ben Madgen, who led Augusta to three consecutive elite 8 NCAA tournament appearances and whose school and conference scoring records Sherrill finally broke in the second to last game of Sherrill's career, is living out his dream of reaching the highest level of European basketball. In a blog post written by Madgen and posted on the official website for EuroLeague and EuroCup basketball, the highest level of ball besides the NBA, Madgen tells his story of success, adversity, risk taking, and the partnership of marriage.

After starring in Australia, his home country, and Belgium for the first half-decade since leaving Augusta, Madgen eventually found his way last season to Lithuania, where he averaged 14 points per game in EuroCup play for Panevezys. This season he plays for Lithuania's Lietuvos Rytas, also a EuroCup participant, and he has scored 9 points per game in the first 6 outings of LKL league play.

Madgen's best game this season was his 21 point outing in a 75-69 road win against Vytautas Thursday. He made 9 of 12 field goal attempts, including all 8 of his two-point tries. Here are the game highlights:

Lietuvos plays its first EuroCup game tomorrow at noon our time. I'll report on Madgen's first outing afterwards!