| Intro | American basketball player |
| A.K.A. | Calbert Nathaniel Cheaney |
| Is |
Athlete Sports coach Basketball player Basketball coach |
| From | United States of America |
| Type | Sports |
| Gender | male |
| Birth | 17 July 1971, Evansville |
| Age: | 49 years |
Calbert Nathaniel Cheaney (born July 17, 1971) is a retired American basketball player and a former assistant coach at Saint Louis University. At the conclusion of his collegiate basketball career, he was the all-time leading scorer of both Indiana and the Big Ten and had captured virtually every post-season honor available. During a thirteen-year NBA career, Cheaney played for five different teams, averaging 9.5 points and 3.2 rebounds.
Early life
Born in Evansville, Indiana, Cheaney played high school ball at William Henry Harrison High School in Evansville and was selected to the 1989 Indiana All-Star team. Cheaney was a high school stand-out, but a season-ending injury midway through his senior year pushed him off the national radar and left him as a virtual unknown in Indiana’s #1 ranked recruiting class of 1989.
College
Cheaney played small forward at Indiana University for head coach Bob Knight. He was Knight’s first left-handed player and began his career with a flash, scoring 20 points in the season opener of his freshman year (the only Indiana freshman to ever do so).
Cheaney was known as a smooth leader all four years at Indiana. During the last three of his years at Indiana, the team spent all but two of the 53 poll weeks in the top 10, and 38 of them in the top 5. The Hoosiers were 87-16 (.845) those years and a 46-8 (.852) mark in the Big Ten Conference. Of the four years Cheaney played the Hoosiers went 105-27 and captured two Big Ten crowns (’91 and ’93). The 105 games won during Cheaney’s four years was the most of any Hoosier to that point.
As a junior, during the 1991–92 season, Indiana reached the 1992 NCAA Final Four, but fell to Duke in a foul-plagued game in Minneapolis. As a senior, during the 1992–93 season, the 31-4 Hoosiers finished the season at the top of the AP Poll, but were defeated by Kansas in the Elite Eight.
While at Indiana, Cheaney scored 30 or more points thirteen times and averaged 19.8 points per game, with a high of 22.4 as senior. With 2,613 career points, he is the all-time leading scorer of both Indiana and the Big Ten.
At the conclusion of his collegiate career, Cheaney had captured virtually every post-season honor available. He was the national Player of the Year (winning both the Wooden and Naismith award), a unanimous All-American, and Big Ten Player of the Year.
Professional career
Cheaney was selected 6th overall by the Washington Bullets in the 1993 NBA draft. His strongest showing as pro came in 1994–1995 when he averaged a career-high 16.6 points for Washington. He spent six years playing for the Bullets/Wizards (including a playoff appearance in 1997). He would go on to play for the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and Utah Jazz, before closing his career out with the Golden State Warriors, retiring after the 2005–06 season.
Off the court, Cheaney appeared along with many of his 1997 Bullet teammates (Juwan Howard, Ben Wallace, and Ashraf Amaya) in singer Crystal Waters’ 1996 video “Say If You Feel Alright”.
He also appeared in the 1994 film Blue Chips as a player for Indiana University.
Post-NBA
Following his retirement as a player, Cheaney served as a special assistant coach for the Warriors for the 2009–10 and 2010–11 seasons.
On June 18, 2011, it was announced that Cheaney would return to Indiana University as Director of Basketball Operations. On July 11, 2012, Crean named Cheaney his director of internal and external player development, a role that added to his duties as director of operations. On August 21, 2013, it was announced that Cheaney had accepted an assistant coach position at Saint Louis University under head coach Jim Crews, who also played at Indiana.
Basketball honors
- 1993: Won all 12 NCAA National Player of the year awards. Unanimous First-Team All America
- All-America 1991, 1992, 1993
- 1993 Big Ten Conference MVP
- All-Big Ten 1991, 1992, 1993
- Big Ten’s All Time Scoring Leader (2,613)
- Indiana University’s All-Time leading scorer
- Four time IU team MVP
- Selected to Indiana University’s All-Century First Team
- 1993 USBWA College Player of the Year