Former Wichita State Player Killed

[tornado]

Most people won't remember him, but Ozell Jones played his freshman and sophomore seasons at Wichita State in the early 1980's, on teams that also included future NBAer's Cliff Levingston and Antoine Carr.
He then transferred to Cal State Fullerton where he teamed with another future NBA player, Leon Wood (who is now an NBA referee), and Ozell himself also ended up playing a couple years in the NBA.

He was shot and killed in his home in California, where he resides with his wife and family, and the police presently are investigating but have no suspects.
Ozell was 45 years old and owned a "Big and Tall" men's clothing store in Los Angeles.

http://basketballreference.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=JONESOZ01

http://www.presstelegram.com/sports/ci_4322557

http://csufhoops.tripod.com/nbatitans.html

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:lYl7lGSeCQaApM:http://csufhoops.tripod.com/jones.jpg

[Da Coach]

I remember him. I recall his nickname at WSU was Big-O. He was pretty good.

[collegehoopjunkie]

I just checked on the Shocker message board, and there are no posts about Big-O but sooner or later they'll get some discussion going, as I am sure some of the old timer Shocker fans will remember him as a skinny center with a lot of promise who didn't stick around long enough at WSU.
Ozell went 20th in the 4th round of the 1984 NBA draft.
Even after his NBA career, he played with the Tulsa Fastbreakers of the CBA up until the early 1990's.

BU had a lot of players drafted in the early 80's but none in 1984.

BU placed 3 guys in the 1982 draft (Thirdkill 1st Rd-20th pick, JJ 2nd Rd-13th pick, Donald Reese 8th Rd-8th pick)
and two more in the 1983 draft (Barney Mines 4th Rd-17th pick)
and one more in the 1985 draft (Voise winters 2nd Rd-20th pick)
and two more in the 1986 draft (Mike Williams 3rd Rd-4th pick, Jim Les 3rd Rd-23rd pick)

[collegehoopjunkie]

Now there is some discussion on the shockernet board

http://www.shockernet.net/sn/viewtopic.php?t=4417

and on the Cal State-Fullerton board

http://mb20.scout.com/fcalstatefullertonfrm1.showMessage?topicID=4966.topic