On Feb. 2, UNCW will hang a third basketball uniform in the rafters of Trask Coliseum, retiring Brett Blizzard’s jersey. Just two seasons after his graduation, Blizzard’s number 11 will join the jerseys of Brian Rowsom and Bill Mayhew. Even though it has been less than two years since his graduation, the honoring of Blizzard for his unparallel accomplishments at UNCW is long over due.

Blizzard put UNCW basketball on the map, reaching the NCAA tournament three times and the NIT tournament once as a Seahawk. He is the only player in CAA history to be named First-Team All-Conference in all four years of his career. Blizzard is the all-time leading scorer at UNCW and fifth in CAA history, scoring 2,144 points. He also leads UNCW with 249 career steals and is second all-time with 360 assists.

Retiring his jersey should have been done on senior night of his senior year while all of his teammates, coaches, family, and fellow students were in attendance. Now, Blizzard must return home from Italy, in between games of his pro team, to attend the ceremony.

Retiring of a jersey while a player is presently playing on the team is not a foreign concept. One of the most prestigious basketball schools, Duke University, retired Shane Battier’s and Grant Hill’s numbers in mid-season of their senior year. Blizzard meant as much if not more to UNCW as Battier and Hill meant to Duke.

Never the less, Blizzard will always be remembered as UNCW’s great one. The great strides that he made, and the high standards that he set for UNCW provided a stepping stone for the Seahawk basketball program, and for that, Seahawk fans everywhere are grateful.