Bruce Elder (basketball)

Bruce Elder is a former all-SEC basketball forward for Vanderbilt University. Lassiter high school (Marietta)

A transfer from Davidson College where he played his freshman year, Elder was named 1993 NCAA Academic All-American of the Year. He was an integral part of the regional number 3 seed Commodores which were ranked as high as number 5 and reached the sweet 16 round of the 1993 NCAA Division 1 tournament. During the regular season the team knocked off numbers 9 Louisville, 8 Arkansas, and top-ranked Kentucky during the regular season and Illinois 85–68 in the NCAAs before falling to Temple 59–67. They finished with their all-time best record of 28–6 including an SEC regular season record of 14–2.

Both an intelligent and athletic player, Elder led the team in a number of different statistical categories during his career – rebounds during the 1990–91 and 1992–93 seasons, in field goal percentage in '92–93, block shots in '91–92 and '92–93, and steals in '90–91. He was named All-SEC Second Team for '92–93 and Academic All-SEC for all his three years with the team. He stands the Commodores 4th all-time leader in blocks per game with 0.6, 8th in assists per game with 3.05, 9th in field-goal percentage at 51.3%, and 10th in steals with 1.15.

Elder was drafted in the second round of the 1993 USBL college draft by the Atlanta Trojans. Finishing Vanderbilt with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and an M.B.A., he went on to become Client director with iXL Inc. in Atlanta.

Sources

• Memorial Gym Rats page