For nearly two years, Anthony Sellars had to sit on the sidelines, unable to play the sport he loves.
A 22-month absence from the basketball court for the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff redshirt junior ended on Dec. 15 when he made his UAPB debut against Ecclesia College.
Sellars signed with UAPB ahead of the 2024-25 season out of Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo., but suffered a knee injury just before the junior college playoffs.
“I had came down wrong and just fractured a bone in my knee,” Sellars said. “I thought I didn’t need surgery, so I just sat out that year. I had surgery when I came here, because they had helped me out or what not. I just sat out all of last year, recovered, practiced, scout team, you know.”
According to the Three Rivers athletics website, Sellars’ last game was on Feb. 21, 2024, on the road against Missouri State University – West Plains. Sellars played 31 minutes and scored 16 points with eight rebounds.
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He missed the final five games the Raiders played that year before making the move from Poplar Bluff to Pine Bluff. UAPB ultimately decided to redshirt Sellars last season as he continued to recover from his knee injury.
Head Coach Solomon Bozeman said last season a healthy Sellars likely would have been one of UAPB’s leading scorers alongside Doctor Bradley, who averaged 19.6 points during SWAC play last season before transferring to Bethune-Cookman.
Sellars was one of the few players to remain at UAPB this year rather than enter the transfer portal. With his knee healing, he was set to finally suit up with the Golden Lions.
Then, he fractured his ankle right before the start of the season.
“Yeah, that was just a bummer,” Sellars said. “But, you know, it’s all part of God’s plan. I’m just happy to be here, you know, right here.”
That injury kept Sellars out of UAPB’s first 11 games this season, all of which were on the road. Sellars said though he couldn’t play, he traveled with the team as the Golden Lions covered nine states and three time zones.
“My job was just to be a great teammate,” he said. “Bringing the energy every day, getting rebounds, wherever I could be to help since I’m not playing.”
The Golden Lions went 1-10 over that stretch. Senior guard Quion Williams and forward Jaquan Scott led UAPB in scoring with help from freshman guard Milhan Charles and junior Trevon Payton, but UAPB often found itself short of other reliable scoring options.
UAPB played four games where its bench contributed 4 points or fewer and only exceeded 17 bench points twice: a 30-point performance against Miami (Ohio) and a 42-point night against Tulsa in which Scott scored 30 in the only game he has played in without starting.
The Golden Lions needed someone else to emerge and got good news two days after the Tulsa game: Sellars was medically cleared to practice.
Bozeman originally considered holding Sellars out of the home opener against Ecclesia and debuting him two days later against Champion Christian, but he decided the day of the game to go ahead and play Sellars.
“He’s been looking pretty good in practice, but I just wanted to get him out there today,” Bozeman said after the game. “To get him back on the floor, man, was valuable for our team. He’s going to be able to get some of those starters some rest at times where we ain’t gotta play those guys 35 or 36 minutes, so he’s going to provide depth off the bench for our team.”
Sellars checked in 3:31 into the game and was on the court for less than a minute before scoring his first points in nearly two years with a 3-pointer. He went on to play for just over 17 minutes and scored 20 points, a number which would have been tied for his fourth-best outing his sophomore season at Three Rivers.
He finished the night with three rebounds, and Bozeman challenged him to get more. Sellars responded by collecting seven rebounds while scoring 11 points in 19 minutes against Champion Christian.
Bozeman said it was a good sign for UAPB to have Sellars put up these kinds of numbers in his return to the court.
“He’s got an aggressive mentality,” Bozeman said. “We’ve been putting that in him since he’s been here. He came here as a guy that was super, super talented, but not very aggressive. He wanted to come here because he believed in our staff that we could get him over the hump as far as just being aggressive and having that dog mentality. We still got some work to do, but I’m proud of where he’s at right now.”
Of course, the two teams Sellars faced came from the National Christian College Athletic Association and were not of the caliber UAPB will face when it begins SWAC play on Jan. 3 against Alabama A&M. The 15.5 points Sellars is averaging will be tougher to replicate against Division I competition unless he plays more minutes.
Still, Williams leads the SWAC in minutes per game with Payton ranking sixth. As Sellars continues to get back into the groove of playing, if he can continue to score and play well, UAPB will be able to get Williams and others more rest to keep them fresh in fourth quarters and down the stretch of the season.
For Sellars, his absence from the court was challenging, but he said his parents and close friends helped him get through it. Now, he is playing once again.
“It’s hard, but I kept my trust in God the whole time,” Sellars said. “He call the shots, you know what I’m saying. So, that’s the best I can put it. My friends being there for me, my everything. It was hard, you know, sitting out for two years. It was a lot. It was a lot, so just everybody being there for me, I just want to thank them.”