Excerpt from the Dayton Daily News
By Tom Archdeacon
Symone Simmons was full of surprises Thursday night.
“I play the saxophone,” the Wright State senior guard said. “All four of them: alto, tenor, soprano and baritone. I started playing with the middle school band and when I got to high school I was in the jazz band.”
Another thing you might not expect: When the 21-year-old from Westerville North High School listens to music, most of it is from a generation past:
“I’m really into ‘90s R & B and hip hop, stuff like Biggie (Smalls), Tupac, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott.”
That embrace of a time past — in many things, not just music — is why she’s heard more than one person refer to her as “an old soul.”
And then there was this admission.
In real life she is no biggie, at least not the 5-foot-10 she’s listed as on the official Wright State roster.
“Naah, I’m actually 5-foot-7 ½,” she smiled. “My arms are really long though, so it kind of makes me look taller.”
And, in part, it’s because of that that we get to the least surprising thing from her Thursday night.
Simmons pulled down 15 rebounds and scored 15 points to lead Wright State — now 17-5 — to an easy 72-46 victory over the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) at the Nutter Center.
It was her third double-double in the past four games and she now leads the Horizon League in rebounding with a 9.0 per game average.
Last Sunday, in a win over Detroit Mercy, she grabbed 11 rebounds to become the Raiders all-time career rebounding leader, passing Lori Collins, who had 897 rebounds from 1991-94.
