Tanner Finley and his father Paul at the singing ceremony Wednesday at Bob Jones
(RECORD PHOTO/LINDSAY VAUGHT)

MADISON-  Wednesday morning was a special day for Bob Jones Head Basketball coach Graham Aderholt, and he wasn’t even the one signing a scholarship.

Tanner Finley, a 6-foot-4 forward, parlayed an outstanding senior season by signing a basketball scholarship with the University of Alabama at Huntsville. UAH just happens to be where Aderholt played and graduated from. Finley becomes the first men’s basketball player this season to sign to play at the next level.

Bob Jones had a late season run through the area tournament to the Northwest Regional at Wallace State and came up just one game short of making it to the Final Four in Birmingham, losing 56-53 to Bessemer City. They knocked off James Clemens and Minor to get to that game.

Finley played a large part in that late season surge. Finley was named to the All-Area 15 team, and the All-Region team.

“There is no doubt about his shooting ability, he can flat out shoot,” Aderholt said after the signing ceremony. “In their offense (at UAH) he will be a perfect fit for it. They play a Princeton style offense and we ran some of that this season and Tanner did a good job picking it up.

He was a big part of our success this year. It’s a neat situation for me to coach him and see him play at UAH. Tanner has got a chance to play for a great coach and a great program and get a great education. Coach Acuff does a great job. I think he is the best Division 2 coach out there,” Aderholt added.

Finley started all 31 games Bob Jones played this season. Many games he played the entire game. He averaged 12 points and 5 rebounds per game. He shot an impressive 55% from three-point range and 57% overall from the field.

In a December game against Sparkman, Finley showed how he can light up the scoreboard when he hit 8 of 12 from behind the arc and finished with 27 points.

Finley said he had a backup plan just in case.

“If I didn’t play basketball I was headed down to Alabama,” he said. “I’m a big Alabama fan. But luckily everything came together and I will be playing basketball in college. It’s close to home and I will be able to see my family so I’m pretty excited about that.”

Finley’s father, former Madison mayor Paul Finley never missed a game and now can watch him play at UAH. The plan is for Finley to be on scholarship and redshirt his freshman year.

“It’s close to home and I will be able to see my family so I’m pretty excited about that,” said Finley who added that he will major in business.

The offer from UAH came as a pleasant surprise to Finley.

“It came as a surprise to me, a good surprise. It happened really quick. I got a call one Saturday and talked to Coach Acuff and Coach Aderholt. I visited that Monday and decided it was the best place for me, a great opportunity.”

Finley will be joined at UAH by another member of the Bob Jones basketball team, manager Austin Bates who is going to UAH and will be a student assistant to the basketball team.

Aderholt said that he expected the team’s leading scorer, Josh Mitchell, to sign with a college before the end of the school year.