On Monday, Sports Editor Eric Hobeck and contributors Steven Sommer and Hunter Costley sat down and talked about the naming of former Cleveland State Associate Head Coach Jayson Gee as the next Longwood men’s basketball head coach.
EH: Gee is the eighth head coach in the history of the program, following Mike Gillian’s departure last month. He comes from Cleveland State with a wealth of experience, working with seven teams, four of them making post-season appearances. One of those appearances was the 2009 NCAA Tournament, where the 13-seed Vikings upset Wake Forest in the first round. He’s got some pretty decent post-season experience, especially considering that it was in another mid-major conference, the Horizon League.
HC: Looking at his track record, it’s impressive; not only from his assistant coaching career at the Division I level, but his head coaching career at Charleston in West Virginia. His record was great, and he had four NCAA appearances at the DII level. It also sounds like he had a lot of hands-on work with Norris Cole, who’s playing great ball in the NBA. Moving forward, he’s got a young [Longwood] team that improved dramatically throughout the year. I think he’s the right guy to come in and turn this program around.
SS: It’s an exciting time for this program. At the same time, I know it’s a strange process having a new coach in. Also, in the statements he’s made, he hit on being an educator for these players, which, honestly, at this level of competition, is probably more important than anything. There are a couple of guys on this current roster who I could see playing in Europe, but at this level, we aren’t pounding guys into the NBA year.
Not only developing players, but also developing leaders off the court, is huge. Once the decision to let Gillian go occurred, this was one of the best decisions Longwood could have made.
EH: Exactly, and that leads me to my next point discussion, which is Gee’s leadership abilities. At CSU, he did more than just x’s and o’s. He helped with scheduling, recruiting, academics and other things. Even though he wasn’t the man in charge of the program, he was a huge factor in how the team performed year in and year out. How will that experience, being that involved with the team, transfer to Farmville?
HC: I think it shows that he’s a teacher. He’s working in all facets of the team and teaching these guys not only to become basketball players, but he’s working in their personal lives teaching them to become men. You look at some of the best coaches in college basketball, like Mike Krzyzewski. Coach K’s a great x’s and o’s coach, but what makes him so special is that he’s a great teacher. He knows how to work with the people. That’s the kind of vibe that I’m getting from [Gee], that he’s going to be able to come in and take these young men and not only make them into better basketball players, but he’s going to be able to affect their lives off the court, which is something that I think Longwood has lacked over the past couple of years. I don’t think Gillian really connected with the players like that. I think Gee’s really going to be a teacher and mentor to these players.
SS: I’d have to agree with a good portion of that. His biggest obstacle to overcome is making a connection with the current players on this team. I know that just through casual talking with some of the players and interviews with others, what it seems like right now is that a lot of the younger guys aren’t 100% sure on their future with Longwood. For a lot of them, Gillian was the man that
brought them in and if not, it was the assistants. From pure speculation, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw a complete change in the coaching staff. It’s a young team, but they do have that leadership coming back. I think that Lucas Woodhouse is hands down your starting point guard next year and that [Michael] Kessens has got to be the starting center. And depending on how they play, Frank Holloway could fight Jeylani Dublin for that power forward spot. If that coaching staff’s out, it’s going to take creating that connection early on between Gee and the players to keep them here so they’re not swooned away by other schools.
HC: One of those big points you just raised is the point guard position. Nik Brown’s coming back, but he didn’t play that well early in the season.
EH: You could say there are seven, maybe even eight legitimate starters on this team next year. You look at this core group of players, and everybody’s coming back except for Stephen Shockley. Everybody’s familiar with that old group of coaches, so for there to be this wholesale change, if that is what happens, I can see where it’d be easy for players to say, “Ok, I was brought in a year or two ago by this staff to play their system, but I’m not comfortable with the new leadership,” and take their talents elsewhere. I’m not saying it’s the right thing to do, because it’s not, but I understand that thought process. The last thing to talk about is something that’s been surrounding this team for a long time, and that’s defense. They gave up 81 points a night this past season, and gave up 90 or more seven times in 33 games. Gee has said that he wants to bring a more defensive focus to the team, and that’s needed if they want to compete on this level.
SS: When I read the stories last week, that’s what made me happiest — that he’s focusing on defense. There’s so much you can work on when it
comes to offense, but playing hard- nosed defense night in and night out is the way to win games. We have seen this team struggle in the past, and don’t get me wrong, there have been solid nights, but defense and holding on to the ball are their two biggest struggles. I think the fact that Gee realizes that that’s the quickest way to turn around a basketball team is great. I think it’s hard to find another team [in the conference] that has all this talent returning without graduating all these seniors. If all these guys stay and buy in, they’re going to be a hard team to beat next year.
HC: What it comes down to is team defense and chemistry, like rotating on assignments when you need to. It’s something that Longwood did terribly this season. They didn’t rotate, didn’t help, they didn’t talk and they didn’t play good team D. If they can commit to playing good defense and Gee can keep that core grouptheycanmakesomenoisenext year. They have offensive players, there’s no doubt about it. We saw what TT did in that one stretch where he put up 31 and 40 for back-to- back career highs. We’ve seen what Woodhouse can do when he gets the ball — he’s a playmaker, he makes great passes and handles the ball well ... I’m excited to see the defensive mindset he brings to this team. You can win a game 60-50 or 70-60.
SS: I’ve seen over the years that they’ll contest a team into the half, but by staying in that same, consistent defensive set, the other team has figured it out.
EH: As long as this team does play solid defense, the sky’s the limit. We’re only losing one player, who got little playing time. With this core of TT, Woodhouse, Robinson and Parker, and the injured players coming back, it’s going to be a special season next year. As long as everybody stays, it’s going to be fun to watch.
