High Point wins back-to-back titles among family

High Point poses for photos after winning the Big South tournament Sunday. (Photo:  Big South Conference)

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Maybe Jon Bon Jovi – of all people – said it best.

“It’s all the same. Only the names will change.”

Two seasons in Johnson City for the Big South tournament. Two trips to the NCAA Tournament. Two extra golden guests on the bus back to High Point.

If you ask the back-to-back champion Panthers – including tournament MVP Terry Anderson – they’ll tell you that last year and this year have more in common than they have differences.

“To be honest, I don’t feel any differences (between the teams),” Anderson said after the Panthers’ 91-76 victory over Winthrop Sunday at Freedom Hall. “(Last year’s team) are my brothers. (This year’s team) are my brothers. We’re all family.”

Family is a common thread at High Point. First-year head coach Flynn Clayman knows that more than anyone. His wife, Katie, is an assistant coach for the women’s team that also had a date with history Sunday night in the same building. Clayman’s family has grown while at High Point. The Panthers clearly want to keep Clayman in their family, giving him a five-year contract extension through the 2030-31 season earlier this year.

That’s not to say families don’t have their share of tough times. Earlier this season, transfer forward Cam Fletcher missed several games as part of what was described at the time as an “internal team issue”. While some wondered if Fletcher would be welcomed back to the family, the players in the locker room felt he never missed a moment.

Fletcher picked the biggest day of the season to have his biggest day of the season. The Xavier transfer scored 17 points and hauled in 19 boards, turning in a performance that sent everyone on press row scrambling for the Big South single-game record book.

Fletcher and Clayman embraced after the victory, just like family.

“That was a special moment,” Clayman said. “He’s so talented. He’s such a good guy. He really has been through a lot this year and in his college career. He’s had a lot of injuries. He’s had a lot of things not break his way.”

“Earlier this year, he made the decision that he was going to be about the team. I promised him that if you’re about the team, when it matters most, you’re going to be the best player on the floor. He’s the best player in the league, if you’re just talking talent. Tonight, he showed that. If you’re just getting down to the keys of the game, they would have killed us on the glass if Cam didn’t step up and do what he did, and we probably don’t win this game. I’m so proud of him that he got to do that in this moment.”

There’s also the new family member. Point guard Rob Martin, who transferred from Southeast Missouri after last season, was the league’s Newcomer of the Year and a member of the all-tournament team. Martin’s story also got its happy ending.

“I met with Flynn about two or three months ago, and we were just talking about my plan and my playing the right way,” Martin said. “I got a little emotional about it, because I thought I wasn’t playing the right way or leading the team like I should. That meeting really changed my perspective.”

That family member that always sacrifices for the rest of the family? He’s wearing purple, too.

Guard Chase Johnston has been through a college career marked by injuries, success, and now multiple NCAA trips. He learned from guards Trae Benham and Abdoulaye Thiam, two mainstays on last year’s championship team, of the value of giving of yourself for the gain of the family.

“First and foremost, I just want to give all the glory to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He’s the reason I’m able to sit up here and to be the servant I’m able to be,” Johnston said. “Laye and Trae kind of paved the way. I learned so much from Trae and his leadership last year. That’s my best friend and brother in Christ.”

“Yeah, it’s a different role (than last year). Flynn and I talked about it 11 games in, and is it hard to take that? For sure. When you’re part of something bigger than yourself and you have your eyes fixed on Jesus, you’re able to do things you never thought you could. I’m just so grateful to be sitting here. Words can’t express the gratitude I have right now.”

Anderson is the family member that sat at the head of the table Sunday. The 6-foot-6 guard scored 18 on 6-of-10 shooting despite battling foul trouble much of the day.

“I’m thankful to be here and I’m thankful for the award,” Anderson said. “It’s just a team effort. We all stuck together throughout the season.”

Clayman was not shy in his praise for Anderson.

“This is a special kid right here,” Clayman said. “I don’t know one teammate who doesn’t respect the heck out of him and I don’t know one person who’s ever coached him who doesn’t respect the heck out of him. He’s selfless. He gives everything he has. You see that in the way he plays. He’s a real underdog. He’s had to work his way up. He had no offers out of high school.”

“He has super high character. He could have had a negative attitude. He could have checked out. He could have done all those things. He stayed ready. He knew he was ready for the moment.”

So now, the entire family will load up the planes or buses and head off to another family reunion at the NCAA tournament. There will also likely be some extended family there, in the form of the loud, partisan fan group that packed the entire Panther side of the arena Sunday. They’re always welcome at the table, too.

“(The fanbase) gives us an extra bit of energy,” Clayman said. “When we blew the lead – we were up 13 and they came back and took the lead – your fans are right there to get you back going. In those moments, you could feel really lonely or feel like the sky is falling, and when you’ve got fans there who are supporting you like these guys were, you’re just thankful.”

“I’ve said since I’ve been here that I think we have some of the best fans in mid-major basketball. We could compete with some high-major schools,” Johnston added. “They don’t just show up for these three days (in the conference tournament). They show up throughout the year and sell it out. We’re so grateful for them, and they give us an edge in big games like this.”

Oh – and there’s one more family event to attend before any of that happens. Katie will also be going dancing if the Panthers can pull it off Sunday night against Radford. Flynn will, as one might imagine, be there to cheer her on.

“I’ll absolutely be staying (for the second game), because my wife is coaching,” Clayman said to laughter in the room. “If we had lost, I’d probably be hiding out in the top (of the arena), but now I get to kind of be comfortable and enjoy it.”

'Thers Roll: High Point finds togetherness, leadership, and its first-ever NCAA tournament berth

High Point celebrates its first-ever Big South championship with a win over Winthrop Sunday.  (Photo:  Big South Conference)

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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Every season has its mileposts. For High Point, February 15 would be one of those mileposts.

I stood in the hall outside the High Point locker room waiting for High Point coach Alan Huss to emerge. He eventually did, wearing a purple High Point hat and a purple long-sleeved shirt – a far cry from the suits he usually dons for the Panther home and tournament games.

The result wasn’t all that notable – the Panthers had just drubbed Winthrop by 22 – but Huss’ words were. The Panthers had just played two nights prior, beating Longwood by 11 but not escaping the wrath of their coach. Huss aired out his team during that game with the Lancers but showed significant restraint when his Panthers struggled that day.

There was no hastily-burned 30-second stoppage. No fiery speech ever came. Instead, Huss let his team work through it. His words at the time set a tone.

“I felt like we just needed to re-center,” Huss said then. “We were not doing a good job of self-policing and re-centering as a group without the coaching staff. We just felt like we had to let them work through it. It’s a game of runs, but how are you going to respond? Are you able to go from whatever bad thing just happened to the next thing being a positive play?”

Huss then mentioned not using all his “verbal bullets” at one time.

Roughly a month later, Huss found himself in a similar quandary. His Panthers were down 10, 39-29, to the same Winthrop team in the Big South championship. Most probably expected Huss to help expedite a paint job in the Freedom Hall locker room. Instead…

“We talked about the progression of team and going from coach-fed to player-led,” Huss said after Sunday’s championship game. “The last 60 days or so, we’ve progressed into that space. Today at halftime, we were in a bad place. We were getting completely manhandled physically. We hadn’t attempted a free throw. They were the aggressor in every way, shape, and form.”

“Instead of me ranting and raving at halftime, I walked in to a group that was self-policing. They were talking about the processes that needed to be corrected and leading themselves to the space we needed to get to.”

Guard Abdoulaye Thiam was one of those who keyed the team concept. Thiam was a holdover from G.G. Smith’s staff, a transfer from Minnesota who started 65 of his 67 games in his first two years at High Point. The 6-foot-4 guard saw his scoring sliced by greater than half and his starts sliced further than that in his senior year. Don’t tell Huss that those minutes were any less valuable, though.

To go back to the previously-mentioned milepost, Thiam had a big day that day. The Panthers had a similar game with Winthrop that day as the one Sunday – a Winthrop run, a High Point run that broke the Eagles’ spirit, and a day to celebrate Thiam.

“I liked the way we won,” Huss said. “I liked the fact that we got punched and responded. I like that our bench stepped up and responded. I like that (Thiam), who’s done all the right things and has kept the right attitude – it touches you a little bit as a coach when the guys that handle things that way are the guys that finally get to have some success.”

Huss appeared to fight back a bit of emotion when speaking about Thiam after Sunday’s game.

“His progression is just as a man,” he shared. “He’s a guy that – the staff before me were playing really fast, and he had a total green light. He fought really hard that first year on what my vision for his game was and what he thought it was. He really came out of that.”

“He’s so much about the name on the front of that jersey, as much as or more so than anyone in our program. He cares about winning. He cares about the right things. He hasn’t complained about his role. He just shows up and goes to work. He never has a bad practice. He doesn’t take a day off. He doesn’t have a bad workout. He does everything as hard as he can possibly do it. For him to be maybe the most critical guy with his full-court defense today, it’s fitting. It makes sense. There’s not a lot I’m sure about right now, but that’s justice for that young man who’s battled so much. I’m so pleased for him.”

To be sure, the stars at High Point are the focal points. Guard Kezza Giffa made the all-Big South first team alongside forward Kimani Hamilton. Guard D’Maurian Williams and center Juslin Bodo Bodo were second-teamers. When it came time for the MVP award to be distributed, instead of one of those four decorated performers, one of those parts of Thiam’s bench crew stood next to Big South commissioner Sherika Montgomery and took photos with the award.

Guard Bobby Pettiford, who battled through injury all season and was part of the 49-point bench effort when High Point won at Winthrop in February, did himself one better – almost literally – on Sunday. Pettiford, who has been part of a national title team at Kansas and played at East Carolina before transferring to High Point, scored 17 of his team’s 50 bench points in the title tilt.

“I was going through a lot at the time and trying to figure some things out,” Pettiford said of the time after he committed to High Point. “They stuck with me and told me to keep being patient. Everything happened exactly how they said (it would).”

“There was a time over the summer when I really didn’t know what basketball was going to look like anymore. I had a couple surgeries and had to deal with some things. I’m just honored.”

“Bobby, since he’s been back and been healthy, I think he’s been the MVP of our entire season,” Huss said. “His unselfishness – his willingness to come off the bench and he never complains. His willingness to play minutes that go up and down and he never complains. This guy has won a national championship and was a top-whatever recruit. He played at Kansas. He’s played at Allen Fieldhouse. He’s played in the biggest games and on the biggest stages. He complained none. When you add those things and his unselfishness to his skillset, it makes him the most valuable piece of our team. He makes everyone better.”

As High Point advances to its first-ever NCAA Tournament – it had not even played for a berth in one in 21 seasons – Huss drew on the words of a former Panther great who was a part of several great High Point teams who never got this chance. Guard Derrell Edwards played in 62 games over two seasons for the Panthers between 2012 and 2014, and is now part of a NASCAR pit crew.

Huss invited Edwards to speak to the team. During that conversation, the significance of being the first was discussed.

“He’s an elite winner,” Huss said of Edwards. “He’s won at everything. He won a junior college national championship. He won his butt off at High Point. He’s just been a winner in NASCAR. Derrell is a guy who tells an unbelievable story. He’s talked to our guys over the past two years about being the first ever. We’ve borrowed those words. We’ve plagiarized them. We’ve reused them.”

“It hasn’t hit anybody on this stage. It certainly hasn’t hit me, the significance of all that. For all the people who showed up and supported us before we did the special things, it’s awesome for them. It’s something this group will never forget. I know our fans will never forget. I’m ecstatic for all involved. I love the fact that Derrell gave us those words. We were in dark moments. We weren’t playing very well and just having some bad moments in practice. We leaned on Derrell’s words a lot of times. Those really helped lead us forward and bring us back together when we started to fracture.”

Giffa’s words may join those of Edwards in summing up how special this season was for the Panthers.

“It’s just surreal for me right now,” Giffa said. “I’m just a kid from France who came here four years ago with a dream. I watched the NCAA Tournament when I was young. I never thought that I would be there one day. I just stayed down and worked really hard. I thank God every day for this opportunity, and I thank Coach Huss for believing in me and taking me under his wing. I don’t take that for granted. I’ll be forever grateful for that.”