JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Three wins. One against a
Division I program. The outside noise. Hell, for that matter, the internal
noise among the fans.
Throw it out the window. All of it.
In a season where highlights have been a challenge, Gardner-Webb
saw everything come together. It wasn’t perfect – it never is. Whether there is
another day to celebrate in the Mountain Empire for Gardner-Webb is to be
determined, but the ninth-seeded Runnin’ Bulldogs knocked off eighth-seeded USC
Upstate, 65-64, Wednesday night in the Big South tournament opener.
Excitement. Justification. Redemption. Catharsis. It was all that and
more.
“It’s been a rewarding year. It’s been a frustrating year,”
Gardner-Webb coach Jeremy Luther said after the game. “So many people – all the
reporters and people around campus and around town, they all want to tiptoe up
to me and ask, ‘How are you doing, Coach?’ Why are you doing that?”
“I’ve had a great – probably one of the most rewarding
coaching years in my 28 years, because we’ve got a great group of kids, and
they show up every single day, despite the record. They fight. They practice.
There’s no reason to practice as hard as they’re practicing every day when you
have the record we have.”
To have a season as Gardner-Webb has had is hardly unprecedented
in this league. Asheville went 4=27 in Mike Morrell’s first season at the helm
for the Bulldogs. Morrell is now the longest-tenured coach in the league, with
a league title and a Coach of the Year award to show for it. Luther wants no
part of anyone feeling sorry for him or his program.
“I’m not trying to sugarcoat anything, (but) the mark of a
team is how they progress through the year,” Luther said. “When you start off
0-8 in the league and get beat the way we did in some of those games, then come
back and play all these teams – Presbyterian beat us (by) 37 at home. We lost
there by six. Asheville beat us by 19. We lost to them by four.”
“This team got better. I always said this team was going to
be better. I really don’t care about the record. If I can keep this group
together and all these freshmen become sophomores, the sophomores become
juniors, and we can add a couple of people – we only lose two kids – I’ve been
told we’re going to be able to go out there and get some kids like we used to
get, we’ve got a chance.”
One of those freshmen to whom Luther refers provided a
glimpse Wednesday of just what kind of chance the Runnin’ Bulldogs may have.
Jamias Ferere, a 6-foot-6 freshman from the backyard of conference champion
High Point, scored 21 and grabbed 12 boards. Ferere also sank the two winning
free throws that helped Gardner-Webb advance.
“He came to me during (Upstate’s late) timeout and said, ‘Coach,
give me the ball.’ He said that twice,” Luther said. Ferere expanded on his
coach’s words.
“I wasn’t nervous at all. I told him to give me the ball,”
Ferere said. “I’m not sure if I got it (by) accident or not. It came to me and
I did what I said I could do. That’s what I pride myself on – doing what I say
I can do. Getting to the line, it wasn’t anything to me. I just had to shoot
them and knock them down.”
Ferere has a tie to Gardner-Webb’s prolific past. Ferere
played at Putnam Science Academy in Connecticut, which has yielded Runnin’
Bulldog stars of the past like Jose Perez, Kareem Reid, and Jaheam Cornwall.
Luther’s connections to the school have paid clear dividends, with the latest
being Ferere.
“(Playing for Putnam) put me around other Division I players
– guys more athletic than me, stronger than me, bigger than me,” Ferere said. “I
played in many games with this type of atmosphere. You’ve got no choice but to
survive.”
Ferere shows flashes of Perez as a shooter, as a driver, and
as a believer in himself. Ferere offered a postscript following the press
conference Wednesday evening.
“I was left off the All-Freshman Team, and I don’t want to
make this sound selfish, but I don’t think there are five freshmen better than
me in this conference,” Ferere said. “I’ve got a lot of respect for this
conference. I’m from High Point. I grew up in it. I do not think there are five
freshmen better than me. I think anything you look at will tell you that, as
well as the eye test.”
Ferere apologized for his comments, but the point was made.
Gardner-Webb now moves on to face that team from Ferere’s
hometown Friday at noon. Luther acknowledges the job Co-Head Coach of the Year
Flynn Clayman has done and the differences between the two but refuses to shy
away from the challenge.
“Flynn’s done a really good job,” Luther said. “I think it’s
widely known that they’ve invested a ton into that program, and it’s gotten
them to 25-4 or whatever they are, but that doesn’t take away from what Flynn’s
done. I’m going to say this – I’m confident in my guys. (High Point) has played
a lot of teams close.”
“I will say this about my guys – they’re going to go out
there and fight extremely hard. We’re not going to back down. We’re going to
make it a game. I feel like we’ve got a pretty good game plan. I’ll guarantee
you this – if we score more than one point than they do, we win. We’re going to
go out on Friday and give it everything we’ve got. I know everybody’s going to
root against us – so be it. That’s fine.”
Whatever story Friday afternoon writes for this Gardner-Webb
team, it will be a postscript to a story that reads like a line from a Jimmy
Buffett song.
“Some of it’s magic. Some of it’s tragic.”
Luther and his players know how they will tell the story,
though.
“You look at the season and you look at the record and you
think, ‘Ah, man.’ I think it matured us,” Ferere said. “I think we kind of had
to go through it for a moment like this. When you talk about a tense moment, we’ve
had a few games where it was like this before. I’m a freshman, (guard Jacob
Hudson) is a sophomore. Those moments built us for today.”
“I had, what, 21 (points) and 12 (rebounds)? That didn’t
happen today. It was just a lot of stuff that we had to get through to get to a
moment like this. I mean, we’ve still got a lot left to do, but I think if you
look at it with the cup half-full instead of half-empty, the losses that we had,
the tribulations we went through, they made us ready for this moment.”
Thanks to Wednesday, Gardner-Webb will get one more moment.
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