Francis Marion University Athletics

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for March 5, 2022
Gary Edwards Column

Friends
“Amor fati: this is the very core of my being. And as to my prolonged illness, do I not owe much more to it than I owe to my health?”
Friedrich Nietzsche
 
I have coached in 1,079 college basketball games. My friend, Kevin Waters from Watkins Glen, New York, has called me, win or lose, after 1,078 of them.
 
He calls me “Eds” and I call him “Kev” and we met at our alma mater, Virginia Wesleyan College. I started my career as an assistant basketball coach and sports information director there, and Kev was my student assistant.
 
Normally he will call immediately after a game and leave a message and then I will call him back for a more lengthy chat on my way home. From Vincent Dooms to Alex Cox, Kev and I have critiqued the performance of my players through the years.
 
After Francis Marion’s season ending loss in the second round of the Conference Carolinas tournament this week, I didn’t get my customary call. Kevin was in the hospital.
 
He has battled diabetes his entire life and has been partially blind for over 20 years now. He gets around with the help of his guide dog, Saxton, and we talk about him once in a while.
 
Recently Kev has had problems with one of his legs. You know, you can lose a leg with diabetes…it happened to the California University of Pennsylvania coach, Bill Brown, when I was coaching up in that league.
 
But my friend was not in the hospital this time because of his leg, or for his blindness. This time it was due to a fainting spell and the doctors were implanting a pacemaker in his chest.
 
I haven’t actually seen Kev since I left Virginia Wesleyan over 40 years ago. But he has been a central figure in my life, due to his friendship and loyalty certainly, but mostly due to his indomitable spirit and optimistic outlook.
 
He helps me understand what a jackass I truly am. The only thing I have to worry about during the basketball season is if Nick Silva is going to make his free throws, and in the summer whether the tide is going to reach my chair.
 
And yet there are times I complain, or let everyday annoyances throw me into a tither. I find myself wondering why I have been so richly blessed when others have so many challenges to overcome in this life.
 
Kevin Waters deals with blindness, and a bad leg, and now it seems with a bad ticker, on a daily basis. Why so much burden on one guy?
 
He doesn’t think of it that way, though. He says the challenges have made him stronger, the person he is today.
 
I told myself a few weeks ago that if Kev had to lose a leg I was going up there to be with him. Perhaps with this pacemaker thing going on I should go now.
 
You know, to offer help and strength. But between these two old friends, who needs the help, who really needs the strength?
 


Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 26, 2022

The Handshake Line
 
“We put boogers on our fingers, then shake your hand.”
Biz Markie
 
Throughout my coaching career, when a player has exhibited a questionable attitude or perhaps just has struggled with a bad game, I have said that player is “boogered up”.  When you are “boogered up” you reside in “Boogerville”, and it is important to the team you do your best to exit “Boogerville” as soon as possible.
 
A week ago, Michigan basketball coach Juwan Howard became “boogered up” when Wisconsin coach Greg Gard called a timeout with only 15 seconds to go in a blowout win for the Badgers.

Howard forcefully expressed his displeasure when Gard tried to explain the situation in the post-game handshake line.
 
Unfortunately, things escalated when Wisconsin assistant Joe Krablenhoft added his two cents and Coach Howard took a swing at him. As punches go, it was a pretty weak one, but the Michigan head coach was suspended for the remaining five games of the regular season and fined $40,000.
 
Immediately, there were calls to abolish the handshake line. Georgetown coach Patrick Ewing said, “If it’s my call, I think we should just take away the handshake line.” ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale also said the time has come to eliminate the tradition.
 
I couldn’t disagree more. If we can’t even ask our coaches and student-athletes to man up and congratulate the victors after a disappointing loss, to show some class and, yes, shake their hand, then college athletics has truly lost its way.
 
We are already teaching our young people that it’s OK to leave a situation if it becomes too hard or they become unhappy. We are already teaching our college athletes that it is every man for himself when it comes to cashing in on endorsement deals.
 
So now, instead of demanding our coaches and players do the right thing, to act in the correct manner, we’ll just use the handshake line as another excuse to avoid uncomfortable or challenging situations?
 
Tomorrow afternoon the Francis Marion men’s basketball team will play King University in the first round of the Conference Carolinas Men’s Basketball Tournament. I am optimistic because several of our key players have recently departed “Boogerville”, and we are playing our best basketball of the season.
 
But whether we win or lose, whether we are “boogered up” or not, you’ll find the Patriots in the handshake line after the game.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 19, 2022
 
Let me tell you about Tionne Rollins, a 6’2” junior guard from Tallahassee, Florida, who is the leading scorer on the Francis Marion University men’s basketball team. I call Tionne “T” or “T-Bone” because I have a hard time pronouncing his first name correctly.
 
I have problems with the pronunciation of several of my players’ names. I call Farid “F”, I constantly get Yohan and Jonah mixed up, and often I just rely on my old standby of “Hoss” when I want to get a player’s attention.
 
But Tionne is “T” to me, and he did something a few games ago that I have never seen or heard of in my over four decades of coaching college basketball.
 
Several games ago the Patriots were in a nail biter against one of our Conference Carolinas opponents. The game came down to the final seconds and we needed a defensive stop to win the game.
 
It should come as no surprise that a team coached by a man who cannot remember his player’s names can only remember two defenses: man and zone. In the time out right before the game deciding possession I asked the guys what they thought.
 
Everyone was in agreement we should play man. But then “T” spoke up and said, “Coach, Matt is a better defender than me, maybe he should be in there.”
 
My jaw dropped, but he was right. I put Matt Lee in the game, we played a great defensive possession, and we won the game.
 
In the jubilant locker room after the game, I praised everyone, but I especially pointed out the unselfishness shown by Tionne. I talked about how the basketball gods tend to reward that type of behavior.
 
And wouldn’t you know it, a week ago the Patriots were in another barn burner, this time against North Greenville University at the Smith University Center on our campus. Tionne had the ball in his hands with 30 seconds left and the game tied.
 
The clock began to wind down…25 seconds…20 seconds…we were holding the ball for the last shot. “T” had played an outstanding game up to that point and everyone in the gym knew he would take that last shot.
 
He made his move with about eight seconds left and drove the lane. The North Greenville players collapsed around him.
 
Most college basketball players would have forced up a shot. Tionne calmly turned and passed the ball to a wide open Alex Cox who made the game winning three-pointer as the horn sounded.
 
Again, in the locker room after the game, I praised Alex and the rest of the team, but they all knew who the real hero was. The basketball gods had rewarded making the correct play, the unselfish play, once again.
 
In this age of the NLI and the transfer portal, college athletes seem to be more self-centered than ever. Sadly, perhaps the same is true of our society as a whole.
 
Isn’t it nice to hear of one young man who in his own way is unselfishly trying to do the right thing?
 
Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 12, 2022

Adults Behaving Badly
 
The American East is an NCAA Division I conference which sponsors championships in 13 men’s and women’s sports. Its mission statement declares, “The American East Conference provides its member schools and their athletic programs a platform upon which student-athletes can achieve both collegiate and life success…”
 
Unless you happen to be a student-athlete at Long Island’s Stony Brook University. If that’s the case, well, then you can just go fly a kite.
 
A week ago, Stony Brook announced its intention to leave the American East and join the Colonial Athletic Association. Five days later the American East announced the Seawolves would be ineligible for any post-season conference tournaments for the remainder of the year.
 
The Stony Brook women’s basketball team sits atop the conference standings with an 11-1 league record. The men are currently second. Neither will have the opportunity to play for the conference championship and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
 
It’s ironic the Seawolves are being banned from post-season play for joining the Colonial Athletic Association. That same conference placed a similar restriction on James Madison University when the Dukes announced they were leaving for the Sun Belt Conference earlier this year.
 
Their soccer team was supposed to host the CAA Tournament. The women’s volleyball team sat atop the league standings on the day it was announced they were ineligible for post-season play.
 
Sanctioning departing schools by penalizing the athletes is beyond petty, but a good example of how convoluted college athletics and its leadership is right now. If your conference is banning opportunities for student-athletes, then your conference has forgotten why it exists.
 
But let’s not forget that the administrators at Stony Brook and James Madison knew about the conference by-laws because they voted for them. If they wanted their student-athletes to compete in league championships all they had to do was delay their respective departures by one year.
 
When Texas and Oklahoma announced they were leaving the Big 12 for the SEC, they made it clear they would honor Big 12 bylaws and wait the necessary four years before making the move official.
 
Even though I worked on Long Island, and I grew up in Virginia, I don’t know anyone at Stony Brook or James Madison now. If I did, I would ask them, particularly after the challenges their student athletes faced during COVID, why they risked their welfare with such a hasty departure.
 
Nor do I know anyone working in the offices of the American East or Colonial. If I did, I would ask them were there any grown-ups in the room when these decisions were made.
 
 
Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 5, 2022
 
Kentucky is one of only 14 states in this country that has neither decriminalized nor approved the use of marijuana in any way. That being said, I am convinced John Calipari, the men’s basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, got his hands on some pretty powerful ganga the other day.
 
In response to the firing of Louisville basketball coach Chris Mack, Calipari actually said: “Coaching is a hard profession. We’re all 30 days from bankruptcy. Everybody in this profession.”
 
Chris Mack received $4.8 million from Louisville not to coach its basketball team. After Cincinnati earned a trip to the Super Bowl and only days after he was let go, poor old Coach Mack was seen celebrating with several hundred Bengals fans in an Ohio watering hole.
 
As for Coach Calipari, if Kentucky decides he is not the man for the job (and that could come at the end of any three-game losing streak), the Wildcats will be cutting a check for $60 million. That’s right, Calipari’s buyout is $60 million, and from where I come from that is a long way from bankruptcy.
 
That’s why I never feel sorry for professional, or big-time college coaches getting fired. From January 1, 2010, to January 31, 2021, FBS schools in this country spent $533.6 million to pay football coaches, and men’s and women’s basketball coaches, not to work at their respective institutions.
 
Amy Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, said, “Institutions threw away more than half a billion dollars…on richly compensated coaches, instead of using the money to support the education, health and safety of college athletes.”
 
After going 28-30 in just over four seasons at South Carolina, Will Muschamp received 13.2 million Gamecock dollars. He also got $6.2 million after being fired from Florida in 2014.
 
Unless Elmer Fudd is his financial planner, Will Muschamp and his family should be financially secure for generations to come. It’s the guys at the small schools we should be concerned about.
 
They don’t have the luxury of a negotiated long term contract or a buyout. Most contracts are year-to-year, most coaches serve at the “pleasure” of the athletic director and the president of the school.
 
I’ve been in this business a long time, and I have always said if they want to get rid of you they’ll find a way to get rid of you. Losing only makes it easier for administrators to pull the plug.
 
Most coaches do indeed walk a tightrope. The big-time guys have a safety net, the small time guys do not.
 
Fear not, Coach Calipari, Chris Mack is not going to go bankrupt any time soon. Unless his Bengals win the Super Bowl and he starts buying drinks for everyone in that Ohio bar.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 29, 2022
 
“Ay say, there is a weasel in the chicken yard!”
Foghorn Leghorn
 
College athletics has always had its share of “snake oil salesmen”. But since the birth of that bastard son known as the NCAA Transfer Portal, and his equally illegitimate cousin, NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), assistant football and basketball coaches are barking out in front of the carnival like never before.
 
Once upon a time, college football and basketball players had to sit out a year if they wanted to transfer to another school. On October 15, 2018, the Transfer Portal was formed to make the transfer process quicker and easier for players and coaches, and last year legislation was passed allowing transfers to play immediately.
 
Since the end of football season, more than 2,000 FBS players have entered the portal. Lincoln Riley and USC have already added more than 10 big-time transfers to the Trojans’ roster.
 
Last year, over 1,700 college basketball players were in the portal. Baylor won the national championship with over half its roster coming from “free-agency” transfers.
 
And that is all well and good if everything is being done on the “up and up” as my mother used to say, but I am learning you need a strong pair of hip boots to wade through the quagmire of college athletics today.
 
Lamont Paris, the basketball coach at Tennessee-Chattanooga, is a former assistant of mine and a dear friend. He called me the other day and said an assistant from an SEC school, and a guy I have known for over 25 years, was trying to poach the Mocs’ leading scorer.
 
Coach Paris knew this because the SEC assistant had called Sharif Chambliss, now an assistant at Wisconsin, asking about the player and trying to get some contact numbers. He didn’t know Sharif is also a former assistant of mine and good friends with Lamont.
 
In the good old days a coach would never actively try to recruit a member of another team’s roster. For the past 40 years, when a player or his “representative” contacts me about possibly transferring, the first call I make is to that player’s current coach.
 
Kailex Stephens and Winston Hill, two talented big-men, started their college basketball careers here at Francis Marion. Kailex is now at Indiana State, Winston is at Presbyterian, and both are having fine seasons. I’ve yet to talk with either coach.
 
The Patriot men’s basketball team is again comprised mostly of good, young freshmen players. Under previous circumstances the old coach would be optimistic about the future; when these young guys become sophomores and juniors we’re going to be pretty good.
 
But how many coaching weasels already have my guys on their “watch-list”? Will my guys stay in Florence, or will they be lured away by the bright lights of Division I?
 
Ay say, only time will tell. But in the meantime, I’ll do my best to keep the chicken yard locked.
 
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 22, 2022
 
I think the McLeod Health and Fitness Center is one of the best things about Florence. You’ll find me there most mornings, getting a little exercise, getting ready to face the day.
 
I received an e-mail the other day informing me, and all the other “valued members and patrons”, that they were going to transform the very nice basketball court there into a new athletic performance facility. Another basketball court bites the dust.
 
It’s just a sign of the times, though, as young athletes move away from actually playing the game to constantly training to play the game. There’s an important difference, you know.
 
Dribbling around cones and shooting stationary jumpers may make your parents smile, and expand your trainer’s pockets, but many of those skills don’t translate to success in an actual game. Cones don’t have arms.
 
Many of the great players in the history of the game honed their craft by first playing and competing on outdoor courts, mostly in the inner city neighborhoods of this country. The most famous of all these courts is Rucker Park in Harlem, New York.
 
As a young assistant coach at Hofstra University, I would make the short trip from Long Island to 155th and Harlem River Drive to watch some of the best basketball on the planet. Julius “Dr. J” Erving was a regular, although his nickname then was “The Claw” because of his enormous hands.
 
Lew “The Big Fella” Alcindor, later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, developed his sky hook there. Wilt the Stilt, Kobe, Kevin Durant; all made appearances at The Rucker on summer evenings.
 
But there were guys you probably never heard of who were legends at The Rucker. When Kareem’s Laker jersey was retired, he said the best player he ever played against was Earl “The Goat” Manigault, a 6’1” high flyer with a silky jumper.
 
Wilt Chamberlain convinced the Lakers to draft Joe “The Destroyer” Hammond in 1971. Joe dropped out of school in the ninth grade, but he also dropped 50 on the Doctor in one half. He holds The Rucker scoring record by blistering the nets for 82 one muggy night.
 
Unfortunately, like too many playground legends, “The Destroyer” let the city drug trade destroy him. Several months after being drafted by the Lakers he began an 11-year incarceration in prison.
 
Earl “The Pearl” Monroe did not get his moves from dancing around orange cones. Bernard King didn’t become a prolific scorer by shooting on a shooting machine.

Today’s players are bigger and stronger, probably because they utilize athletic performance facilities like the one coming to McLeod. But you’ll never convince me today’s players are better basketball players.
 
Away from the television lights, in front of adoring neighborhood crowds, the old guys were maestros on a basketball court.
 
As for my team, we are very good outside shooters. It’s just that we play all our games indoors…
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 15, 2022
 
Antonio Brown, the remarkably talented NFL wide receiver, has been in the news lately, again, for all the wrong reasons. A couple of weeks ago against the New York Jets, he refused coach Bruce Arians request to go into the game, and then removed his shoulder pads and shirt, ran into the end zone and faced the crowd in New York while holding up a peace sign and doing jumping jacks.
 
The Bucs of course released him from his contract, but quarterback Tom Brady came to his defense. He said the public should not be so quick to judge, that he hoped Brown would seek the help he needs.
 
Because this is only the latest transgression in a long line of missteps by the former Pro Bowler.

He wore out his welcome in Pittsburgh by illegally live streaming a video of the Steelers' locker room. He was released from Oakland before ever playing a game over a helmet dispute.
 
He’s been accused of sexual assault on numerous occasions.  Earlier this year he served a suspension for faking his COVID vaccination card.
 
You get the picture. This is either a seriously disturbed young man, or a colossal jerk, or perhaps a little of both.
 
In any case, understanding that the modern athlete has more mental health issues than ever before, I think I may have a solution for him. So I’ve decided to write Antonio Brown a letter:
 
Dear Antonio:
 
You don’t know me, but I have been reading about your troubles these past few years. I know many well-meaning people have probably reached out to you with suggestions, but I wonder if anyone has suggested the one thing that could definitely help to manage the anguish you most certainly feel.
 
Pray. Pray to a higher power than yourself. Give thanks every day for the many blessings that have been bestowed on you. Ask each day for help in managing your demons, for you do not face those demons alone.
 
Carl Jung was a famous Swiss psychiatrist who treated many hundreds of patients over his lifetime. He said, “It is safe to say that every one of them (patients) fell ill because he had lost that which the living religions of every age have given their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his religious outlook.”
 
Mahatma Gandhi, the great Indian leader who inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world, said, “Without prayer, I should have been a lunatic long ago.”
So, try prayer, Antonio Brown. That’s all I’ve got for you…
 
Sincerely,
An old coach
 
And in these challenging times, it’s all I’ve got for you and it’s all I’ve got for myself.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 8, 2022

Bristol, Tennessee
 
I am sitting in Bristol, Tenn., this morning. Not by myself, mind you, but with the Francis Marion University men’s and women’s basketball teams. We play King University in a Conference Carolinas doubleheader later today.
 
These games were not on the original schedule, and I had planned on celebrating a late Christmas with my Uncle Donnie and Aunt Linda in Greenville, N.C., today. But our off-day became a game-day due to COVID concerns, so here we are.
 
You see, athletic conferences around the country are scrambling to stay on some type of schedule as basketball games are being postponed due to COVID protocols. Symptoms be damned, players who test positive are out 5-10 days.
 
If enough players are out, games have to be postponed. Seven seems to be the magic number for plowing ahead and playing, anything less than seven healthy players seems to lead to a postponement.
 
Many teams may have some healthy walk-ons, but only two or three scholarship players available. Kansas State played the other night with seven players and only one coach.
 
Many conferences were going to treat a COVID cancellation as a forfeiture, but most have walked back on that idea. Too many good teams were forfeiting too many games so now everyone is trying to reschedule.
 
The Patriots were originally scheduled to play King as part of a Friday-Saturday doubleheader in February. When a team has to travel so far it only makes sense to try to kill two birds with one stone.
 
Alas, it looks like we will board the bus again and head to Banner Elk with our one stone and only play Lees-McRae on February 4. Stay tuned as to who the conference will want us to play on that Saturday, if anyone.
 
As for me, I am trying to enjoy the sights and sounds of Bristol. I brought the team to State Street so they could straddle the center line and be in Virginia and Tennessee at the same time. We were careful not to straddle too wide in fear of straining our groins.
 
I probably shouldn’t tell you this because of a possible HIPPA violation, but our point guard has been out with a groin injury so I wouldn’t let him straddle the line. Be thankful if you have a healthy groin.
 
Later today, I’ll swing by the Birthplace of Country Music Museum if the snow is not too bad. Although our bus driver would like to take a lap, we probably won’t have time to get out to the Bristol Motor Speedway.
 
We’ll make the best of it. Bristol is not Americus, but it’s pretty darned close.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 1, 2022

For every ailment under the sun,
There is a remedy, or there is none;
If there be one, try to find it;
If there be none, never mind it.
Mother Goose
 
Have you made any New Year’s resolutions yet? My resolution is not to worry about things out of my control.
 
God knows I have plenty to worry about. Three of my players (all vaccinated, by the way) tested positive for COVID after the holidays and will not be able to play or practice any time soon.
 
Two other players are injured, one with a knee problem, the other with an ankle sprain. Neither will be available to play this upcoming week when the Patriots take on Belmont Abbey at home on Tuesday, and travel to UNC Pembroke on Thursday.
 
Both of those games would have been tough for us under normal circumstances, but now we find ourselves trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat. “If there is a remedy, try to find it.”
 
The start of 2022 paints a chaotic picture for college basketball. Games are being cancelled daily, conferences have a multitude of forfeiture policies, and every school seems to have different testing and quarantine protocols in place.
 
But there is not much an old basketball coach from Florence can do about that. “If there be none, never mind it.”
 
My Patriots are going to take some steps in the New Year that may help you with your own resolutions:
 
We are going to set realistic goals.
We are going to plan properly.
We will take very small steps.
We will work to make our goals a habit.
We will support one another in this effort.
We will track our progress.
 
It is natural to track the progress of a basketball team through the scoreboard. If you win you must have been successful, if you lose, well, that’s a failure.
 
For much of my coaching career, I’ve thought that. I’ll try not to in 2022.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Dec. 25, 2021

I don’t want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need…
Song by Mariah Carey
 
My Christmas wish list is short. All I want, all I need is:
 
A college basketball player who actually wants to play around the basket. You know, power the ball up inside, get offensive rebounds, do the dirty work.
 
If you come to a Francis Marion University basketball game in the New Year, chances are we will start three young men who are 6’8”, 6’8” and 6’7” in height. That is a pretty big front line for an NCAA Division II basketball team.
 
But, as my Mom used to say, “Bless their hearts”, they couldn’t put the ball in the basket from two-feet away if their respective lives depended on it.
 
It’s because they don’t really want to be around the basket. The three-point line is where all the cool kids hang out. The basket is for the poor kids who can’t quite get their acne under control.
 
The area around the basket is kryptonite to our guys. Oh, they’ll cut through there because I ask them to, or they will post up once in a while. But their body language tells you they would rather be emptying the holding tank on their parent’s RV.
 
In the old days guys liked to mix it up around the basket. Gary Franklin was a 6’2” forward that led one of my IUP teams to the Final Four. He would take your head off and come out of the fray with a smile on his face.
 
I show my team film of these guys, the old warriors who relished the battle around the basket.  My team looks at them as youngsters look at dinosaur coloring books.
 
Everyone loves the basket, they just don’t like where the basket is located. But unfortunately a team is awarded no points if the ball does not actually go through the basket.
 
And my Patriots are no better at doing that from long-range as they are from point-blank range.  In our last game we scored 22 points in the first half.
 
I was depressed at intermission until we scored 16 in the second half. Then I became downright suicidal.
 
Dale Carnegie once said, “Everyday is a new life to a wise man.” A new day, and a new year, brings optimism for new results.  But just in case, Santa, I hope there is a hairy-chested warrior downstairs under the Christmas tree who just loves to dunk a basketball.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Dec. 18, 2021
 
“You can’t go back home to your family, back home to your childhood, back home to romantic love, back home to a young man’s dreams of glory and fame…”.
Thomas Wolfe
 
Several days ago my Francis Marion University basketball team played a game against Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C. To get to Murfreesboro I had to drive past my childhood.
 
Woodland, N.C., is 10 miles from Murfreesboro on Highway 258. My great grandfather, Julian, and my grandfather, Grady, owned a casket manufacturing plant there.
 
It’s where my mother grew up and where I spent most weekends, and every Christmas, for the first 18 years of my life. Have I ever mentioned my son is named Grady and my grandson is named Julian?
 
Across the Potecasi Creek is the small community of Pendleton. My father grew up on a farm there and, after spending Christmas morning in Woodland, my mother, father and I would drive the eight miles to Pendleton.
 
I learned to drive a car on the roads surrounding that farm. My father and I would shake pecans from the great pecan trees surrounding the homestead. My grandmother would make the best meals in Northampton County, and when I was a child I thought the best in the world.
 
On my way to Murfreesboro the other day, I stopped in Woodland. Grandpa and Nannie died long ago, their house is still there, but in disrepair. The casket factory nothing but tangled, choking vines and brush.
 
I sold my interest in the farm to a cousin and his wife. My father and mother are rolling over in their respective graves (you never sell farm land), but it was the right thing to do, because the farm looks good and it is flourishing.
 
When I finally arrived at the Chowan University gym, I was greeted by my first recruit as a head coach, Vince Dooms. Vince helped me turn around the Atlantic Christian (now Barton) program, going from four wins the year before we arrived in Wilson, N.C., to 25 wins in our last two years there.
 
Those were heady times for a young coach and I jumped at the first Division I coaching offer that came my way, Baptist College (now Charleston Southern University). Surely it would only be a matter of time before I was the head coach at a big-time school.
 
But when I hugged Vince (I still think of him as a kid even though he is 56) and stepped on Chowan’s Bob Burke court, I did so as the head coach of the Francis Marion University Patriots. I stepped off the court grateful my young team had sneaked out a one-point victory over the winless Hawks.
 
Never another Christmas in Woodland. Never another one of Grandma Edwards’ pecan pies.

The remainder of my coaching days will be spent on the back roads of college basketball.

And in my rear view mirror the cotton fields of Eastern North Carolina grow distant, fading with the setting sun.


Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Dec. 11, 2021
 
“It’s the little things that are vital. Little things make big things happen.”
John Wooden
 
John Wooden won seven NCAA national championships in a row, and 10 overall, as the head basketball coach for the UCLA Bruins. The “Wizard of Westwood” was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Fame as a player in 1960 and as a coach in 1973.
 
Wooden was known for starting the first practice of every season with a lesson to his players on how to avoid blisters…they were taught to put on their socks and shoes the correct way. Smooth out the sock, no wrinkles, double tie the laces.
 
Only after putting on their shoes correctly and tucking in their shirts were Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) and Bill Walton allowed to take the practice floor. Success begins from the ground up.
 
Basketball has just a few basic fundamentals. Dribbling, passing, catching, shooting, rebounding, defending…all fairly simple to learn but hard to master.
 
My young basketball team at Francis Marion University is in the process of learning the fundamentals of basketball. Like John Wooden’s players thought they knew how to put on their shoes and socks, my guys think they know how to play basketball.
 
But they don’t yet know how to play without thinking…fundamentals have to be practiced and repeated so often that they can be executed during a game without conscious thought.
 
Right now they have to think about boxing out and rebounding. They have to think about making the proper pass. They have to think about getting their feet set for an open shot.
 
Once we can master those fundamentals as effortlessly and unconsciously as we breathe, then we will be on our way to becoming good basketball players and a good basketball team.
 
I want my guys to understand success on the basketball court or in life is not the result of any superhuman effort or talent. It is the result of doing the simple things really well, and doing them well all the time.
 
Retired U.S. Navy Admiral William McRaven said it best in a commencement speech at the University of Texas, and later in a best-selling book, “Make Your Bed”.
 
“If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things.”
 
The “hype” video we play as we introduce the starting lineup at our home games infuriates me. I can’t watch it because it glorifies nothing that contributes to winning and everything that leads to individualism and losing basketball.
 
But that’s why I am the coach. I’ll continue to teach the basics…the basics of life, the basics of basketball.
 
And this morning, you can be assured we all made our beds.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Dec. 4, 2021

Brotherly Love?
 
“No person should ever have a fear of walking, running, or driving in any community in this country.”
Dr. Fred Carter, FMU President
 
That was part of a short statement issued by the Francis Marion University president after three white men were convicted in Georgia’s Glynn County last week of murdering a black man, Ahmaud Arbery, while he was jogging through their neighborhood.
 
When I read Dr. Carter’s statement I remembered writing something very similar in a column almost 30 years ago. Back then as an assistant basketball coach at Hofstra University, and later as the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, I frequently recruited many of the talented black athletes of inner-city Philadelphia.
 
The first time I recruited a young man from Simon Gratz, a high school in North Philadelphia, his parents suggested we meet outside the neighborhood due to the violence surrounding their home. This player lived only blocks from the school but was afraid to walk to school.
 
I wrote how sad it was, in this great country, that youngsters were afraid to go to school or parents afraid to leave the house in their own neighborhoods. And if they were not afraid they were probably armed and ready for confrontation.
 
That was more than 30 years ago. In 1990, Philadelphia had 500 deaths due to gun violence. A week ago, a 55-year-old grandmother became the 500th victim this year in the City of Brotherly Love.
 
In the last year, nine students from Simon Gratz High School were shot to death, three in just the last month. Over 40 of the shooting victims this year have been under the age of 18.
 
The current Simon Gratz principal, Le’Yondo Dunn, recently received a text from one of his students, expressing grief that his friend had just died. “I’m so sad. I just lost four friends in a month. Why do we just live to die? It’s like there is no way out of this.”
 
Since 2015, more than 10,000 people have been shot in Philadelphia. More than 80% of those victims have been black males, and 96% of child homicides in the city this past year involved black boys.
 
And of these shootings in which people were wounded or killed, just 21% led to charges and less than 9% have led to a conviction. The bad guys are getting away with murder in Philadelphia.
 
Thank God, Ahmaud Arbery’s killers finally faced justice. Joe Biden called the killing a “devastating reminder of how far we have to go in the fight for racial justice in this country.”  
 
I would suggest the daily killings in this country’s inner-city neighborhoods also remind us of how impotent our politicians and so-called black leaders have been these past 30 years.
 
There are far too many shooters killing far too many black children in Philadelphia. And Philadelphia is a long way from Glynn County.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Nov. 20, 2021

Full Circle
 
The Francis Marion University men’s and women’s basketball teams are in Franklin Springs, Georgia, today to take on the Lions of Emmanuel College. It will be my first Conference Carolinas game since March 5, 1987.
 
On that date my Bulldogs of Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College) took on Jerry Steele’s High Point team for the NAIA District 26 championship and a trip to the NAIA National Championship in Kansas City.
 
Atlantic Christian and High Point were members of the Carolinas Conference and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics. Back then the Carolinas Conference (Guilford, Elon, Catawba, Lenoir-Rhyne, Western Carolina) was a premier conference and the NAIA Tournament was one of the greatest sporting events in the country.
 
Thirty-two teams from around the country would descend on Kansas City’s Memorial Auditorium, and later Kemper Arena, for a basketball junkie’s heaven. Eight games, beginning at 9:00 a.m. and not ending until close to midnight, were played on each of the first three days.
 
High Point’s Steele had made four trips to Kansas City as the head coach for Guilford College. He recruited most of the players (M.L. Carr, World B. Free) who won the national championship in 1973 before he moved to the professional ranks as the coach of the Carolina Cougars of the old ABA.
 
So it was a legendary, veteran coach who brought his Panthers into Wilson Gymnasium on that Thursday night in March. Fortunately, the young and brash coach of Atlantic Christian had a lot of talented players.
 
Behind the scoring of Ricky Melendez and Doren Chapman, the rebounding of Arnold Vinson and Vince Dooms, and the support of the raucous hometown crowd, the Bulldogs prevailed, 67-64.
 
I remember how hot it was in that tiny, packed gymnasium, and I remember ripping the seat of my pants mid-way through the second half. I believe my parents were there, my children had not been born.
 
We cut down the nets, I sang my little “It’s on the Roof” cheer, and I took my team to Kansas City. Months later I moved to Charleston to become the head coach at Baptist College (now Charleston Southern).
 
My children helped me cut down the nets there, and later in Pennsylvania, but life has moved oh so quickly. So many games, so many ups and downs, since that March night in 1987.
 
And now I am the veteran coach taking his team into a tiny gymnasium to play a Conference Carolinas game. Anxious to see how his young team will perform against the pre-season #1, anxious to repeat past glories.
 
My career has come full circle. I probably won’t move fast enough today to rip my pants.


Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Nov. 6, 2021

You Just Have to Laugh
 
"When things get so absurd and so stupid and so ridiculous that you just can’t bear it, you cannot help but turn everything into a joke."
David Byrne, lead singer for Talking Heads
 
That, the fact I am quoting the lead singer for Talking Heads, is in itself evidence enough of how absurd our world is. I applaud Kyrie Irving for keeping his feet planted firmly on his flat earth (look it up, kids) and rejecting, well, just about everything.
 
The last eighteen months or so have reminded me “life is a jest of the Gods…” and at times the only remedy, the only elixir worth its salt, is laughter. If you could peer behind my face mask, you’d see I am grinning like a possum.
 
I’ve been grinning, grinning for the last eighteen months, grinning through cancelled basketball games, and false positive COVID tests, and true positive COVID tests (not for myself, mind you, but for some of my players).
 
Thankfully, none of my players had severe symptoms. My heart goes out to those of you who have been affected; laughter, yet tears. Joy, yet sorrow.
 
But I am vaccinated now, so no testing for me, and if I can negotiate my way through the streets of New York City without getting shot or catching on fire, I can dine in one of the three or four restaurants still in business there.
 
Vaccinated or not, I can still hunker down with 80,000 of my closest friends at an SEC football game. Heck, COVID is probably the least of our worries when we are spitting out “Woo Pig Sooie” at the top of our lungs.
 
Biden. Trump. The population of the United States of America is 333,585,423. I’m not even going to state the obvious.
 
My son called last night. He is an assistant principal at a middle school in North Carolina.
One sixth grader, in the course of one day, smashed a computer, drew obscene pictures in chalk on the sidewalk in front of the school, and called a teacher a homophobic slur.
 
And all his parents wanted to talk about was the school’s masking policy.
 
A rock hit my windshield the other day. I called the windshield repair place and I talked with a lady in Iowa, and then a lady in the Philippines, and then after 26 minutes I had my appointment to get my windshield fixed.
 
The windshield repair place is one mile from my house.
 
Soon, my 2021-2022 men’s basketball team at Francis Marion University will begin playing games and competing in Conference Carolinas for the first time. I am hopeful my guys can have a more “normal” season.
 
After the last eighteen months, they deserve some fun.
 
Don’t we all.


Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 27, 2021
 
This afternoon, the Francis Marion University men’s basketball team will play its last game of the 2021 season. We were able to squeeze in 14 games while many in our conference played far less or shut down their seasons entirely.
 
I am proud of our players for their resiliency. It would have been easier for them to “opt-out” (the new term for “quit”), but they never did and for that I am proud and appreciative.
 
Today’s game at the Smith University Center against Flagler College will also be our last men’s basketball contest as a member of the Peach Belt Conference. The Patriots are moving to Conference Carolinas next season.
 
The Peach Belt was formed in 1989 and began play in the fall of 1990. The seven charter members of the conference were Armstrong Atlantic, Columbus State, Georgia College, Lander, USC-Aiken, USC-Upstate, and Francis Marion.
 
Through numerous changes in membership, Francis Marion has been a constant for 30 years. But recently the Peach Belt has been moving, geographically and philosophically, away from Francis Marion.
 
There are now seven Georgia schools in the conference with plans to add more. To use a political phrase, we did not leave the Peach Belt, the Peach Belt left us.
 
The Patriots will be moving to Conference Carolinas and I personally feel my coaching career has come full-circle. My first head coaching position was at conference member Atlantic Christian College (now Barton College).
 
Conference Carolinas was formed in 1930 and was originally named the Old North State Conference. Charter members were Appalachian State, Atlantic Christian, Catawba, Guilford, Elon, High Point, and Lenoir-Rhyne.
 
Back then it was an NAIA conference, and some of the best basketball in the country was played on its hardwood courts. NBA All-Stars Lloyd (World) Free, Bob Kaufmann, and M.L Carr all played at Guilford, while legendary coaches Jerry Steele (High Point), Jack Jensen (Guilford), and Sam Moir (Catawba) roamed the sidelines.
 
Now the conference has 13 NCAA Division II members. UNC-Pembroke will continue to be our rival, but new rivalries will surely form with Belmont-Abbey, Barton (the Bulldogs won the national championship in 2007), Mt. Olive (I can’t wait to pick up a jar of pickles), North Greenville, and several other historically strong basketball programs.
 
This is an exciting new chapter for Francis Marion Athletics. Our athletes can’t wait to start competing for Conference Carolinas championships next fall.
 
As for me, I’m just happy I never have to go back to Americus.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 20, 2021
Demolition Derby
 
My father, Jim, worked as a Claims Specialist for State Farm Insurance for over 40 years. His territory was mainly in the Tidewater, Virginia, area, but for several years he traveled over the Bay Bridge-Tunnel once a week to work the Eastern Shore.
 
Often he would take me along when he went out to take pictures of accident scenes with his Polaroid camera. We’d also go to salvage yards to inspect the mangled vehicles involved in a crash.
 
If Jim was alive, and working in South Carolina, he would be a busy man. Every day this week, either going to work or coming home, I passed an accident involving multiple vehicles.
 
According to several studies, the Palmetto State is the sixth worst state in the country for automobile accidents and the third deadliest. Lord have mercy, we don’t have that many residents compared to other states, but unfortunately many of us are terrible drivers.
 
Most accidents are caused by either speed, distracted driving, or driving while impaired. The weather these last few weeks probably hasn’t helped, either.
 
I’m not sure what the answer is, but:
 
Let’s try to drive at a speed appropriate for the conditions. It’s harder to stop on a wet road.
 
Let’s put our cell phones down. It’s hard to see the car in front of us when we are looking at an unimportant text.
 
Let’s quite drinking and driving. Don’t be so ridiculously selfish.
 
They ran the Daytona 500 last weekend, and a journeyman driver named Michael McDowell won. Or rather, he survived multiple crashes.
 
Of the 40 cars that started under the green flag, only 11 finished. I know NASCAR is rooted here in South Carolina, but we don’t need for a trip to the grocery store to turn into The Great American Race.
 
And we certainly don’t need for it to turn into a Demolition Derby.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 13, 2021
 
I watched the University of South Carolina men’s basketball team play Alabama the other night. Coach Frank Martin didn’t look too good, and his team looked even worse.
 
But before you Gamecock boosters at the country club start pooling your money to buy him out, let’s take a closer look. He is, after all, trying to negotiate a very unusual basketball season.
 
His team has endured three COVID pauses, and eight regularly scheduled games have been either cancelled or postponed. Martin himself has come down with the virus twice.
 
He has lost several close friends recently. Legendary Miami high school basketball coach, Shaky Rodriquez, died in November. ESPN baseball reporter Pedro Gomez, 58, passed away on Super Bowl Sunday.
 
Frank Martin is not the type of man who makes excuses, and he would not want me making excuses for him. But as a college basketball coach, I can speak to how hard this season has been on players, coaches and staff.
 
My Francis Marion men’s basketball team has been affected less by COVID than any other team in the Peach Belt Conference. And yet, three players have missed practices and games due to false positives.
 
The mental stress for players and coaches is real at every level. Our rival, UNC Pembroke, has opted out of playing the remainder of their men’s basketball season.
 
The 13-1 Michigan Wolverines have not played or practiced in two weeks. Baylor, undefeated and the No. 2 ranked team in the country, has postponed five straight games.
 
And how about basketball blue-bloods Kentucky, Duke and Kansas? Not many teams are having a normal year in these very abnormal times.
 
Last year, South Carolina president Bob Carlson said in response to the ongoing pandemic, “It will require a new level of creativity and shared sacrifice from our entire campus community.”
 
Well, Gamecock nation was not willing to sacrifice through another football season with Will Muschamp at the helm. Fifteen million dollars was creatively raised to buy his contract out.
 
Don’t do the same with Frank Martin, a good coach and an even better person. Give the man a mulligan.
 
After all, it’s only basketball. Spring practice is right around the corner.

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Feb. 6, 2021

Tom Brady and Son

When Tom Brady takes the field tomorrow evening in Tampa for Super Bowl LV, at 43 years and 188 days of age, he will become the oldest player to ever play in a Super Bowl. He supplants Matt Stover, a kicker for the Colts, for that particular honor.
 
He won six championship rings with the New England Patriots, but he will be wearing a Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform as he tries for a seventh. He led the Bucs to three straight road wins over divisional champions in a circular route back to Raymond James Stadium.
 
He was a sixth-round draft choice in 2000. Six other quarterbacks (for bonus points, can you name them?) were drafted ahead of him. He has now been the starting quarterback in a Super Bowl in three different decades (2000, 2010, and 2020).
 
The Bucs were 7-9 last season, and had not even made the playoffs since 2007. Brady walked into the locker room and it seems these Bucs began to demand more of themselves than in the past.
 
His work ethic and preparation is legendary. He is a powerful endorsement for following your passion and sacrificing for it.
 
You know I love a world in which the people with the fiercest commitment come out on top.
And I don’t think it would hurt if our world saw a miracle, an unimaginable show of strength, from a 43 year old quarterback in Super Bowl LV.
 
But that’s not why I will be rooting for Tom Brady tomorrow night. I’ll be rooting for him because he took the time to find his 13 year old son, Jack, in the stands at frigid Lambeau Field after the NFC championship game two weeks ago.
 
It was only a moment. A hug. An “I love you.” An “I’ll see you soon.” But it spoke volumes.
 
It seems that somewhere among the hours of fanatical preparation that colors his professional life, Tom Brady finds time to be with his son. “Tom and Jack are super tight,” a family friend says. “You’ll see them throwing the football around all the time.”
 
Real fathers who do the daily stuff that makes them heroes in the eyes of their sons, well, there are no hall of fames for them. But there are other rewards, more important rewards.
 
After beating Aaron Rogers and the Packers to earn his trip to the Super Bowl, Tom Brady remarked that having his son in the stands made it a perfect night. “It doesn’t get any better for a dad than that,” he said.
 
Doesn’t get any better for a son, either.
 
Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 30, 2021

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work.
Stephen King
 
Despite running a little cross country in high school and college, I’ve never run a race on a track and certainly have never run a race involving hurdles. Despite this, I wrote a few weeks ago about the hurdles we all must negotiate on the track of life.
 
After reading my column, I had a friend send me an article by Clifton Mark titled, “A belief in meritocracy is not only false; it’s bad for you.” Mark is a professor in the political science department at the University of Saskatchewan.
 
Simply put, meritocracy is the belief that merit rather than luck determines success or failure.

A growing number of people believe success depends a great deal on one’s genetic endowments and upbringing as opposed to work and sacrifice.
 
After reading the article, and also the book “Success and Luck” by Robert Frank, I have come to the conclusion I am not one of those people.
 
While I am the first to admit external factors (parents, poverty or wealth, education) play an important role, I remain a firm believer internal factors ultimately determine an individual’s success or failure in life.
 
In his book, Frank writes about Bill Gates. “There are certainly programmers as skillful as Gates who nonetheless failed to become the richest person on earth…what separates the two is luck.”
 
I don’t buy it, and what a horrible message to send to a young person born into difficult circumstances. Are we to say, sorry, you drew the short straw and there is really no way to rise above it all?
 
As a coach who has worked with hundreds of young men over the years, I can offer real examples as opposed to theories. I can write about young men who were raised in debilitating poverty, who cleared countless hurdles through hard work and perseverance, and made a generational change in their families.
 
I can also write about young men who had every advantage growing up, who wasted that advantage in a sea of laziness and bad decisions. An individual’s own decisions and actions lead to real consequences.
 
Of course, luck is involved in any endeavor. But I can see a generation of young people reading Mark and Frank, sitting in Mom’s basement smoking pot rather than taking part in a system that rewards effort.
 
I’ll keep preaching about effort and hard work. My Francis Marion basketball team will need both this afternoon when we play Columbus State in Georgia.
 
A little luck wouldn’t hurt, either.
 

Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 23, 2021
Now, the sun’s coming up,
I’m riding with Lady Luck.
Lyrics from “Ol’ 55”
 
The sun came up this morning. This pandemic, this cursed pandemic, has cost us so much, but for the lucky ones, the sun came up today.
 
And today, the Francis Marion men’s basketball team will be one of the lucky college basketball teams to play a game. The Patriots will take on Young Harris (as opposed to Old Harris) today at 2:00 p.m. in the Smith University Center on our campus.
 
Many college teams will not have that opportunity. Of the 23 NCAA Division II conferences, seven have opted out of this season due to COVID.
 
Many NCAA Division I teams are negotiating a maze of interrupted seasons. Just recently a couple of high profile women’s programs canceled the remaining games on their respective schedules.
 
That’s a lot of players not playing. But the Patriots will take the court this afternoon with grateful hearts; grateful for the opportunity to play a game we all love so much.
 
I told my team at the beginning of this abbreviated season we are playing with “house money”. Win or lose, we are going to enjoy every practice and every game.
 
Win or lose, we are not going to worry about yesterday’s game, but instead focus on today and the task at hand. We’ll play hard and enjoy the proverbial “icing on the cake” of competition.
 
In the classic book, How to Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie says, “Every day is a new life to a wise man.”
 
And in the greatest book of all, the Psalmist reminds us, “This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”
 
COVID has reminded us of a universal truth. There are no guarantees.
 
No guarantee you can dine in your favorite restaurant. Or fly to a faraway vacation destination. Or visit your grandmother. Or see the sun rise again.
 
But the sun came up again this morning, and with a little luck, my team and I will play a basketball game this afternoon.


Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 16, 2021
Black Lives
 
As a father of three young black men, I truly understand the importance of my sons knowing the burdens that come with their skin color. But I would be failing them as a father if the message of how to thrive in their skin color didn’t overpower that!
Crayton “CJ” Jones IV
 
CJ was my point guard at Francis Marion University from 2007-2009, and served as an assistant coach for the Patriots from 2009-2014. He moved over to women’s basketball early in his career and currently is the assistant women’s basketball coach at Missouri State.
 
Many athletes and coaches felt compelled to speak publicly of police brutality and racial injustice after George Floyd died on a Minneapolis sidewalk under the knee of a white police officer this past summer. Instead of issuing statements, I felt it was a time for me to listen.
 
I intently listened to CJ, and to Lamont, and to Dennis, and to literally dozens of my former and current players and coaches. They are black men who I respect and care deeply about.
 
Lamont and I talked for hours about police reform. My boyhood idol, “Kit” Hurst, was killed in the line of duty in my hometown of Norfolk, Virginia, so no one reveres law enforcement more than I.
 
But the bad apples with racial bias and bad temper and insecurities must be vetted before wearing the shield. That takes time and money.
 
Defund police? My guys think that is the exact opposite of what should occur…most police departments already struggle to attract and retain good cops. Pay a professional wage and train them to handle the complex challenges they face in the line of duty.
 
Dennis and I talked about overcoming hurdles. Hurdles of racism, hurdles of poverty, hurdles of broken families; we all face hurdles in this 100 yard dash of life, some have more to jump over than others.
 
But we came to the conclusion that, perhaps more so than any other country on earth, if you are willing to work and sacrifice you can reach the same finish line as those who don’t have quite as many hurdles to endure.
 
Just don’t shoot me when I am jumping the hurdle. I have several former players who are in law enforcement and they all suggested, “Comply and then complain.”
 
Good advice but, as I have listened, I have learned some advice is sometimes easier said than done. That’s why we all must do what we can to bring about change and reform.
 
Fathers like CJ and their children deserve nothing less.


Francis Marion University men's basketball head coach Gary Edwards' column for Jan. 9, 2021
 
It has been awhile since our last chat. So much has happened, so much has changed. And yet, I find comfort in the things that remain the same.
 
The Francis Marion University men’s basketball team, my team, opens its home season today against Georgia Southwestern. It will be my 42nd home opener as a college coach.
 
None have come this late in the basketball year. Usually the first game of any season begins in November, but this is an unusual time and it surely will be an unusual season.
 
But the nervous butterflies before the tip-off will be all too familiar. I’ll be anxious to see if my team can execute the offenses and defenses of my youth.
 
For I have gone back to my coaching roots. On offense we will be pounding the ball inside, running the “Blue Offense” I ran when I first started coaching. And on defense we will go “20-30-40” as we work to disrupt our opponent’s offensive patterns.
 
Old school, tried and true fundamental basketball. It may not trend on social media but defense and rebounding win championships. The world may change but certain universal truths stay the same.
 
No one associated with our team has tested positive for COVID. I don’t know if our good fortune is due to the protocols we have in place at Francis Marion, or just dumb luck. I suspect it is a little of both, but I do know our players have sacrificed to be in a position to play today.
 
And when they play today I believe they will honor that sacrifice by playing unselfishly and putting the good of the team before the good of the individual. All great teams possess that trait. Great countries, too.
 
Our regular season consists of 16 Peach Belt Conference games. We will play two games a week for eight weeks if all goes as planned.
 
And, God willing, I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you in each of those eight weeks through this column. I’m grateful that hasn’t changed.
 
After the events of this past year, I have so much to say. Just thinking about it has me grinning from ear to ear.
 
Behind my mask, of course.