By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
There were stories, and a few tall tales, as eight branches of the Steve Knight coaching tree gathered at Clinton Gym on the campus of William Carey University Monday for an informal press conference/planning session for the inaugural Steve Knight Classic.
Knight is in his 37th season as head coach of the men’s basketball program at Carey, and in that time he has mentored scores of young men who have gone on to coaching success in their own right.
Recently, eight of those coaches decided to come back to Carey for an early-season basketball classic to give something back to the school and the man who had such an impact in their lives.
“I store all these new offenses, but I always go back to what worked for us back then,” said Jefferson Davis County coach Tony Woody, who played on Knight’s first Carey team back in 1982-83.
Four boys games are on the schedule for Saturday’s tournament, sandwiched around the Crusaders’ season opener at 1 p.m. against Carver College. Action will begin at 11 a.m. and continue into the night, featuring some of the top boys teams in South Mississippi, including a clash between Biloxi and Meridian, who were a combined 59-5 last season.
“I am so glad these guys were able to get together,” said Knight. “This idea was born from conversations we’ve had over the years, ‘Coach, why don’t we do this.’ We’re going to put on the best show we possibly can.”
One could see the pride that Knight had in meeting with so many players who have had a role in the success Carey has enjoyed over the years.
“Just sitting here listening to these stories, is just really special,” said Knight. “To see the love they have for me and for this school makes me very happy to see them so proud of their alma mater, that they are so eager to come back.”
Oak Grove coach LaRon Brumfield, who played for Knight in the late 1990s, said he thinks it will become a regular feature on the prep schedule, maybe to include some of Knight’s proteges who coach in other states.
“We’re hoping to grow it, and make it bigger and better,” said Brumfield. “We’re excited about it. We’ve talked among ourselves for a long time about doing something together, to come back to William Carey, where we all played, on the court that’s named for him.
“We all talk about William Carey. I tell my kids all the time about Carey, how it changed my life. For them to come over here and see something that I got to experience is just great.”
The Warriors will play the 5:30 p.m. game against Harrison Central, coached by Boo Hardy, a former Crusader from the mid-1980s. Oak Grove is coming off a 15-14 season in 2017-18, but Brumfield likes what he’s seen of his team in preseason.
“We’ve got some good guards coming back,” said Brumfield. “We’ve got six seniors coming back, and four guards that we really like: Tate Ryder, Brandon Tilley, Kent Gilbert and Blake Roberts. We lost all of our post players, but we’ve got a couple of bigs playing football right now who we think will help us.”
The Warriors will open the season Thursday at Columbia before taking part in Saturday’s tournament.
Brumfield is now in his fifth season as the boys coach at Oak Grove, and he’s established some stability and lifted the profile of basketball at OG.
“With varsity, ninth grade and JV, we’ve got about 40 kids in the program,” said Brumfield. “And I get kids in the hall all the time telling me, ‘Coach, I want to play.’ And we’ve gotten good support from all the coaches and the fans.”
The high school teams in attendance will get a chance to watch their mentor in action Saturday, as Carey opens its season with a 1 p.m. scheduled tipoff against Carver College, a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association located in Atlanta.
“We originally weren’t going to play, but they were making a swing through Louisiana to play Xavier and Dillard, and they wanted to come up and play us on the way back,” said Knight.
The Crusaders, who come into the season ranked 10th in the nation in the NAIA preseason poll, have a tough series of road games scheduled next week, at No. 23 Xavier on Monday, at second-ranked LSU-Alexandria Wednesday and an exhibition at Division I Southeastern Louisiana on Friday.
Therefore, getting a game under their belt should prove beneficial for Carey.
“We’ll find out what we’re made of pretty quickly,” said Knight.
It could be something of a rebuilding year for Knight, who returns just two starters and three players overall from last season’s 25-6 squad that won both the Southern States Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championship.
“We’ve done this twice before in the past six years, and it’s worked out well,” said Knight. “We lost 80 percent of our scoring and 70 percent of our rebounding.
“A lot will depend on our two returning starters, and the sixth man we have coming back, and how well the new guys are capable of stepping right in.”
The Crusaders return 6-foot-8 forward Branden Sheppard and 5-11 guard Adrian Williams from their starting five a year ago, both seniors, and 6-6 sophomore forward Marques McGee.
Sheppard, who started his career at Louisiana Tech before playing a year at Pearl River Community College, averaged 7.7 points and 7.2 rebounds per game last season at Carey. Williams, who started his career at Jones County Junior College then played a year at PRCC, averaged 7.2 points a game.
They will be joined by a trio of players from last season’s MACJC state championship team from PRCC, 6-foot guard Rodney Mallett, 6-4 swingman Cameron Douglas and 6-4 shooting guard Brandon Cranford.
“We’re going to be expecting a lot out of all three of those guys,” said Knight. “Mallett and Cameron’s basketball IQ is off the charts, and Cranford has just been shooting the lights out in preseason.”
Also joining the Crusaders are 6-5 guard Anthony Jones, from Copiah-Lincoln CC, and 5-11 freshman Dalen Dotson, who redshirted last season at North Carolina A&T.
Steve Knight Classic
Saturday at Clinton Gymnasium
William Carey University
Game Schedule (Last season’s records in parentheses)
11 a.m. – George County (11-14) vs. Collins (21-7); 1 p.m. – Carver College (2-23) vs. William Carey (25-6); 3:30 p.m. – Meridian (32-2) vs. Biloxi (27-3); 5:30 p.m. – Harrison Central (19-10) vs. Oak Grove (15-14); 7:30 p.m. – Bay Springs (26-4) vs. Jefferson Davis County (20-11).
