The Dalton State basketball team travels to Life University in Marietta on Monday (7:30 p.m.) and returns home Tuesday (7:30 p.m.) to take on Erskine College in the 2014-2015 home opener.
Roadrunner coach Tony Ingle is cautiously optimistic about the team’s second year of play as a four year institution and first as a full member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics.
Ingle calls the Southern States Athletic Conference one of if not the toughest conferences in the NAIA.
“If we keep everybody healthy and eligible, we have a chance to be pretty competitive,” Ingle said. High preseason rankings may be good for the fans, but being ranked second in the conference and 15th in the country before the first game is played may not be good for the team. “Here we are coming in and trying to earn our way and they’ve put a target on our back.”
“It could go back and forth every year. There will typically be three or four teams from the conference that travel to the national tournament. Any basketball coach has a goal of getting to the national tournament. Kennesaw State was an NAIA member for a long time and they only went once.”
The coach said the Roadrunners are working on competing and winning at the national level. “That’s something we’re working for,” he said. “I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but we’re working for it.”
Dalton State comes off an impressive 26-4 record in the inaugural season. “I have a special place in my heart for those who came in here last year to help us build the foundation that we’re still trying to build,” said Ingle. “We’re very fortunate that we have LaDaris Green on our team; that Sean Tate decided to come and play here. Preston Earle and Anthony Hilliard had opportunities to play elsewhere, but they wanted to come here.”
We established what we had last year. We lost Ricky Sears – 16 points a game and his leadership. Ricky really was fun to watch and a great player. D.J. (Demetrice Jacobs) gave us a lot of strength and was our leading rebounder. LaDaris Green didn’t play but 12 games last year. Having him for the whole season is going to be huge. Those guys are good leaders. Good quality, serious students.”
Preston Earle was the northwest Georgia college basketball player of the year for 2013-2014. “He is a tough competitor who loves to play and makes everybody play hard in practice. Preston hit that big game winning jump shot at the buzzer last season again Southern Poly. He put the ball up before the buzzer and it sounded while the ball was in the air.”
Anthony Hilliard was Earle’s teammate at Catawba Community College in Hickory, NC. “I have been real proud of his leadership. He’s one of the best on ball defenders, I think, anywhere in the country. He can get in you fast. He’ll wear you like cologne. His shooting has really improved and he can get to the paint.”
“Now we have (Georgia native) Isaiah Massey, a senior transfer from Louisiana Tech. He gives us power and strength inside,” said Ingle. “He can dunk that ball with power. You can foul him and he’ll still dunk it. He also has enough savvy that he can move on the perimeter and shoot that jump shot.”
“Jordan Bowling was here last year, but didn’t play. He came in at Christmas and red shirted. People are going to like him. Jordan is a pretty multifaceted player. He plays several positions. He shoots the ball well and jumps really good… very athletic.”
Chris Jones, a 6’2” junior, just had knee surgery. “He will probably be about another three weeks before he will be back. We specifically recruited Chris to be a go to player. He can get in the paint and create his shot as well as others.” Jermaine Burrey is said to be “a tough competitor in practice.”
Freshman Clynt Bell from Dade County was the Chattanooga area’s leading scorer last season. “He’s making adjustments right now, but I like his tenacity and his thinking on the court.” Dylan Smith “is a snapper.” “If he’s on, he’s on. Nobody is going to stop him.”
Ingle said senior Raheem Moseley “has really improved.”
“I know a lot of people are concerned about Raheem’s foul shots, but this is the first time that he’s really had a strong emphasis on it,” said Ingle. “Some people have shot fouls shots their whole life, but they can’t go up and slam dunk it like he can, they are not 6’8” and can move like he can. Raheem is a good team player, has a good effort on the court, and he’s working on it. If everyone worked on their weaknesses as much as Raheem has worked on his the world would be a better place. I think you are going to see some improvements on the foul shots that really, for the first time, became serious to him.”
“Nate Terry is more seasoned this year. He’s a junior. He’s tough and nicknamed ‘big nasty’,” said Ingle. ”He’s just solid. A good team player.
Jerrico “Shaqo” Williams is said to have good upper body strength, but Ingle says the 6’10” freshman needs to work on his legs. “I don’t know how much he will get done this year, but in the spring and summer we’ll be working hard to get his legs stronger. Knee surgery creates occasional problems. He has also missed practice a couple of days after getting a tooth knocked out. It’s good to have Shaq. He’s big, he’s strong. He’s tough inside and actually shoots a good foul shot and a good little jumper.”
This year’s team has seven seniors, four juniors, no sophomores and three freshmen. “We thought Rico (Jerrico) Williams was going to be a sophomore, but the NAIA ruled him to be a freshman, so that’s a plus.” Junior Danny Austin is redshirting this year.
“That was by design,” Ingle said. “We wanted to bring in a good junior class last year so that we could be competitive right off of the bat. We had no idea we were going to be blessed with the miracle season that we had. It was phenomenal.”
Last year’s team “came together, bought into the system.” This teams loves playing basketball and he believes they will be a “fun, exciting team to watch.”
“It was really horrifying trying to get a schedule together this year,” Ingle said in explaining why he had to start out by playing a team that beat the Roadrunners by 20 points last season.
“What to do you do when you win more games than any four year college in your first year than any team in the history of basketball. A lot of people dropped us. A lot of people didn’t want to play us again. Last year they thought we were going to be everybody’s homecoming game, but our guys rallied around each other and the team played well. We needed more depth. This year we feel like we’ve got the depth that we want.”
“Life had us down by 30 points last year and ended up beating us 110 to 90. Two of last year’s Life University team had two players who scored over 30 points each on the Roadrunners. One of them has graduated.
“Life is always competitive. They always go to the national tournament,” said Ingle. ”This will be a good barometer for us. They are going to have a game under their belt. They play Saturday to get some of their jitters out and we don’t.”
The Roadrunners go to Marietta ranked number 15 in the nation. “It’s going to be a hostile crowd. Everybody’s going to be fired up. I can’t control their team. I can’t even control our team, but I have influence on our team.”
The coach looks at Monday’s game as part of an evaluation period for the Roadrunners. “In all seriousness it all starts when we go play our first conference game.” That comes on Friday, November 21st in Montgomery, AL against Faulkner University.
“I am really, really happy for the college and for the community,” said Ingle. “What has happened with athletics being in Dalton is just phenomenal. Dalton State has brought an excitement to this town that is long overdue.”
“We feel very proud to be part of that with our basketball team,” Ingle added. “I think it gives our community something to rally around, something to cheer for, and something to look forward to. People get off of work and want something to do. They can come over and support the old Roadrunners.”