Returning all their starters bodes well for Greyhounds
With the 3A-2 Conference being realigned this year, head coach Ty Ferguson and his Newport Greyhounds, after a 15-15 overall record last year and 6-10 in conference play, will face the unknown on the court for most of their conference games this season. However, they will do so with every starter returning from last year, when the team was 3 and 1 in the district tournament and lost in the first round of regional to Osceola, the team that went on to win state.
“It’s the same name of the conference, but with different teams,” Ferguson said.
The Greyhounds will now face their biggest rival, Tuckerman, right down the street. “A lot of the teams in the conference are new to me,” the coach said. “The only other two I know of are the ones who moved with us, Cave City and Mountain View.”
“But Tuckerman is the biggest game to watch,” Ferguson said. “Those are the guaranteed packedhouse games, on Jan. 6 and at Tuckerman on Jan. 31.” The coach, in his second year at Newport, is assisted by Lavar Neal and Seth Mills.
The team’s returning starters are seniors Johnathan Moore, Kylan Crite, Brendon Curry and Isaiah Kendall; and sophomore Demetric Denton.
“I expect them to click quickly this year because they all played together last year,” Ferguson said. “They all play off of each other and complement each other really well. … Some of them can shoot; some of them can attack. They’re all really hard-nosed on defense, and they’re all really good kids that are super easy to coach. …
“We get a huge advantage from returning everybody, … and they kind of already know what to expect from me. … Our playbook will be really similar, so we should pick up that really fast, a lot faster than we did last year.”
The coach named Kendall and and Curry as the team’s best inside players. “They’re really tough and get after the boards, and they’re just really team-first guys that will do the little dirty stuff to will help us compete and stay in games — just overall toughness, blocking out hard, hitting the boards hard, getting rebounds, being physical, diving on the floor for loose balls, stuff like that.”
He said the other three starters — Moore, Crite and Denton — “bring a really good skill set. They play off of each other really well. A couple of them can shoot; a couple of them can flash. They just really bring a full complement to our guard play.”
The coach will also count on senior Noah Curtis, a 3-and-D-type player. “He was probably our best percentage 3-point shooter last year, and he’s a really hard-nosed defender, Ferguson said. And freshman Aamonii Wren “brings kind of a true point-guard presence to our team … and he loves playing defense.”
Ferguson cited his team’s strengths as good depth and athleticism.
“I’ve got a lot of guys who play multiple sports, and they’re … skilled in multiple aspects of the game,” he said. “We just really have a good mix of guys who complement each other and make the puzzle fit together perfectly. …
“Our biggest weakness is that we’re behind the eight ball to start out because so many of my guys play football. … Our biggest weakness is [a lack of] time together. It’s going to take time to jell, getting our basketball legs under us, getting our jump shots going.”
College prospects include Kendall, who has signed to play football at Jackson State University in Mississippi, a DI football school. “If he wanted to pursue basketball at the next level, I think he could,” Ferguson said.
Point guard Moore is getting JUCO interest, with Crite getting small-school interest. Ferguson said sophomore Denton and freshman Wren have “bright futures ahead of them. It’s just not time for them to be recruited yet.”
The coach said, “ultimately, you’re going to see a team that plays together. They’re not going to be bickering on the floor. A lot of these guys grew up together and understand this is their last hurrah, their last go-round as a group. I think you’re going to see a team that really plays for each other and takes pride in being a Newport Greyhound. … We’re going to be disciplined and, hopefully, put together a pretty fine show this season. That’s the goal, anyway.”