East Hamilton embraces tough draw in first state tourney
East Hamilton could not have drawn a tougher opponent in its first trip to the TSSAA boys’ state basketball tournament. But the Hurricanes are embracing the challenge.
East (31-3) from Memphis won last year’s Class AAA tournament and again is the top-ranked team in the state. Two losses are to out-of-state teams. The other is to Chattanooga independent school Hamilton Heights. All, East included, are nationally ranked teams by CBS Max Preps.
“If we’ve got to play them,” East Hamilton coach Rodney English said of the Mustangs, “I’m good with going ahead and doing it now. At least we have a few days to get ready for them, instead of no time once the tournament gets going. I don’t know that they’re spending that much time preparing for us.”
East Hamilton’s rise in its eight-year varsity program is three years in the making under English. He had been a faculty member the year before, so he knew many of the current upperclassmen first as students and people before becoming their coach.
Current senior Noah Fager was a sophomore who played some off the bench on English’s first Hurricanes team, which finished 14-16. Its season ended in the District 5 tournament.
“I feel like the first year together we didn’t have a lot of chemistry,” Fager said. “We had some good players. We just didn’t click. We didn’t all come together.”
Last year’s team, which had two seniors, improved to 19-12. But again, the season came to an end in the district tournament.
The returning players, plus new additions such as freshmen Sam Randolph and Andrew Williams, have put together a 25-10 record that includes the program’s first Region 3 championship.
“We knew we were going to be good at the beginning of the year,” Fager said. “We played a lot of summer ball and didn’t lose a whole lot.”
The compatibility that Fager said was lacking two years ago has been a team strength this season.
“I’ve been in basketball since I was 8 years old,” English said. “I’ve been fortunate to be a part of a lot of good teams. The biggest common thread among all those teams is good chemistry. In this game you have to really, really love each other. You play for the guy next to you.”
Besides Fager, the ‘Canes have one other senior this year in Matthew Wingard. His personal goal for the season had more to do with creating harmony on the team than anything statistical.
“I just wanted to be the best player I could be and to set an example and be a good role model for the younger kids,” Wingard said.
Fager, at 6-foot-4, and Wingard, at 6-1, will start at the forward positions this afternoon with 6-4 junior DaVae Hughley at center. Their task is to deal with the Mustangs’ rotation of frontcourt players that includes 6-9 Chandler Lawson (15.9 points per game, 9.4 rebounds, 2.6 blocks), 6-8 Malcolm Dandridge (10.2 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 6.4 bpg) and 6-7 Antavion Collum (7.7 ppg, 3.8 rpg).
“They look very long,” Fager said after watching East on video. “Our whole game plan is to outrun their length and outpass their length, the whole length of the court.”
English plans to go with 5-7 junior Vandrele Wilson at the point with 5-11 sophomore Cam Montgomery, who totaled 27 points in the sectional victory over Blackman, at the other guard. He’s hoping junior Justin Dozier, a 5-9 guard, will provide a spark off the bench.
Five Mustangs average double figures in scoring. And although he’s not the leader at 16.1 points per game, 5-11 junior guard Alex Lomax (6.4 rpg, 7.5 apg, 4.3 steals) is the Mr. Basketball winner in the classification. No fear.
More than half of East Hamilton’s students are expected to ride one of the six or seven buses traveling to today’s game. English told his guys to pack for four days.
“I’ve felt like we really earned it,” Wingard said of the state-tournament trip. “We put in a lot of hard work in the offseason. We had 6 a.m. practices. The coaches were there motivating us. We’ve had a good run around here, but we want to go as far as we can go. It’s my senior year. I want to go out with a bang.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.