KETTERING FINALLY TURNS ASIDE MOTT
WATERFORD >> In the midst of a resurgent season, Waterford Kettering’s boys basketball program put another feather in its cap Wednesday by ending a longstanding losing streak to its archrival, Waterford Mott.
Already with twice as many wins as last season, Kettering added a gigantic one to get over the .500 mark by rallying from nine points down in the second half to walk away with a jubilant 48-44 victory.
The Captains’ triumph was their first against the Corsairs since February 2016, breaking a losing skid of nine games to their cross-town and conference foe.
New to the school, but not to the importance of rivalries, Kettering first-year coach Michael Marek was overjoyed for his players for pulling one out against Mott.
“It means everything to the team. When this game was on our schedule, this is the one we circled. This was the one we wanted,” Marek said. “It’s been such a long time since they beat them. For the kids to come together, play the way they did and win the game, I couldn’t be prouder.”
The relief and excitement extended to the Captains’ players, too, who suffered through a threewin season a year ago while the Corsairs were riding high and
wrapping up a third-straight Lakes Valley Conference title.
“It really means a lot. We’ve always been the underdog,” senior point guard Bennie Crenshaw said. “Nobody thought we were going to win this. Our coach, he’s been feeding us since he got here, telling us to stick to the plan. We’re just believing in him because he’s been believing in us since day one. It’s mutual love. Without him we wouldn’t have beaten them, honestly.”
Crenshaw was a busy man in the second half as he helped orchestrate the Kettering comeback. A strong start to the second half saw Mott in the driver’s seat, up 30-21.
The tide turned quickly though. A layup by Crenshaw beat the third-quarter buzzer to make it a one-possession game again and he opened the scoring in the final stanza with a go-ahead 3-pointer.
The threes kept coming, as junior Trevor Donohue capped a 16-2 scoring run with a triple for the Captains, followed soon by a pair of 3-pointers from junior Chris Sanford that made it 45-38 Kettering with 2:12 remaining.
“He’s a guy that doesn’t play that often and sometimes doesn’t
play at all, but he came in with two big threes,” Marek said of Sanford. “For a guy like that to come in and hit those threes in this game, it says a lot about him.”
Not quite done yet, Mott climbed back within one point with 1:03 remaining. But out of a timeout, Crenshaw
and Donohue combined for a game-clinching play. On the run from a double team, Crenshaw dribbled toward the basket and dished a pass to Donohue in the corner, who immediately tapped the ball back to Crenshaw for a finish at the rim and a drawn foul. The free throw made it a four-point game, which added just enough breathing room to prevail.
“I would love to take
credit for it, but it wasn’t a planned play,” Marek said. “They were just doubling Bennie. The focus was all on Bennie, so we told him to give it up and get it back. We didn’t plan for it to happen like that, but I’m glad it did. Against a great player there in Zeke (Price), who was blocking shots all night, it was a heckuva finish.”
Crenshaw finished with 17 points to lead all scorers,
but deferred to his teammate, Donohue, for the heads-up pass that clinched the ‘W.’
“My boy, Trev. That’s him growing up. We (seniors) won’t be here next year, so it’s going to be on him,” Crenshaw said of Donohue. “Him making IQ plays like that, it’s going to show we’re good for the future of Waterford Kettering basketball.”
Donohue and sophomore
Zarek Zelinski posted 10 points apiece, while senior Jack Burch chipped in with five for the Captains (7-6, 3-4 Lakes Valley Conference). In all, Kettering ended the game on a 2714 run from the time of its largest deficit.
“We switched up our defense,” Marek said of what enabled the turnaround. “We started trapping, getting steals and some easy run-outs. We believed in
the kids to run that defense because sometimes it leaves open layups and open buckets. We trusted the kids and they responded.”
Sophomore Dajuantae Warren scored 15 points to lead Mott (8-6, 3-4 LVC), with Juan Delvalle Claudio notching 10 points and Kalieb Osborn adding nine.
Both teams return to play Friday with Kettering at South Lyon and Mott welcoming in Milford.
Kansas athletic director Jeff Long resigned Wednesday, less than two days after the school mutually parted with Les Miles amid sexual misconduct allegations dating to the football coach’s time at LSU and one day after Long vowed he would lead the Jayhawks’ search for a replacement.
Kurt Watson will serve as the interim athletic director as the school searches for both an AD and football coach.
“We will immediately begin our search for a new athletics director. I will lead the process with the assistance of a search firm and four alumni advisors, each of whom have experience in collegiate athletics,” Kansas Chancellor Douglas Girod said in a statement. “My hope is to have a new athletics director in place within the next few weeks.”
Girod said the new athletic director will take control of the football coaching search.
“I understand time is of the essence and that our football student-athletes are eager to know who will be guiding them,” he said. “But we are making longterm decisions on an athletics director and a football coach, and we cannot sacrifice the quality of a search simply for expediency. While there will be a lot of speculation regarding potential candidates for both searches, I urge Jayhawks to have faith in the process and in those who are devoting their time to assist.”
Long’s dismissal came a day after he vowed to lead the search for Miles’ successor, a move that drew significant backlash from Kansas alumni. It was Long who had hired Miles, his friend of more than 30 years, despite questions that ultimately led to his firing in disgrace Monday night.
The move also comes as the Jayhawks’ storied men’s basketball program, which is awaiting the decision of an independent arbitrator on what could be severe NCAA sanctions for rules violations, prepares to open the Big 12 Tournament on Thursday with the NCAA Tournament on tap next week.
“I leave KU with a heavy heart and profound confidence that I have always acted in the best interests of Kansas Athletics,” Long said in a statement Wednesday night. “I have done everything in my control to move Kansas Athletics forward in a positive manner; that’s what makes this most difficult.”
Long was hired by Kansas to help rebuild a football program mired firmly in the Big 12 cellar. His charge was to find a coach who could take the Jayhawks back to relevance while also persuading donors to open their checkbooks in support of upgrades to the practice facility and aging Memorial Stadium.
Instead, his roughly three-year tenure was filled with bumbling missteps.
After firing former football coach David Beaty, Long informed him that it would be “for cause” due to a relatively minor NCAA investigation into a non-coaching staff member and that his $3 million buyout would be withheld. A 15 month-long court case followed, embarrassing the university that wound up paying $500,000 in legal fees before ultimately agreeing with Beaty on a $2.55 million settlement.
Long also was criticized in 2019 for bringing Snoop Dogg to Late Night in the Phog, the annual kickoff to basketball practice. The rapper’s performance included four scantily dressed dancers doing routines on stripper poles and the firing of fake $100 bills into the crowd, an apparently flippant reference to the NCAA’s investigation into allegations that Kansas basketball coaches funneled money through an Adidas rep to potential players.
“I take full responsibility for not understanding what acrobatic dancers are in today’s entertainment world,” Long said in response to the backlash, “and offer my personal apology to anyone who was offended.”
But the biggest embarrassment for Long, whose five-year deal paid him $1.5 million annually, came on the football field, where the hiring of Miles resulted in just three wins over two seasons and ended in disaster.
After firing Beaty, Long claimed to have cast a wide net in search of a replacement, even though he later admitted in a deposition that Kansas had hired a documentary film crew to shoot Miles before he had been hired.
Last week, LSU released a pair of reviews conducted by separate law firms into allegations Miles had made sexual advances toward two female members of the program while coaching the Tigers. Miles was placed on administrative leave by Kansas, and the two sides agreed to a $2 million settlement to terminate the remaining years on his contract.
Long said a series of background checks took place before the Jayhawks hired Miles in 2018, and that nobody within the LSU athletic department raised any red flags. Asked why he was unaware of the allegations against a friend of his dating to their days at Michigan in the late 1980s, Long offered little explanation.
“We ran multiple background checks,” he said. “I also asked Coach Miles directly during the interview process whether there was anything in his past that could potentially embarrass the university, himself or the program and he said, ‘No.’”
“I think much is played about our friendship,” Long added. “It’s a friendship that was certainly not the reason why we were hiring him to be the head coach. He was an established head coach, he was an incredible recruiter.”