Vikings open SAA defense with new coach

The Berry men’s basketball team enters a new season with some key veterans returning from a squad that won the 2021 Southern Athletic Association championship and a new head coach who is no stranger to the Vikings.

After serving as the program’s assistant coach for the past three years, Trevor Lydic takes the helm as the team’s interim head coach this season after assuming the position last summer and leads the Vikings into their season opener Friday when they travel to North Carolina to face non-conference foe Brevard.

“Someone wise told me to never assume anything,” said Lydic. “We’ve been able to have success and build a program to what Berry’s standards are. In all of college athletics you don’t know what can possibly happen, but I am really grateful and blessed to have this position.”

Graduate student Austin Brooks, who returns after earning First Team ALL-SAA honors last year after averaging 12.4 points and 7.1 rebounds, said that the coaching transition was smooth, and having a familiar face takeover was comforting.

“The transition was a lot smoother with everybody able to help to find a new head coach as soon as possible,” said the 6-foot-8 forward. “Having someone that we know and a familiar face — that really helps.”

Lydic, who will be assisted by first-year assistant coach Josh Pittman, said there will be a few different things that he will bring to the table in terms of style of play, playing faster on offense, and using the player’s strengths to their advantage.

“I’m more of a defensive-minded coach and that won’t change because we had great success nationally,” said Lydic. “Offensively, I want to play faster and play to our players strengths, and scoring more points because it’s more entertaining, not only for the players but for the fans.”

Even though the team has gone through a coaching change, it doesn’t mean they’ll go through a culture change. The core values that the players are taught in the program won’t change: being connected, being driven, resilience and having a heart of thankfulness.

“We spend a lot of time doing in depth throughout the season what that means. In my first 30 days as head coach talking about being great communicators and being connected as a team,” said Lydic.

The team returns 10 members from last year’s championship squad and adds eight newcomers to this year’s roster.

Not only that, the Vikings will also be playing a full, regular season as opposed to last spring when the schedule was shortened and only consisted of conference opponents. The team also hopes to get the chance to play nationallyranked teams this year, creating a welcomed challenge.

“We have the players to compete at a high level in the SAA,” said Lydic. “Hopefully we’ll play some nationally ranked teams this year so I hope those will be some good tests for our players to see exactly where we are in the landscape of D-3 basketball.”

Senior guard Michael Johnson said the team has many goals off the court as well as on the court, staying connected as a team being one of them.

“Relationships are really important to me,” said Johnson, who is his first season at Berry as a transfer averaged 10 points a game and was named the SAA’S Newcomer of the Year. “After last year and having success, I feel like we got stronger relationally. Of course, the goal is to win a conference title every year, also to give it our all every single day.”

The team undoubtedly has a target on their back this season, and there won’t be a team in the SAA that will be a walk in the park, or a team that the Vikings can blow past and not think about.

“It can be anybody,” Johnson said. “We need to go in every game knowing we have to play for the championship. It’s not easy but we’re well equipped to bring home another championship.”

Any season won’t come without its challenges. Handling the pressure to bring home another championship is one that the Vikings will have to endure.

“One of the challenges is going to be the stigma of ‘that we won last year, so we can win this year too, without putting in as much work,” said Brooks.

After Berry plays its first two games on the road — after facing Brevard the team heads to Misenheimer, N.C., to take on Pfeiffer — the Vikings return home to host the Viking Tipoff at the Cage playing Warren Wilson on Nov. 20 and Lagrange on Nov. 21.