Men's Basketball News
Centre now becoming center of attention in Kentucky
article by David McCollum
The roster is full of players hailing from familiar Bluegrass cities and towns: Harrodsburg, Pikeville, Shelbyville, Louisville , Georgetown . There's one player from nearby Nashville and another from nearby Cincinnati.
It's a team born and bred in Kentucky—their coach served as an assistant at perennial NCAA Division II power Kentucky Wesleyan—and they play like a prototype Kentucky team.
Centre College is the second-ranked NCAA Division III men's team in the country, and the Colonels have won 24 straight games because they play like a stereotypical team from Kentucky . That means they take quality shots, they play together beautifully, their spacing is almost perfect on the court and they know where each other is on the court.
The Colonels came into Conway this weekend for the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament as the only undefeated regular—season champions in the league's history. You'd think they have the burden of a target on their backs.
“I haven't thought of it that way until you asked,” said Centre coach Greg Mason. “We just got a bunch of kids who like each other and play together well and they're got a good basketball IQ. It's a very focused team. It's a fun team to coach.”
It's a fun team for the basketball purist to watch. Try winning 24 straight games on any level. It's an achievement.
“We win because we play together,” Mason said.
Situated in Danville (about 40 minutes from Lexington ), Centre boasts the best team in Kentucky this year—24-1 after a victory over Austin College on Friday in the first round of the SCAC tourney.
Overshadowed by higher profile programs in Kentucky ?
“I've never thought of it that way,” said Mason. “We just go out and play our style of basketball and establish ourselves in our own way.”
“When you win as many games and as many games straight as we have, people start to talk and take a look at you,” said senior guard Thomas Britt, one of the team leaders from Louisville .
The Colonels are worth checking out this weekend at the tournament at Hendrix's Wellness and Athletic Conference Center . If you like good, solid, old-fashioned team basketball, this is the template.
Centre will not knock your eyes out athletically. Most of the team members are of the same build, look remarkably alike and play remarkably alike except for a few inches. It's as if someone created an ideal cut-and-kick out team on a computer.
“Most of our players are from similar high school programs in Kentucky where the emphasis is on fundamental basketball,” Britt said. “We have a bunch of fundamental players who known how to play the game. We're not always the best team athletically but I think we all understand the game and have basketball savvy. It makes it easier when you're playing with players who are all on the same page.
“It's a fun team. Every person can score and we know that. We don't worry about who gets the points. That makes is easier on everybody because if somebody's not scoring somebody different can score. We understand each other and how we can play and we go out and do our thing.”
This is Britt's last fling at college basketball. At a classical liberal arts college, he's trying to get a broad education. He's a chemistry major and plans to go to medial school next year.
“Not sure what kind of doctor I want to be,” Britt said. “I'll get into medical school and see how it works out.”
“One day it's radiology, the next it might be pharmacy,” Mason said.
Isn't it nice to run into an athlete whose off-court uncertainties concern what kind of doctor he wants to be?
On the court, Britt and his Centre teammates seem to know exactly where they are and where they are going.
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