When you’re the head coach of a program that’s lost 61% of its scoring from the roster that brought you back-to-back state championships the last two years, yet you still have to manage the lofty expectations that come with unprecedented success, what do you tell your mostly young, unproven group of guys?
Westside boys basketball coach Jerry Hunter says you tell them that class is in session.
The aforementioned scenario is exactly what Hunter has inherited with his current version of Westside basketball. But instead of wringing his hands about it, he’s embracing the challenge that comes with tutoring and developing a new crop of Patriots.
“I treat it like teaching versus coaching,” Hunter said. “Just like every year in school teachers get new students in their classroom, well on the basketball court, we’ve got a few new students, and the first thing we have to address is learning styles.”
Part of that process for Hunter actually involves resisting the temptation to go too slow in trying to install a championship way of playing to a group of guys who, largely, haven’t shared the same spotlight as now-graduated stars Khalon Hudson, Jalexs Ewing and AuMauri Tillman.
“Right now, we have to teach little bit faster, because when we slow things down they think too much,” Hunter said. “So we’re kind of tricking them into doing things to make them understand at game speed. If you slow down too much, they may not understand it. Eventually, we’ll get into coaching these guys, but right now, I’m really just teaching.”
Despite the greenness, Westside has already passed its first test of the season — and that with flying colors. The Patriots dismantled 2022-23 Class AAAA state tournament qualifier Miller Grove out of Metro Atlanta 80-37 last Saturday at the Hooping in Middle Georgia Showcase at Jones County High.
It was Hunter’s first opportunity to see what his new-look squad could do in real-time game action, and he was no doubt pleased. But he also wants to hold off adorning this team as a state championship-caliber squad until he has a larger sample size.
“I’ve got to see what their character’s like,” Hunter said. “I think one of the things I’m looking for early on is the toughness, because you can’t teach that. Naturally you want to see where you’re at early on to see if these guys know the difference between confidence and being arrogant. Because some of the kids have good skill sets, but they have so much more to learn. So I tell them, confidence is trying to improve. Arrogant is trying to prove something. We’ll always have something to improve on, so there’s really no time to be arrogant.”
Next Man Up
To be sure, Hunter’s cupboard of talent is far from being bare. Like last year, his team’s success offensively will go through senior point guard Demarco Middleton. He’ll be joined in the backcourt by Thomson transfer Lavonta Ivery.
One thing Hunter has been impressed early is how Middleton has evolved his game to become more of a leader in the absence of Hudson, Ewing and Tillman.
“Demarco’s talking a lot more now,” Hunter said. “He had an opportunity to see early on that there’s a lot more he has to do. And I’ve explained to these guys that, with Marco, you’re talking about a kid who averaged 10 to 12 points and six or seven assists last year. And he’s trying to now find his six or seven assists on this team because the ones from last year aren’t here now.
“He can score the ball himself, but what works for us is when we share the ball. That’s the one good thing we’ve always done.”
Middleton says he’s up for the challenge both with how he leads and how he’ll likely be counted on to score more.
“I’ve had to work on talking more and being more vocal,” Middleton said. “I’m really a quiet guy, and I don’t talk too much, so just being more vocal with the team. That’s what I’ve been working on.”
He’s also been working on becoming a better scorer on the perimeter. Hunter raved about how Middleton showed his scoring prowess from the wing and even beyond the arc during the summer. And Middleton says that’s a product of putting in the hard work to get better.
“I’m putting up 1,000 shots a week, working on my form and everything,” Middleton said. “The more you develop that, it just flows more freely in games. The mid-range game is improving. I can get by my defenders, so that’s not a problem, so I’ve really just been working hard on my perimeter game.”
Middleton also has insight on who he believes can be the players who give him that half-dozen assists-per-game potential Hunter spoke of.
“This year, we’ve got Lavonta of course, but also Bobby [Blackwell], Jarious Atkinson,” Middleton said. “I think a lot of people have been sleeping on [Jarious] because he didn’t get a lot of time last year playing behind AuMauri so much. But he really can score, play defense, rebound. He can do it all.”
Ivery is a huge pick-up for Westside as he brings his 16 points-per-game average from his junior season at Thomson over to a Patriots bunch that really needs a proven scorer — although, Hunter sees more out of him than just points.
“I like him on defense right now more than I do on offense,” Hunter said. “But I want to love him on offense because we lost so much from last year. But even through that, I’ve gotta see how well he shares the ball, because scoring shouldn’t be a problem. We played and coached against him, so I feel I have an understanding of what he can and can’t do. But now it’s about how he fits into what we do.”
As for Blackwell and Atkinson — Hunter also mentions 6-foot-4 junior Aldrion Jones — the coach likes the potential, but still wants to see how it performs under pressure.
“You feel like those are guys who can step in in those big moments,” Hunter said. “But can they do it night in and night out when the popcorn is sold out and the bleachers are filled? I’ve still yet to see that. When I see it, then we can work with it. But until then, we may have to switch our style up a bit.”
A Major New Addition
Of course, much of the offseason scuttlebutt has been about Ivery’s move from Thomson. The 6-foot-2 combo guard was a standout, particularly during his sophomore and junior seasons with the Bulldogs before making the move — first to Augusta Christian where he played for the summer before being brought to Westside.
“Coach Dotson from Augusta Christian brought him over after competing with them for the summer,” Hunter said. “[Lavonta’s] mother was moving to Augusta, and he actually moved into our zone. So he didn’t transfer. He actually lives in our zone, and he felt Westside, I guess, was a school where he likes how it fits.”
Ivery said as much.
“It was just the success they’ve had,” Ivery said. “The players, getting everybody that plays for them known. They’re a two-time state champion. It was just a good choice for me, really, to take my talents somewhere to show everyone who I am.”
Beyond the work on the court, Ivery says he appreciates how Hunter pushes him in the non-basketball areas of life as well.
“I love how coach Hunter coaches and teaches the game in a fun way to help us learn how the game goes,” Ivery said. “Plus, he stays on us 10 times harder than any coach, really. I love it though, because I need someone to stay on me about school work, my grades, basketball and just life in general. He’s become a big role model for me.”
One thing that made his welcome to Westside sweeter was the discovery that he’ll be sharing the backcourt with a family member.
Ivery and Middleton have been close through the years anyway, but just recently, the two found out that they’re related.
“Me and DeMarco, that’s really my cousin,” Ivery said. “We found out recently, and since then, it’s just kind of made our bond even stronger.”
Said Middleton: “I found out through my mom and through one of my uncles. So that’s been cool to know. I feel like, because of our relationship, we’ll have a pretty good backcourt. We play good off each other. He scores when he needs to. I score when I need to. Neither one of us have problems sharing the ball. It’ll be good.”
Of course every game will be a big one for a two-time defending state champ. But Ivery knows at least two games on Westside’s schedule may get a little extra special attention when they come around.
Westside shares Region 4-AA with Ivery’s old team, Thomson, and the two will meet at least twice this season with Westside hosting the first matchup on Dec. 15 with the return trip to Thomson slated for Jan. 23.
“I just feel like it should be a regular game to me,” Ivery said when asked about how he’ll feel when he faces his old squad. “But I know it’s my hometown team, so it’s gonna be a good game. I’ll be ready for the competition that I know they’re gonna bring to us because of how everything’s going. So I’ll be ready for it, but honestly, I’m just trying to win me a ring, so we’ll take things game by game.”
No Championship Predictions
Speaking of rings, there won’t be any brash prophetic statements coming from anyone in Westside’s camp about winning a third straight state crown.
If the Patriots were to do it, they’d be just the second team in GHSA Class AA history to win three straight state titles — the other school being Mitchell County which did it in 1998, 1999 and 2000 when the school was known as Mitchell-Baker High.
Middleton says he’d rather shy away from title talk for now, though.
“I don’t really think about three-peat,” Middleton said. “I just want us to take it step by step and game by game. We’ll try to win region again and see what happens at State.”
While Ivery says he thinks about the possibilities, he also knows that there will be nothing easy about doing what the last two Westside teams have done.
“They’re two-time state champs. We’re trying to three-peat it this year, and I think we can, but it’s gonna be a fight to it though,” Ivery said. “Thing about this team is we all can play. We have a good mentality and we’re helping each other get better. If we all work together in a game, I don’t think there’s any way somebody can beat us.”
For Hunter, it’s all about continuing the learning process. Despite having so many key returners during last season’s state title run, Hunter said he didn’t know for sure if that team had the mindset to do it until region tournament time.
This year, he’s putting no time tables on anything. He just wants to see how much it’ll take for this team develop a championship mindset.
“I had this conversation with Marco,” Hunter said. “We won two state championships. We’re down 11 points in both games and come back to win it — one of those in overtime. I don’t see that happening yet with this team. It takes a special team to be down like that and battle back and win it. Right now, I think as long as we’re up, we’ll be fine. But I want to see what this group has when we’re down and somebody needs to make a stop on defense or make that extra pass.”
Until then, Hunter just wants his guys to keep showing up to class.
“I like the teaching component that comes with this group,” he said. “We’re gonna get back to teaching the small things. The rebounding, the setting screens, the help-side defense. And I love to see it when they learn and the light comes on and they begin to do it on their own. It’s a beautiful feeling.
“I think we can be a good group. How good? Well, I’m just excited to see how it’s all gonna work out.”
