Mount Olive men's team ready for conference play

By Cam Ellis
Published in Sports on December 31, 2014 1:48 PM

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As the University of Mount Olive Men's basketball team heads into conference play, it's hard to ignore the obvious, regardless of how badly coach Joey Higginbotham might want his players to.

The Trojans are good. Maybe even great.

Off to their best start in school history, UMO enters conference play firing on all cylinders. The Trojans (11-1, 4-0) have been climbing up the national rankings since the season began, getting as high as 13 before an eight-point loss to UNC Pembroke dropped them to 18.

One of the biggest factors in UMO's early-season success has been, according to Higginbotham, the chemistry of his players.

"It's been a great year. It's a great group of guys," he said. "I enjoy this group of guys a lot. They're a very low maintenance team and that feeds onto the court. Every day you come to work is fun."

It's a sentiment that was echoed by the players as well.

"We're like a group of brothers, really," junior guard Dontrell Brite said. "We do everything together. We're way more close than any other team I have been on."

As if you needed any more convincing, the statistics tell the same story. The Trojans, who average 80.8 points per game, have six players who average double-digit scoring per game. It's that team-wide unselfish attitude that has the UMO coaching staff most excited about the potential of this team.

"On the court, our biggest strength is our unselfishness," Higginbotham said. "Our chemistry is really good. It's not about trying to get one guy shots. If one guys isn't hitting, it's a different guy. That's the thing that's gotten us to the next step."

The Trojans have options. The ability to play five players who can all create their own shot lets them space the floor effectively and install more intricate offensive sets. Whether it's swinging the ball on the perimeter with guards like Brite (13.7 ppg), Jordan McCain (12.2), and Kendall Hargrove (11.6) or putting the ball on the block with forwards Mike Moore (11.2) and Dominique Reed (12.1), their offense stays unpredictable.

Even with their offense in place, Coach Higginbotham still sees areas in which the Trojans will need to improve upon in order to maintain success in conference play.

"We need to work on our basic fundamentals," he said. "Rebounding and better defense. Just the basic fundamentals of the game. If we can do that, we'll improve as a team."

"Being in conference play, the thing that's different is that opponents know you a lot better, so they know you a lot better. We've got to be able to counter the things we've been doing so far."

Coming up on Saturday, UMO is back on the court after an extended holiday break and looking to keep the good times rolling. They'll have an opportunity to impress some people: The Trojans play conference-foe King in a game that will be nationally televised on the CBS network.

And while the game is an excellent opportunity to showcase the Mount Olive brand, the coaches and players know that in the end, it's just another game in the middle of a long stretch of them.

"We don't really talk about [the game being on national TV]," Higginbotham said. "It's a great experience for our guys and a great advertisement for our university, but we don't really talk about it.

"We treat every game like it's the biggest game of the year. Right now we're just preparing for King."