VI men's basketball looks to take next step

BY SPENCER CAMPBELL
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

BRISTOL, Va. – When Scott Hoagland first arrived on Virginia Intermont’s Bristol, Va., campus in August of last year, he had a few things on his plate.

Besides only having five players on the active roster and turning around a program that had gone 7-24 in 2006-2007, the Cobra’s new head basketball coach needed to speak with his starting forward, junior Akeem Price.

Hoagland scoured the town for the Pontiac, Mich., native. For days, the aloof 6-foot-6 scoring threat went missing in action. Finally, on the sixth day Hoagland located Price at the YMCA, playing in pick-up games with some former Cobra players.

It was the only time Price’s presence went unnoticed during VI’s 2007-2008 campaign. At least on the court.

The junior went on to average more than 21 points and 11 rebounds a game during Hoagland’s first year on the bench, leading not only VI, but the entire Appalachian Athletic Conference, in both categories.

“He is a stat-filling machine,” Hoagland said. “[Oak Hill Academy head coach Steve Smith] compared Akeem to Ron Slade, who played at the University of Tennessee.

“Same kind of build, same kind of body, they’re both physical, both can step outside and knock down the outside jumper. Tenacious rebounders, tenacious defenders.”

Perhaps the most astonishing fact about Price’s offensive output is the efficiency by which it was achieved. Last season, Price made 47.5 percent of his field goals, including 41.4 percent from behind the three-point arch.

But while Price was soaring on the basketball court, he was flailing in the classroom.

He was never declared academically ineligible, but his grade point average was always in jeopardy of diving below the NAIA cut-off point.

After seeing his star player through the fall semester with the minimum GPA requirement of 2.0, Hoagland had a message for him: “You just got to grow up.”

“I was on the wrong path in life,” Price said. “[Hoagland] told me that if I didn’t do my homework I wouldn’t be eligible. I love basketball more than anything, besides my family. If you took basketball away from me, I don’t know what I’d do.”

Now, Price’s efforts in the classroom are significant enough to warrant constant e-mails and phone calls to Hoagland from the senior’s professors, praising his renewed enthusiasm toward academia.

And when he graduates, a feat the sports management major is now on track to accomplish, Hoagland doesn’t know who will feel more pride – Price or himself.

With Price on track in both the classroom and on the court, Hoagland knows that he’s poised for another attention-grabbing senior campaign. He also realizes Price can’t turnaround the Cobra basketball program alone.

“I would like to see him first- or second-team All-American,” Hoagland said. “But we all know what’s got to happen in order for that to happen. We’ve got to win basketball games and we’ve got to get the opportunity to make that trip down to Missouri.”

Hoagland’s first season as head coach was a mixed bag. After adding seven new players to the team just days before the start of classes, and playing the season with only 11 players, the team finished with an overall record of 10-17 and 5-13 in the AAC.

But its record belies VI’s competitiveness. In 2007-2008, the Cobras held the lead or were within five points with three minutes remaining in 15 of its 18 losses.

With a full summer to recruit players, Hoagland now has a complete 15-man roster chalked-full of long, quick athletes.

Returning on the wing is senior Courtney White. The 6-foot-3 guard averaged 12.88 points per game last season, and his slashing style of play and fierce defense is a perfect match for Hoagland’s up-tempo, quick-attack offense.

Benjamin Mulkey, a 6-foot freshman guard from Richlands, Va., “can shoot the lights out if it,” Hoagland said.

He was originally recruited as a weapon against zone defenses, but his play in fall practices has him challenging incumbent starter Jamie Butler for a starting role.

Walk-on Jimmie Ross, a freshman out of Syracuse, N.Y., has Hoagland drooling over his capabilities. He called the 6-foot-3 guard, “one of the top-5 athletic players in the conference.”

The question of whether its new stable of athletes will be enough to have VI challenging for the conference championship should be answered quickly enough.

The Cobras’ first three non-conference games have them squaring off with NAIA powerhouses Georgetown College, West Virginia Tech and Mountain State University, before opening AAC play with preseason conference favorite Bluefield on Nov. 19.

“Our non-conference schedule is ridiculous,” Hoagland said. “The reason we did that is because, luck of the draw, we’ve got Bluefield out of the gate, our first conference game. We have to see the athleticism, the competition, to match what those guys have.

“Do we have enough to battle with Bluefield and King, some of those top teams in the conference? We’re going to find out.”

scampbell@bristolnews.com|(276) 645-2543

AT A GLANCE: VIRGINIA INTERMONT MEN
Nickname: Cobras
Arena: Virginia High School
Coach: Scott Hoagland (10-17 in second season)
Last season: 10-17 overall, 5-13 in Appalachian Athletic Conference (8th, lost in the first round of the conference tournament.)
Key Returners: Akeem Price (Senior, F, 6-6), 21.8 points, 11.3 rebounds; Courtney White (Senior, G, 6-4), 12.9 points; James Butler (Senior, G, 6-3), 9.2 points, team-high 57 assists.
Key loss: None.
Key Newcomers: Benjamin Mulkey (Freshman, G, 6-1), Richlands, Va.; Jimmie Ross (Freshman, G, 6-4); Syracuse, N.Y.
Strengths: Price is the best scorer and rebounder in the league, and with Mulkey’s ability to score from the outside the Cobras should have a much improved inside-outside offense.
Biggest Concern: If VI wants to win the close games it lost last year, it must come up with defensive stops at the end of regulation.
Analysis: Hoagland is excited about what his first full-recruitment period produced in terms of athletic players who can push the ball on offense and provide relentless pressure on defense. If the Cobras can find the right amount of defense and outside scoring to complement Akeem Price, VI has a chance to upset some of the AAC elites.