Is Coach Ballard, the right man for the job?

By Xavier Holloway/Staff Writer

Because of the newly hired men’s basketball head coach Jeremy Ballard, there is a fresh air of hope and enthusiasm surrounding the ball club with just six weeks away from their first game of the regular season on Wednesday, Nov. 7, when the Panthers face the Webber Warriors at the Ocean Bank Convocation Center.

For the past five seasons, former men’s basketball head coach Anthony Evans led the Panthers with a disappointing 65-94 record in regular season play and a 33-55 record in C-USA games played.

Ballard inherits nine players from Evan’s 2017 roster including two starters in 6-foot-5 guard Trejon Jacob and 5-foot-10 guard Brian Beard, Jr. Both were top leading scorers a season ago.

The newly hired coach will have impressive talent to work with this season on the hardwood, however, shifting the program towards the better won’t be easy.

In his initial three seasons at Virginia Commonwealth University, an assistant coach from 2012 to 2015, he assisted the Rams to three straight NCAA appearances, while orchestrating a 79-28 record overall. During the 2014-15 season, the Rams were ranked as high as tenth nationally, in the Associated Press Top-25 Poll.

In Ballard’s 12 seasons of division-one coaching, the number of winning programs and seasons he has been apart of is optimistic and ensuring.

Last season, the men’s basketball team averaged 70 points-per-game during the regular season, yet, only allowed 71 points per game to opponents. Showing that majority of the Panthers losses last season came down to the closing minutes of the contest.

Well, for the encouraging side of the argument, it could mean that the answer to the team’s success is seemingly not so far-off. If perhaps, head coach Ballard and his coaching staff can mold a team that finishes a game with the same intensity, skill, and logic it started with (easier said than done), then the Panthers best days are soon ahead of them.

As for the pessimistic side of the argument, it could mean that men’s basketball team are just not equipped with the players to finish and win games. However, I don’t feel that as the Panthers, last season had stellar guard play, with three of their top scorers all being guards.

In addition to Jeremy Ballard’s recruiting of 6-foot-3 guard Marcus Burwell, who is a transfer from Northeastern Junior College, where he averaged 19.7 points per game and 4.0 assists. I expect the guard play this season to be on an even higher level than last, as well as the teams.

Xavier Holloway is staff writer for PantherNow. His column, The X-factor, is a commentary on FIU sports.