Harding boys basketball ready to come back stronger than ever
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — For most high school athletic programs, offseason conditioning consists of weight training and practicing near home, but for the Harding University High School Rams basketball team it was a road trip to Pembroke for a basketball minicamp.
For most of the players, it was the first chance to experience a college campus and an environment away from home.
The trip proved successful as Harding won the Drew T. Richards Basketball Camp trophy. It also provided an opportunity to improve after the shortened 2020-21 season where the Rams lost a first round playoff game in Charlotte to the Hillside Hornets.
Heading into the 2021-22 season, head coach Lawrence Johnson Jr. and his team hope to clinch a third-straight playoff berth, the team’s fourth in five years.
Eight of the 12 players on the roster are returning players. This includes senior captain Logan Blair who played a phenomenally in 2019-20. He posted 17.4 points per game and 11 rebounds per game, the second leading scorer in PPG and leader in RPG for the South Meck 7 4A Conference.
Since he took over in the 2018-19 season, Johnson Jr. said the goal is to run the team like a collegiate program.
“Everybody’s ambition here at this program is to play at the next level, so we treat them like that,” Johnson Jr. said. “We all condition like that, we lift like that, we make sure their academics are held accountable, and get them prepared and treat this like a college-oriented program.”
The team possesses four captains: Blair, senior Karon Crowder, senior Bralen Hamrick and junior Amari Johnson. Johnson Jr. said Blair and Crowder are the two emotionally charged leaders, while the coaches on the floor are more strategic.
With a 2-1 start to the season, the team has played without Hamrick and Johnson due to injuries with the former suffering a torn ACL, MCL and meniscus in the offseason.
For Johnson Jr., the playoffs are still on his mind, but his overall goal is to see improvement in his players every year.
“I always tell those guys, ‘Don’t come back being the same player that you once were the last time we were together,’ so as long as they’re increasing and getting better in one aspect or another that’s fine with me,” Johnson Jr. said. “As long as whatever they’re getting better at is helping the progression and is helping the program, we’ll be fine.”
Crowder found the shortened season made him more appreciative of his opportunities this season.
After seniors Chance Bryson and Jaleb Grant finished their high school tenure in the seven-game season, Crowder hoped to not have the same fortune.
“We shorted ourselves and shorted our two seniors from last year,” Crowder said. “Now that I’m a senior, I’m not going to let that happen, I’m not going to allow that to happen to my season either.”
The conference Harding is in features the Audrey Kell Purple Knights that have made the playoffs in five straight seasons. Also added to the conference in the 2021-22 season is the Myers Park Mustangs, who made the playoffs four years in a row as well.
“The end goal would be to win a ring, and everybody’s played a part,” Blair said. “We want everybody on our team to play a part in us winning this ring.”
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