BALTIMORE — The UMBC men's basketball team has posted a 14-2 record against America East opponents this season, the best conference record in program history. Now, as the Golden Retrievers prepare for the conference tournament, they are chasing both a championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament.
Head coach Jim Ferry, in his 5th season leading the program and with more than 2 decades of coaching experience, said he believes this group has what it takes.
"I've coached championship teams before at this level, and I said to these guys, I said, you know what, we do have what it looks like. We have what it looks like now we have to prove that we can do it," Ferry said.
UMBC men's basketball sets program record with 14-2 conference mark, eyes March Madness bid
When the team brought in 10 new players this offseason, Ferry said he quickly noticed something different about this group — their selflessness.
"These guys don't care who scores. These guys don't care who gets accolades, they just wanna play well and win. I thought it was gonna be significantly more difficult than it was. I even read a bunch of books over the summer because I knew like, OK, I have a building culture when there's 10 new guys and you have to do it quickly, um, and didn't use any of it just because of the people they are. They're just such great kids," Ferry said.
Leading the team in scoring is Jah'Likai King, who averages 14 points per game. King was playing Division 2 basketball at New Haven just a season ago. To prepare for the jump to Division 1, he targeted weight gain in the offseason, adding 22 pounds.
"I knew it was gonna be a lot of challenging [me]. There's a lot of great players in this league. I'm not just gonna downgrade anybody, but I take myself over anybody who comes in front of me. So just me being me, I'm gonna just go out there and just be who I am," King said.
King also credited the coaching staff for his development.
"I give it to the coaches as well. They just they push me every day," King said.
Both King and Ferry share the same goal heading into the postseason.
"I feel like that's a big opportunity for us. We just gotta take everything game by game, practice by practice," King said.
Ferry said winning a conference championship has always been a priority for his program.
"These guys have done an outstanding job. Winning a conference championship is, is always a goal within my program, and I've been fortunate enough to do it pretty much everywhere I've been and that's harder to do than win the tournament," Ferry said.
The Golden Retrievers host New Hampshire this Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
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