It was all about college hoops at SECU Arena on Tuesday. 7 Maryland schools came together for the 2017 Greater Baltimore Basketball Media Day. We’re talking about coaches and players from Navy, UMBC, Towson, Mount St. Mary’s, Loyola, Morgan State and Coppin State. Coppin was represented by first-year head coach, Terps legend, Juan Dixon.
“Not just on the floor, but off the floor, I’m having great experiences watching our young men grow,” said Dixon. “We’re still trying to figure things out. We have 15 guys on the roster, two walk-ons. And it’s going to take time. But they’re getting familiar with our schemes offensively and defensively.”
For The Mount, Jamion Christian and company are coming off their Cinderella postseason run. They won the Northeast Conference championship and notched a victory in the First Four of the NCAA Tournament last spring.
“When you look back on it you just think ‘Man, what an amazing time’. You look back at the guys and see how much fun they had, how much they grew from the start of the year to the end,” said Christian. “It just continues to inspire you to keep doing a great job with your team every day because you know that growth is where the real success is.”
The Mountaineers took some hits after the success of last season. Key players Miles Wilson, Mawdo Sallah and Elijah Long transferred from the program.
As for Pat Skerry’s Towson Tigers, they go in search of a third consecutive 20 win season. They return nine players from last year’s team, including four starters.
“We’re excited about the season,” said Skerry. “It’s the deepest team we’ve had. It’s a competitive group. We’ve got a lot of guys back. This is a committed group.”
A common topic mentioned by almost all of the coaches at this event today was the ambition to try and put together some sort of tournament involving all or most of the Baltimore area college basketball teams. It’s been done before a number of years ago. It’s going to take a lot of work to do it again.
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