Heartbreaker in Boiling Springs
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room… Jayson Gee is in the fifth year of a six year contract. We haven’t talked about Gee’s job status much here, but it’s hard to ignore the growing situation.
This isn’t an opinion on Gee’s status but rather pointing out what we’re all thinking. Going into a season with a lame duck coach is a death sentence. As of right now, we’ll probably need to fill three scholarships for the Class of 2019 and every college coach in America would be able to sit in recruits living rooms and go “Longwood? Why would you go there, you don’t even know if their coach will be there next year”.
That’s where we’re at as a program right now. Even the most optimistic fan has see that.
Why am I bringing this up? Because every, single game this year has that added weight. The weight of an uncertain future. It’s tough on fans, it’s tough on players, and I can’t imagine how tough it is on the coaching staff.
Saturday marked the start of the second half of the Big South season. Longwood came into the day in seventh place with a 3–6 mark. Longwood started the conference season with two embarrassing losses, but then responded to knock off Gardner-Webb, Liberty, and Campbell. The Lancers also pushed Radford to the brink, were flat against High Point, and were just out-matched by Winthrop.
Alright…so opinion time. This is the first Longwood team that I feel like has a chance to finish in the middle of the pack of the conference. I also feel a Big South Tournament home game or automatic birth into the quarterfinals is enough to justify a one-year extension for Gee and avoid a lame duck year. That’s where we are with the stakes, once again.
Looking at the schedule, today was the start of a big week for Longwood. You know Longwood can beat GWU and Liberty, and we think the Lancers would have a strong response at Presbyterian.
For 37 minutes tonight Longwood played the most solid road game of the Jayson Gee era. Think about this, Gardner-Webb had not lost at home since February 9, 2017 and Longwood was up 10 today with 8:24 left. It looked like Longwood was going to pull off a big road win and head to Presbyterian with a lot of confidence on Thursday.
Instead, Longwood failed to score the final 4:07 of the game and lost 60–57. The defense just failed the last three minutes and the offense was inept. It was a horrible time for that stretch to happen and it culminated with a inexplicable Spencer Franklin airball from three with 10 seconds left on the clock.
Let’s put this loss in perspective. Charleston Southern upset Radford today to grab their win and Liberty is drubbing PC as I write this. With a win Longwood would’ve remained in 7th place and would have had a shot at potentiall climbing to 5th place with a win at PC on Thursday. Think about coming into Willett Hall next Saturday with a chance to sweep Liberty and an opportunity to get to 6–6 in conference play.
Instead Longwood will travel to PC Thursday and could drop into last place. That’s where we’re at.
Is losing to a 6–4 team that’s won 11 straight home games by just three points awful? Absolutely not. But the two opportunities we squandered at Radford and today are huge. They add even heavier weight to the situation.
With all the being said, Longwood could beat PC on Thursday and knock off Liberty on Saturday and this whole post can be somewhat moot. But right now the pressure and weight of winning is at all time high and we all can feel it.
