As a tip off to the season, the men’s basketball team is hosting an event called the “Red and Black Madness” that will showcase the team’s talents in a number of contests and in an intersquad game on Oct. 28 at 1:30 p.m.
Assistant coach Michael Farmer said the game is put together for the students and locals to check out the new team.
“It’s a game where we showcase the talent that we have here. Terrence takes a team, I take a team, and we play against each other to let the community see what Pierce has going on,” Farmer said.
According to head coach Charles White, the “Red and Black Madness” also gives the coaches a new angle to look at their team and know where they will be placing each player for the season.
But unlike last season when there weren’t many returning players, White said that they really had time to grow.
“Our expectations are high. Last year, we had one returner and we went 11-17, and out of those 17 loses, 15 of those games we were up 15-20 points. With the return of four or five returners and a couple guys that sat out last year, we are a lot more mature and a lot more focused, and we’re excited about this season,” White said.
Farmer said that the team has unified, and they have a shot at getting a banner.
“What I like is that we gel. When we first started, we were just individuals. We were just guys in here playing basketball. Now we’re becoming a team; we’re communicating, we’re talking, high fiving each other,” Farmer said. “Which is big, because usually in community college it’s me, me ,me, so if we can get it “we”, then we have a chance to get a banner up there.”
Assistant Coach Terrence Taylor said they’ve had a new approach to prepare their players for the season.
“We approached discipline a lot different than we did, because these are young men that we are dealing with, so we can’t treat them like kids anymore, even though some of them are extremely young. But at the same time, once you get into the college world, real world, they aren’t going to treat you like a kid,” Taylor said. “We had to implement that here so we don’t have a bunch of childish players out here.”
Taylor does not think the Brahmas will have issues during the first game of the season against Santiago Canyon College.
“I think they just got their program back this year, so it will be new for us, which is good. It will get us out there to see what we can do,” Taylor said. “No scouting report, play defense, run our offense, execution, communication, that will be the best test for us just to see where we’re at and what we need to work on. But I don’t think we should have any hiccups as long as we go with the game plan. Stick with the game plan, we should be fine.”
The men’s basketball season begins Nov. 11 when they take on Santiago at 3:00 p.m. in the South Gym.