Patterson pushes Parsons to the top

The Snead State men's basketball program's four seasons under head coach Jeremiah Patterson are some of the best in the college's history.

Patterson's first team lost in the semifinals of the ACCC/Region XXII Tournament in 2017. In 2018, he guided the Parsons to their first ACCC/Region XXII championship since 1990.

Snead State lost in the tournament quarterfinals in 2019 but bounced back this season to reach the finals, where it lost to host Shelton State 72-68 on March 6. The Parsons posted a 20-12 record in 2019-20, winning seven of their last 10 games.

"Every time I talk about our program, I make sure to tell everybody I've never scored a basket," Patterson said. "I've never guarded anybody or gotten a rebound, but we try to do everything culture-wise to make it to where we're going to be successful.

"Next year will be very difficult because we had so many sophomores, but we're going to have the same plan that we had from day one. We're going to come out here and compete, and we're going to get better every day. My goals are no less than what they have been."

The Parsons' sophomore class featured DJ Goodmon, Jeric Packer, Malik Crawford, Jason King, Gerald Gray Jr., Shakari Williams, Ali Hill, Kennedy Martin, Mark Wilcox and Ralph Barnett.

In the ACCC/Region XXII Tournament finals, Gray paced the Parsons with 25 points, including five 3-pointers. Goodmon followed him with 20 points, hitting six 3s.

"These guys came in last year and won 25 games as freshmen," Patterson said. "We had five sophomores, and only three of those sophomores really got to play a lot. We had three sophomores and seven freshmen who got the bulk of the playing time last year. This year, we played one freshman in our rotation.

"It's going to be more difficult next year, but with what we've built and what we've tried to do and the mindset we've got, I think a kid would be crazy not to come and play at Snead State right now.

"I think we've won 90 games in four years, and I would say in that four-year stretch, the only junior college team that's been better than us in the state is Shelton State. They've won three championships out of four, and we won the other one.

"I think right now, I hate to say it, but we're the second-best team. Out of 16, that's pretty good. I'd like to be No. 1, but over the last four years and this year, we were basically the second best."

Article Courtesy of Shannon J. Allen, The Sand Mountain Reporter

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