The Jeremy Knight Experience

[CoachC]

After reading your last post, I think YOU'lll be lucky to be a 63 year old top assistant at a low major! Well, at least you have the fact that everyone else in the Big South is in the same leaky boat! Good luck!

[WarEagle22]

Flames Add Five to Men’s Basketball Team

With the conclusion of the spring signing period, Coach Jeremy Knight announced the addition of four new members to the Liberty Flames men’s basketball team. In addition to the two signees from the early signing period, Coach Knight was able to go out and bring in two additional players, his first signees at Liberty. In addition to the four recruits, Coach Knight was also able to add one transfer to the roster.

Gary Brooks PG 5-8 157 Columbus, Ohio/Brookhaven HS
Brooks was ranked as the 1,154th overall prospect and the 245th point guard by Rivals. At Brookhaven High School Brooks averaged 12.3 points per game with 4.9 assists. Brooks also averaged an impressive 6.1 rebounds a game. “Gary is a great shooter and has very good ball handling skills.” Knight said, “I was pleased when I found out he would stay with us after the coaching change. I look forward into developing him into our future star point guard.”

Chris Blossom C 6-8 238 Damascus, Va./Holston HS
Blossom was ranked as the 1,304th overall prospect and 222nd center by Rivals. During his senior season at Holston High School Blossom averaged 13.9 points per game and 3.6 rebounds per game. “Chris brings some immediate help into our front court. He will be able to come in and immediately make an impact for our team. Like Gary, I am glad he chose to stay committed to Liberty.”

Damian Keith PG 6-1 199 Salem, Va./Danville CC
Keith will go down as the first official signee of the Jeremy Knight era. Keith was ranked as the 397th overall prospect and the 81st overall point guard by Rivals. Keith averaged 14.6 points per game and 3.8 assists per game last season at Danville Community College. “Damian comes in with excellent shooting and ball handling ability. He also has room to develop into a very good defender. With these skills he should have no trouble finding a spot for himself in a crowded backcourt.”

Lee Ray SF 6-3 203 Bassett, Va./Danville CC
Ray joins his Danville teammate Keith in joining the Liberty program. Ray was ranked the 508th overall prospect and the 101st small forward in the 2023 class. Last season Ray averaged 15.6 points per game and 5.4 rebounds per game. “I’m very excited about the addition of Lee Ray. He brings us another option at the wing to use and his prior relationship with Damian will be a boost to our team chemistry.”

Clyde Willis C 6-10 273 Lancaster, Va./Butler
The last addition to Knight’s team is Willis, who is transferring from Butler. Willis will have to sit out the 2024 season and will have one season of eligibility remaining for the 2025 season. Last season at Butler Willis played in 29 games with 3 starts. He averaged 14.9 minutes per game and scored 126 points in total last season. Willis also shot 46.9% from the field and 82.9% from the line. Willis originally signed with Virginia Tech out of Lancaster High School, when he was ranked the 678th overall prospect by Rivals. At Virginia Tech he redshirted his first season and played in 29 games with 2 starts his second season. That season Willis averaged 5.2 points in 21.7 minutes and shot 49.2% from the field and 75% from the line. Willis decided to transfer to Butler after the 2021 season. “We’re extremely happy to add Clyde to our team. When he becomes eligible he will immediately fill a big hole we will once again have in our front court. I wish we could get Clyde for more than one season, but we look forward to the impact he will make on the program, whether it is in practice this season or on the court next season. We’re glad that we can be the program that Clyde can finally call home.”

“I am very pleased with the class we brought in,” Knight said, “however, our work is far from being over. It’s time for us to get out and hit the road recruiting once again in order to bring some depth and stability to the roster. I look forward to having another great class this time next year.”

[WarEagle22]

Liberty Releases Schedule, Awards Scholarships

Liberty released it’s schedule for the 2024 season today. Jeremy Knight’s first season attempting to rebuild the Flames basketball team mainly occur on the road, with just 3 home non-conference games this season. You can check out the full schedule below.

11/16 Drake
11/19 @ Portland
11/23 UC-Riverside
11/26 @ Monmouth
11/30 @ Cal State-Northridge
12/3 @ Maryland-Eastern Shore
12/7 @ Eastern Illinois
12/14 @ Marist
12/21 UNC-Greensboro
12/27 Coastal Carolina*
12/30 @ Radford*
1/3 High Point*
1/6 @ Presbyterian*
1/8 Longwood*
1/10 Charleston Southern*
1/13 @ Winthrop*
1/17 @ Campbell*
1/20 UNC-Asheville*
1/24 @ Gardner-Webb*
1/29 Radford*
2/3 @ Coastal Carolina*
2/5 @ High Point*
2/10 Presbyterian*
2/12 @ Charleston Southern*
2/14 Winthrop*
2/17 @ Longwood*
2/24 @ UNC-Asheville*

In addition to releasing its schedule today, Liberty also announced that Coach Knight has reward all senior walk-ons with a scholarship for this season. The following players received scholarships today: guards Brett Herbert, Clement Angner, and centers Ben Griffin and Derek Beck. Personally, I think this is a great PR move for Knight. Those senior walk-ons deserve it for everything they’ve gone through the past few years. Good move by Knight. Let’s just see how things play out on the court now.

Remember, stay connected with the Big South Scoop for everything about the Big South Conference and all its affiliate members.

[WarEagle22]

The votes are in and have been counted. Without further ado here is the Coach’s Poll for the 2024 Big South Conference Preseason Standings (with last seasons record in parenthesis)

1 Charleston Southern (15-14)
2 Radford (12-16)
3 High Point (22-12)
4 Presbyterian (14-15)
5 Gardner-Webb (18-13)
6 Longwood (12-17)
7 Campbell (11-17)
8 UNC-Asheville (8-19)
9 Winthrop (23-8)
10 Liberty (13-15)
11 Coastal Carolina (11-18)

**********

“Coach Knight, the preseason conference standings were released today. We were picked to finish 10th. You’re going to be expected to comment on it today at your press conference.” Coach Henderson told me as he laid the standings on my desk.

“Thank you, coach.” I said as I looked through the preseason standings.

**********

“Nobody wants to be picked to finished second-to-last.” I said as I addressed reporters about the standings. The whole press conference thing was beginning to become easier for me. “However, it shows that not much is thought of us. It gives us the perfect opportunity to surprise some people and hopefully change some minds about our program. Last season we had the No. 6 ranked defense in the Big South to go along with the No. 7 offense. If we continue to give up only 65 points a game we’ll be fine but we have to find a way to score more than 63 points a game.”

“Which team were you most surprised with their ranking in the preseason poll?”

“I’m a little surprised Gardner-Webb was picked fifth. They had the third-ranked offense and defense last season and they’re going to start five seniors this season. They’ll be a tough out every game.”

“Speaking of starters Coach Knight, have you determined who your starters are heading into the first game?”

“We have an idea as a staff right now which five guys will give us the best chance to compete and be successful, however that is an ongoing process and we are continually evaluating all of our guys in order to put together the best five starters we can. If we were to play Drake today our starting five would most likely be Brett Herbert, Tyler McColpin, Lee Ray, Derek Black, and Chris Blossom. Thank you for your time and questions today.”

[JMD]

[font="Garamond"]Pretty decent schedule we have here. Also some interesting scholarship offers you have made.[/font]

[WarEagle22]

[font="Garamond"]Pretty decent schedule we have here. Also some interesting scholarship offers you have made.[/font]

I asked the AD for a home schedule full of cupcakes and instead I get 8 road games. As far as the scholarships go I panicked a little when I realized there was only 1 player under scholarship so I just offered the best 8 players I thought I could get the last week of recruiting and Lee and Damian were the only ones to accept. Bummer.

[JMD]

I asked the AD for a home schedule full of cupcakes and instead I get 8 road games. As far as the scholarships go I panicked a little when I realized there was only 1 player under scholarship so I just offered the best 8 players I thought I could get the last week of recruiting and Lee and Damian were the only ones to accept. Bummer.

[font="Garamond"]Like I said earlier on this forum, the 'calling AD to schedule games' option is useless.[/font]

[WarEagle22]

Turnovers Prove Costly in Knight’s First Game

LYNCHBURG | The Jeremy Knight era of Liberty basketball opened tonight with a 72-67 loss against visiting Drake. Nineteen Flames turnovers ultimately proved to be too much for Knight’s squad to overcome.

“We turned the ball over way too much, especially in the first half.” Knight said in reference to his teams 16 first half turnovers. “It seemed like every time we came down the court during the first half we were passing the ball into the stands or over guy’s heads. “However, I will say that I am proud of our guys for fighting back and only committing 3 turnovers in the second half.”

The amount of turnovers was just one of many things that led to Liberty finding itself in a 40-26 hole at the half. Freshman center Chris Blossom picked up his second foul just two and a half minutes into the game, forcing the Flames to play with just two post players. As a result, Drake scored 24 points in the paint during the first half.

“Having to pull Chris so early due to foul trouble definitely hurt us in the first half.” said Knight. “It forced us to play smaller than I would have liked throughout the half and they pounded us inside too.”

Despite all of the inefficiencies and struggles in the first half, Liberty put together a strong second half. During the second half it was the Flames that forced the Bulldogs into multiple turnovers and one shot possessions.

A steal and dunk by Dwayne Carr at the 4:44 mark cut the Drake lead to six, 62-56. During the following Bulldogs possession Jeremy Battier was able to grab a defensive rebound and Lee Ray was fouled attacking the basket, sending him to the line to shoot two and cut the lead to four with 3:57 left in the game.

Ray missed both free throws and Drake upped the lead to nine and sealed the victory.

One potentially bright spot was Blossom, who finished with eight points and two rebounds in 11 minutes of action. All of his foul issues aside, in the last minute alone Blossom threw down a thunderous dunk, drew a foul attacking the basket, and grabbed a rebound and hit Clement Angner for a buzzer beating three for the final deficit of five.

“Chris definitely did some good things during the game, and he definitely did some bad, freshman things. We’ll continue to work with him and develop him throughout the season. He’s definitely got a lot of potential.”

The Flames finished the game shooting 52.9% from the floor, but only made 64.7% of their free throws (11-of-17).

“Making our free throws is something we’re going to have to put more work into. To win games you have to make your layups and your free throws. We missed six of them tonight and lost by five. You can do the math.”

Senior Ben Griffin led the team with 12 points and five rebounds. Tony Marshall and Carr each scored 10 points. Marshall added four rebounds while Carr pulled down five, four of which were offensive rebounds.

“We definitely shot ourselves in the foot repeatedly tonight, and we have some things we need to correct this week in practice.’ said Knight, “however, I’m going to look at this game positively. The way we played in the second half was extremely positive and shows the level this team is capable of playing at throughout the season.”

The Flames (0-1) will have two days to work on correcting issues before playing at Portland on November 19th.

[CoachC]

I asked the AD for a home schedule full of cupcakes and instead I get 8 road games. As far as the scholarships go I panicked a little when I realized there was only 1 player under scholarship so I just offered the best 8 players I thought I could get the last week of recruiting and Lee and Damian were the only ones to accept. Bummer.

the sad thing is, no one wants to come play at big south schools...after about 3 years i was able to get some A10 teams to come in.

[WarEagle22]

Turnovers Doom Liberty Again

PORTLAND, ORE. | For the second consecutive game the Liberty Flames had an absurd amount of turnovers, this time in a 87-69 loss against the Portland Pilots (2-0). The Flames (0-2) committed 20 turnovers after having 19 three days ago in the season opener.

“Turnovers have definitely been the story of our short season so far.” said Liberty coach Jeremy Knight. “You make it very hard on yourself to win when you give up 20 turnovers and only force four.”

The Flames started off in a big hole, down 22-8 just seven minutes into the game. However, over the next seven minutes the Flames began a furious comeback, limiting the Pilots to one shot possessions. At the 6:18 mark in the first half Tony Marshall hit a three to cut the deficit to 31-21. Tyler McColpin stole the ensuing inbound pass (Portland’s only turnover of the half) and passed the ball to Clement Angner who made both free throws after being fouled to cut the lead to 31-23.

Two minutes later Ben Griffin made a free throw to finish off his and-one to trim the Portland lead to 31-26. On the following possession Angner went to the line to shoot two. After making the first Angner missed the second and Dereck Beck missed his putback attempt that would make the Flames deficit two.

“We spent a lot of energy to go on that run and get back in the game. It’s hard to make routine plays like free throws and putbacks when you have to spend all your energy and effort playing catch up.”

Liberty never got closer and the Pilots took a 40-33 lead into the half.

Portland began to pull away at the start of the second half, but Chris Blossom scored seven quick points to pull the Flames within seven at 47-40. Blossom finished the game with 23 points and four rebounds in 19 minutes.

“Chris definitely played one heck of a game. We need to continue to get this kind of production out of him every night while we work with him on his foul issues.”

Blossom’s effort ultimately ended in vain as the second half seemingly turned into a series of steals followed by oops on the other end. The Flames struggles was epitomize in a series of possessions where Portland’s Michael Selden, who scored a game high 27 points with seven assists and three steals, hit a three, stole the following inbound pass and set up Roy Crews for a monster oop.

The ensuing inbound pass was picked off by Jason Wilder and thrown down with authority, swinging the game from a 56-44 Portland lead to 63-44.

“Selden is just an incredible athlete.” Knight said of Portland’s best player. “We didn’t help ourselves at all with all of the turnovers and shooting 25 percent from three. We also let them shoot 56.9 percent from the floor. Not a very good combination when you’re going against a player like him.”

Top performers for Liberty were Beck with 12 points and seven rebound (four offensive), and Griffin with 10 points. Dwayne Carr and Marshall each scored nine points.

“I thought we actually played fairly well for the most part tonight, especially when we made that run in the first half. Again, it’s just really hard to be successful when you turn the ball over 20 times a game. We need to make changes and improve, but they’re not big changes or improvements we need to make. We just need to do the little things better here and there and we’ll come out on top.”

Coach Knight and Liberty will continue to seek their first win of the season when they host California-Riverside (2-0) November 23rd.