STARKVILLE – During a standout coaching career at Starkville High School, boys’ basketball coach Greg Carter has always been able to push the right buttons.
On a regular basis, the Yellow Jackets have made the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) playoffs and ventured on a regular basis to Jackson to compete for state championship. Star-studded teams have been favorites to win titles, while teams with lesser talent have relied on tradition and overachieved to return to the state’s biggest stage.
This season, outsiders were amazed as Starkville enjoyed a lengthy win streak and flited with the top ranking in the state. The Yellow Jackets had lost a lot of talent after back-to-back appearances in the Class 6A state championship game.
Still, Carter never found his comfort level with this year’s team.
“I just thought we never played our best basketball,” Carter said. “I think we may have surprised some people. We had some players play really well. It just never clicked. It was never the complete package. It was never that night where everybody played to their full potential and clicked on all cylinders.
“It was a strange year but a fun year. It just felt like we couldn’t find the perfect combination. I am proud of the season because we worked past that and won a lot of games. We were again in a position to go to Jackson. That is a testament of the staying power of this program.”
Starkville finished 23-4 overall. The Yellow Jackets won another region title and lost in the championship game of the region tournament. The season ended with a second-round loss to Tupelo in the playoffs.
Ironically, Starkville had beaten Tupelo twice in the regular season.
For this success, Carter is being chosen today as The Dispatch’s Large School Boys’ Basketball Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons. Starkville won the 2015 Class 6A state championship and lost the 2016 title match to rival Columbus.
“Coach Carter was such a major influence on my life,” said Starkville senior Markedric Bell, who signed with East Mississippi Community College. “He knows basketball. He knows what it takes to be successful on both the court and in life. He really pushed us every day to be the best we could become. The program is all about state championships. There are no shortcuts to winning a state championship.
“Even though we came up a little bit short this year, we learned a lot. We battled through adversity and gave ourselves a chance. Being able to play in this program taught me so many things. I feel like I am ready to play on the next level because of my time here.”
Tyson Carter led the Starkville charge offensively in each of his final two seasons with the Yellow Jackets. This season, Starkville had to find new leadership and new offensive leaders.
Coach Carter relies on a defense-first philosophy where relentless effort on that end of the floor sets the tone. Starkville gets its offense going based on transition baskets started on the defensive end. Carter believes that offense will eventually come through tenacity on the defensive end.
“You have to sell out on the defensive end or it is not going to work,” said Starkville senior Jesse Little, who has signed with American University in New York said. “We didn’t work on offense first at practice. We worked our defensive drills. Coach always believed that you could play defense every night. As long as you played defense, it gave you a chance to win the game.”
Defensive dominance is half of Carter’s philosophy. He also prides himself on teams with a great rebounding presence. Over the last three seasons, Starkville has worked with a huge size disadvantage to most teams, so relentless effort and controlling the boards are huge.
Carter felt like this season’s team struggled to have a complete buy-in on the boards. The Yellow Jackets did improve offensively. The scoring load was picked up by Bell and fellow EMCC signee Darrious Agnew outside and the 6-foot-10 Little underneath.
Former West Point coach Brad Cox enjoyed battling Carter’s teams over his seven seasons with the Green Wave. Now in administration, Cox hopes to attend some Starkville practices this season to learn even more.
“Greg and I really developed a great friendship,” Cox said. “Even though we didn’t win most of the games, it was always a battle. You knew you were going up against one of the great minds in the state. The thing with playing Greg’s team is that they were always going to be great with adjustments.
“To have any chance at success, you were going to have do to something different from what you normally do. I really respect his program and all of the success they have had.”
Speaking of doing something different, that was the theme of the Starkville basketball season.
“Very proud of what we have been able to accomplish,” Carter said. “A lot of credit goes to my assistant coaches this season. They helped push this team. We had a lot of accomplishments. You want to take every team to Jackson, so it was disappointing we couldn’t put things together at the end.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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