FARMVILLE, Va. -- Spend some time with
Jayson Gee, new head coach of Longwood University men's basketball team, and you will be immersed in his energy and excitement. He proclaims that while his Longwood Lancers may not be the biggest or most talented basketball team, they will be the most enthusiastic.
But ask him about number 52, one of two retired men's basketball jerseys inside the Willett Hall gymnasium, and it will be bring back memories, painful memories, of his first visit to Longwood as a head basketball coach of another team.
It was Saturday, December 9, 2000.
Jayson Gee was the head basketball coach of his alma mater, the University of Charleston in West Virginia. His 3-1 Golden Eagles visited Lancer Hall (now Willett Hall) to play Division II Longwood College, which was riding a 4-0 record after enduring a 4-22 season the previous year.
"We came (to Longwood) and we ran into a buzz saw," said Gee. (Colin) Ducharme just controlled the game with his physicality and then Jason Pryor really got going, and we just did not have any answers for them. They blew us out of the water and we were just overwhelmed."
Gee had built UC, a member of the storied West Virginia Intercollegiate Conference (WVIAC), into a Division II powerhouse. Starting his fifth year at UC, he was coming off a 28-2 season that peaked at No. 2 in the nation with a senior-dominated team, including the school's all-time leading scorer and DII National Player of the Year, Ajamu Gaines.
When scheduling the home-and-home series with Longwood head coach Mike Leeder, Gee took a look at Longwood's 4-22 record from 1999-2000. He figured the game would be a good confidence builder for his young squad early in the season and a possible sweep with a win in Farmville and a win at UC the next season.
Leeder, who was in his second year as Longwood's head coach, fortified his starting five with four Division I transfers by signing Pryor, a former Clemson recruit and junior college star, as well as Marques Cunningham from the University of Richmond and Hunter Hoggatt from Virginia Commonwealth University.
But it was the fourth signee that would change the complexion of the lineup and present Gee and other Lancer opponents with a giant problem: 6-9 and 243 pounds to be exact. In late June 2000, Ducharme enrolled at Longwood as a graduate student a month after graduating from the University of Virginia. He kept his Cavalier jersey number 52.
Ducharme had earned his degree in physics and was an accomplished scholar who spent a year living in one of Virginia's prestigious Lawn rooms. But, his basketball career had hit a rut. After starting 45 of 61 games in his freshman and sophomore years under coach Jeff Jones, he broke his ankle his junior year and was granted a medical redshirt, preserving a year of eligibility. He worked hard to rehab and even harder to fit into new head coach Pete Gillen's up-tempo system, but his playing time dwindled his fourth year at Virginia, starting just two games and averaging 2.1 points and 1.8 rebounds.
With degree in hand and a year of eligibility, Ducharme had options: continue working hard and try to earn more playing time under Gillen; end his college basketball career and move on with graduate school or a career; or, transfer to a lower college division and play ball immediately.
Ducharme selected the latter, thus becoming a huge match-up challenge for Gee's Golden Eagles, not to mention teams in the Division II Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference where Ducharme would become known as the "Shaq of the CVAC."
Gee knew about Leeder's signing Jason Pryor, but felt "bamboozled" when he learned of the other late summer signees.
"When I got the scouting report a week before the game, they had these two kids (Hoggatt and Ducharme)," said Gee. "That's not the Longwood I agreed on (when scheduling the game). And now I felt bad for my young team, which was trying to find itself and live up to the expectations of the (previous year's) team that got as high as No. 2 in the country."
Gee's pre-game fears were justified. The Lancers jumped out to a 54-30 halftime lead and coasted to a 94-65 win, the largest defeat in
Jayson Gee's seven-year career as head coach at Charleston. Pryor was no slouch with 18 points. Hoggatt chipped in 11 and Cunningham added 16. But, it was Ducharme who led all Longwood scorers with 22 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and four blocked shots, and left an impression.
Ducharme, who is now 35 and a chartered financial analyst with an investment firm in Virginia Beach, remembers a Lancer squad that was talented, but struggling to find an identity.
"We were still trying to find our little niche and especially at home," said Ducharme. "It was a little nerve racking. I remember there were a lot of expectations because we were coming off the year before where we only won four games the entire year. We had a couple games under our belt and we were nervous. We realized people had high hopes for the team that year. We wanted to make a point – to make a statement – that we were not what (opponents) faced the prior year."
Comparing Ducharme to an oak tree and his team as the limbs, Gee got the message loud and clear.
"He was standing like a scarecrow and he could just do what he wanted," said Gee. "We were grabbing onto his arms and everything, and we could do nothing about it. I don't know if he even sweated that game.
"His presence was such a dominant force," Gee continued, " and I had never prepared for that and been part of a (game with a) dominant center like that with size, ability, agility – offensively capable. I've played against centers that could dominate a game defensively, but not offensively, defensively and physicality wise. "
Ducharme, who is married with a two-year old daughter, remains honored to have had an opportunity to finish his basketball career at Longwood on his own terms.
"I had decent size, but I wasn't the best athlete in the world so I worked really hard at it," said Ducharme. "I would have really regretted feeling like I had more to play and more to give back if I had just stopped when I left Virginia. The fact that Longwood could breathe new life into my basketball career for me, I will forever be grateful. "
He dominated Longwood's small college opponents and was named Division II National Player of the Year and First Team All-Conference and All-American while averaging 19.6 points, 15.8 rebounds and 4.2 blocks per game. As a team, the Lancers finished 23-8 and advanced to the regional semifinals. They were ranked as high as No. 10 in the nation and spent five weeks in the top 25.
Ducharme's one year at Longwood propelled him into the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, a showcase of college seniors for NBA and international scouts. His performance in the PIT led to a three- year career in France and Italy, which Ducharme said would not have happened without the year in Farmville. Ducharme and former NBA veteran Jerome Kersey are the only two Longwood basketball players ever invited to the PIT. Kersey's number 54 hangs next to Ducharme's in Longwood's Willett Hall.
For Gee's Golden Eagles, the loss to Longwood proved to be a turning point early in the season.
"I believe the Longwood game helped us a lot," said Gee. "It really was a springboard for us to identify who we were and let us know on a given day that we (Charleston) could be beat."
After the Longwood loss, Gee re-shuffled the playing time and found more success with a smaller, more athletic UC lineup. He figured it would create match problems with the opposition. One of the benefactors of Gee's changes was freshman Carl Edwards. After not starting in the December 2000 Longwood-UC game, the 6-5 swingman would end up starting 22 of 30 games and was named the MVP of the WVIAC Conference Tournament, a feat not even the optimistic Gee could have predicted.
Gee enjoyed recruiting success in Ohio while he was at UC and claims Edwards as one of his most successful finds. Edwards received only one offer as a senior at Trotwood-Madison High School in suburban Dayton –a $500 grant from Gee. After Edwards' breakout freshman year, Gee rewarded him with a full scholarship, and the investment paid off. Edwards finished his UC career with 2,092 points and played professionally in the United States and overseas, including a stint in the Atlanta Hawks pre-season camp.
Both Edwards and the 2000-01 University of Charleston team ended on a high note. The same young team that was blindsided by Ducharme and the Lancers regrouped to finish 23-7, No. 18 in the final DII National poll, and appeared in the NCAA Regional Tournament for a third-straight year. Ironically, Ducharme and the rest of the Lancers finished No. 21 in the same poll.
Gee's recollection of the retired number 52 hasn't changed, but he adds a new twist to heighten Lancer fans' anticipation of the November 9 tip off against the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
"I grimace at two things in Willett Hall," said Gee. "One, that jersey makes me remember that game. Two, when I look at the men's basketball banners, there are not a lot of years posted with successful championship years. One makes me frustrated and one makes me motivated."
Gee may now be reminded of Ducharme, even before setting foot in the Longwood gymnasium. Longwood assistant basketball coach Cade Lemcke, who Gee hired over the summer, and Ducharme were teammates during Colin's third and fourth year at Virginia and the former Cavaliers remain good friends. Ducharme sent an e-mail to Gee congratulating him on the selection of Lemcke.
Editor's Note: Please see this box score PDF for the December 9, 2000 contest, Charleston at Longwood.
Rohn Brown is a free-lance writer and an avid sport enthusiast. He graduated from Longwood College in 1984 and attended the game on December 9, 2000 between Longwood and Charleston. He earned a M.Ed. from the University of Virginia and lives in Mechanicsville, Virginia.
