Lipscomb fans should know that their new men\u2019s college basketball coach is highly confident in his methods and resolute in how his team will play the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a very process-oriented person,\u2019\u2019 said Kevin Carroll. \u201cI\u2019ve never really gone into seasons saying, \u2018I hope we can do this or do that.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way I evaluate myself is this, and I know that\u2019s not how I\u2019m going to be evaluated by our fans, our administration or the media, but the way I evaluate myself is: A, are we getting the players doing what we\u2019re trying to get them to do? B, are we creating moments and memories for them that\u2019s going to make them grateful to have played in this program? And C, are they learning to live the culture that we value here?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a head coach three times, and I took over three completely different situations, but all three had single-digit wins the season before I got there, but within three years we broke the school (record) for wins at all three places. But it was never about breaking records, it was about getting really good at what I said. Maximizing what\u2019s really important, and it\u2019s amazing how when you turn your focus to that, how a lot of other things become like a boomerang for you. It winds up blessing you and your team in ways you could never imagine.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
How quickly Carroll will have success at Lipscomb is a legitimate question as he\u2019s stitched together a roster that has seven returning players \u2014 none of whom were key contributors to last season\u2019s Atlantic Sun champions \u2014 four transfers and five freshmen.<\/p>\n
Even he\u2019s not sure. Since the returnees were mostly role players for last season\u2019s team, success could only come if those players take a big leap and if the few transfers Carroll was able to lure to Nashville become all-league type players.<\/p>\n
\u201cNew players, seven new coaches, it\u2019s kind of what you\u2019d expect,\u2019\u2019 he said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like it was when I was at Trevecca. I inherited a team that had won two games the year before and we ended up winning 16, but in the beginning, we were still figuring things out.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Right now, Carroll feels he has 11 players who are seriously competing for playing time. Eventually, he\u2019s expecting that number to be reduced by performance, so the early season games will be crucial for the development of the team.<\/p>\n
One thing that is certain is how the Bisons are going to play, and Carroll says it will be similar to the way they played under Lennie Acuff for the last five seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a guy who played for Coach Acuff in college, I\u2019ve worked for him twice, he\u2019s a huge mentor and we share some similarities, especially on the offensive end,\u2019\u2019 said Carroll. \u201cThe way I see the game is play faster. At Trevecca we were Top 20 in the country, both in transition points and percentage of points that come out of transition. The way I see the game, you try to create as many possessions as possible and maximize each possession by making more threes and free throws than your opponents. Over time, that kind of builds to a greater advantage over the course of a game.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
There are some certainties despite all the new players.<\/p>\n
Big men Grant Asman and Charlie Williams, who played smaller roles on last season\u2019s championship team, are going to have more responsibility. Carroll said both have been outstanding in summer and fall workouts.<\/p>\n
Two players who might be even more important are transfer guards Mateo Esmeraldo, who followed Carroll from Trevecca Nazarene, and Ethan Duncan, a shooting guard who was a Division II All-American at Lubbock Christian.<\/p>\n
\u201cMateo plays the point guard position from the way that I see it,\u2019\u2019 said Carroll. \u201cHe\u2019s extremely fast, he\u2019s a creator for others and he\u2019s gotten to be where\u2019s as better scorer, a better shooter, but he\u2019s probably the best passing point guard I\u2019ve ever coached. Last season, he was Top 5 in Division II in assists, and he just allows us the chance to play at the pace that will offset any physical differences there may be. I\u2019m sure there\u2019s going to be teams that are bigger and faster or bigger and stronger than us, but they\u2019re going to have to play with us for 40 minutes at a certain pace.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
Duncan, a little small at 6-foot for a shooting guard, is going to be relied upon for scoring.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a really gifted scorer,\u2019\u2019 said Carroll. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t have a lot of size, but he has the ability to put the ball in the basket. I anticipate he\u2019ll be one of our top players.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The guard depth was compromised when junior point guard Logan Suber suffered a torn ACL in preseason workouts. Carroll is still working on possibilities to fill the minutes that Esmeraldo sits.<\/p>\n
Other experienced Bisons competing for playing time are guard Miles While, swingman Kellan Boylan and guard Ross Candelino.<\/p>\n
Another key transfer is 6-foot-6 forward Cole Middleton, who arrived from Division II Anderson. \u201cHe is our best rebounder and our most physical interior defender,\u2019\u2019 said Carroll.<\/p>\n
The most impressive freshman has been 6-foot-7 forward Kennedy Okpara, whose brother Felix plays for Tennessee. \u201cIf he\u2019s not our best athlete, he\u2019s one of them for sure,\u2019\u2019 said Carroll. \u201cHe can do some things that no one else on our team does.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
In the early going, as Carroll is still figuring out his team, the Bisons are going to be facing some tough competition. There are four \u201cbuy games,\u2019\u2019 which Lipscomb schedules annually. They seem like four certain losses. The Bisons will be at Vanderbilt (Nov. 3), at Marshall (Nov. 26), at Duke (Dec. 16) and at Cincinnati (Dec. 29).<\/p>\n
The annual Battle of the Boulevard against Belmont will be played Wednesday, Nov. 19.<\/p>\n
Carroll hasn\u2019t set any goals, but by the time ASUN play begins, he\u2019ll have a handle on what kind of team he has.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn all three places (where I was head coach), we had success that I didn\u2019t really expect, and the achievements were higher than any goals I would have set,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
Follow Joe Sullivan on X and Bluesky @GlobeSullivan. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lipscomb fans should know that their new men\u2019s college basketball coach is highly confident in his methods and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,398,400,401,99],"class_list":["post-238811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}