How Charlotte 49ers’ men’s basketball vaulted to top of American conference standings

Aaron Fearne and the Charlotte 49ers’ men’s basketball team have brought a buzz back to Halton Arena.

In Charlotte’s first season in the American Athletic Conference, the 49ers currently sit atop the league and are winners of five straight, including the first home victory against a ranked opponent since 2010, beating No. 17 Florida Atlantic in the program’s first AAC bout at Halton.

Picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams in the conference ahead of the season, Fearne’s message to his team is simple.

49ers’ coach: You never arrive

“It’s about resetting tomorrow and finding ways to continue to grow,” Fearne told the media following the 49ers’ fifth straight win, a 56-44 victory against North Texas on Saturday. “All of these guys are really young. These guys have a lot of basketball ahead of them. You never arrive — ever. That’s what the greats do. They get obsessed. Keeping that edge is the challenge. It’s a mentality.”

Charlotte’s home court advantage has been stark over the past three seasons, totaling 30 victories to just nine losses at Halton Arena, including an 8-1 start this season, with a margin of victory of nearly 17 points.

Lu’Cye Patterson, Charlotte’s leading scorer at 13.8 points per game, is feeling a difference at home — especially with the 49ers faithful buying in.

“They’re starting to see the potential in us. When they come, it brings a different feel,” the redshirt junior guard said. “They help us a lot. Like, a lot. They’re like a sixth man out there. I love the fans here.”

More than 4,500 fans attended Charlotte’s dominant defensive victory against North Texas on Saturday, marking the sixth-highest attendance total at Halton in the past five years. Charlotte’s largest home crowd in that span was 5,148 against Appalachian State in 2022. Arena capacity is 9,105.

Charlotte will look to extend its winning streak to six with UAB in town on Tuesday night.

Following a road trip to New Orleans to take on Tulane, Charlotte will host East Carolina in the first matchup as in-state conference foes (2 p.m., Feb. 3).

“It’s great, but the big thing that we’re trying to do is bring some juice and energy back into the building,” said Fearne. “That’s what I want to see, and that’s what I want this community to have — a team that they love to follow and love the way we play. The atmosphere (Saturday) was awesome.”

49ers’ new starting five

Following a 6-7 start to the season, Fearne made a switch in the starting five, moving Jackson Threadgill to the bench in favor of Isaiah Folkes. Since then, Charlotte has rattled off three wire-to-wire victories (UTSA, Tulsa, North Texas), led for all but 14 seconds against No. 17 Florida Atlantic, and overcame a 20- point deficit in Houston against Rice.

Fearne knows that Charlotte has plenty of room to grow and is looking to peak at the right time, with March just around the corner.

“You’ve got to keep an edge. We’ve won some games here, and it takes a lot of mental toughness to keep an edge when you’re doing some good things. That will be our challenge.”

Winning is contagious, and the first-year head coach is looking for his players to continue to inspire each other on both ends of the floor.

“Find a way to inspire your teammates. That’s a hard block out, diving on the ball and setting great screens. Defensively, we work very hard on that end, and we’ve shown that we can defend people. I’m wired that way,” Fearne told the media. “I get excited when teams play defense. But I also do want them to reward themselves on the other end by playing with a bit of freedom and getting out and having fun. If you want to be great, you’ve got to play defense.”

Charlotte is holding opponents to just 64.1 points per game, the third-best in the AAC and 20th in the nation. On the offensive end, Charlotte leads the league in assist-to-turnover ratio at 1.42, taking care of the ball, screening, re-screening, and utilizing Fearne’s sets to find high-percentage shots. The pace is still among the bottom 10 in the nation, at 65.3 per game. For reference, Tulane, Charlotte’s next road opponent, ranks seventh in the nation with 77.9 possessions per game.

The 49ers have found success controlling the pace and making opposing teams play their game, and Charlotte will need more of the same to keep the buzz around the program.

NCAA Tournament talks

Charlotte hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2005, when Bobby Lutz led the 49ers to four appearances in the big dance in five seasons. ESPN’s Joe Lundardi listed Charlotte as a “bid thief” in the most recent version of Bracketology, with the 49ers sitting atop the American with 12 conference games remaining.

Charlotte is one of 47 teams in the nation with a Quadrant 1 victory and has key road matchups with Tulane, South Florida and No. 19 Memphis during the next month.

With Charlotte hosting the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament at Spectrum Center, there’s a chance that Fearne and the 49ers could be playing in front of home crowds well into March — if they continue this level of play.

This story was originally published January 22, 2024 at 1:21 PM.