Can much-improved Charlotte 49ers continue turnaround under coach Ron Sanchez?
It appears the Charlotte 49ers’ turnaround under second-year coach Ron Sanchez is well underway.
“Well, maybe,” Sanchez said with a laugh Monday. “But I’ve been talking to a lot of people, and they’ve said year three is tougher than year two for a coach. So we’ll have to see.”
But the 49ers, playing with a group of mostly young and unproven players, took significant steps this season, which ended last week in Frisco, Texas, when the Conference USA tournament was canceled due to concerns about the the coronavirus:
▪ The 49ers finished with a 16-13 record, their first winning season since 2013-14, doubling their victories total from the season before.
▪ Charlotte won a program-record 13 games at Halton Arena.
▪ Charlotte qualified for the C-USA tournament for the first time in three seasons. The 49ers’ 10-8 league record was good enough for a fourth seed and a first-round bye in the tournament, had they gotten a chance to play.
▪ Three 49ers — guards Jordan Shepherd, Jahmir Young and Malik Martin — had all-conference caliber seasons. Shepherd made third-team all conference, Young was the league’s freshman of the year and Martin made the all-defensive team.
Those kinds of numbers and honors are in stark contrast to the past several seasons at Charlotte, a program that hasn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 2005 and handed the keys to Sanchez — a career assistant at Washington State and Virginia — in 2018 to turn things around.
“There are a lot of positives to take from the season,” said Sanchez. “There are also a lot of learning opportunities for us as a staff and a team. For me, as head coach of the program, there were definitely a lot of things that were brought to light along this journey.”
After do-everything star guard Jon Davis graduated, Sanchez went to work with an inexperienced roster. Young — who won the league’s rookie of the week award eight times — quickly became a revelation, averaging 12.5 points and a team-high 5.2 rebounds. Shepherd, who sat out last season after transferring from Oklahoma, led the team in scoring (14.0) and assists (3.9). Martin led the team in steals (1.7) and second in blocks (1.1).
Martin announced on Tuesday, however, that he is entering the NCAA transfer portal. On Wednesday, backup guard Tyler Bertram, who averaged 9.3 minutes per game and missed the final four games with a shoulder surgery, also said he’s in the transfer portal.
The other two starting spots were filled by grad transfers — guard Drew Edwards and forward Amidou Bamba — whose impact can’t be understated. Edwards (Providence) and Bamba (Coastal Carolina) provided much needed leadership, and allowed players like Shepherd and Young to develop with that kind of safety net beneath them.
The tone of the season might have been set during a two-week stretch in November. After losing the season opener at James Madison, the 49ers returned to Halton Arena and beat Mecklenburg County rival Davidson and Wake Forest. But Charlotte couldn’t get any momentum from those victories, losing consecutive road games against Appalachian State and Georgia State.
The 49ers started with a flourish in the league, winning their first four games. And although they couldn’t find traction away from home, they still finished fourth in the regular season. Gaining a spot in the top group of C-USA’s “bonus play” schedule, the 49ers acquitted themselves well against the four other top teams in the league, going 2-2 during that final stretch of games.
Even without Martin now, a solid core returns for next season. In addition to Shepherd and Young, also back will be potential starters in junior forward Milos Supica and junior guard Cooper Robb, as well as sophomore guard Brice Williams. Sophomore guard Tyler Bertram, who had shoulder surgery near the end of the season, and 6-foot-10 sophomore center Anzac Rissetto will return.
Sanchez also said he’s hopeful junior guard Luka Vasic, who had become a key member of the rotation before suffering a season-ending knee injury in February, can return.
How players like Young and Williams respond after one season in college will be key for next season’s 49ers.
“For first-year guys, there are different stories,” Sanchez said. “There might have been a story for Brice, telling himself about what he thought college ball would be before he arrived, and it turned out not to be the same story. Jahmir had a really good freshman campaign, and that’s not the story he might have been telling himself before he got here.
“How they manage all that, now that they’ve played for a season, will be something for them to work on. We’ll see how it unfolds.”
There will be new faces. Redshirt freshman guard Caleb Stone-Carrawell, a highly regarded recruit from Cox Mill High, missed the season with back injury. Sanchez signed two three-star recruits — 6-foot-8 guard Jackson Threadgill of Davidson Day and 6-7 small forward Jared Garcia of Oakdale, Conn.
Before Martin and Bertram announced they were entering the portal, Sanchez said he would consider going the grad-transfer route again if the fit is right, as it was with Edwards and Bamba. That seems like a necessity now, with three scholarship spots open on the roster.
“I didn’t think I was going to do it last year,” Sanchez said. “I was going to go with the young guys and let them go through their failures. But after experiencing the league last year, and seeing how old the good teams were with juniors and seniors out there, I saw you can’t do it with young kids.
“If the right one comes along, maybe you have to. But you’ve got to grow old. You can’t speed up mother nature. The only way to grow old is to have players with you for three or four years. We’re just in year two, so we can’t have three- or four-year guys, right? So we’ve got to be patient with them.”
This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 11:10 AM.