Gulf Coast basketball: Commodores finding their footing, waiting for reinforcements
Following a 4-0 start, Gulf Coast suffered its first two losses of the season in a four-day span, falling to Polk State 79-70 in St. Petersburgh on Nov. 13 and 67-62 to Central Georgia Tech in Macon, Ga., on Nov. 17.
Since then, the Commodores have responded with three consecutive victories over nationally-ranked teams, and while Gulf Coast Phil Gaffney said he appreciates the response, he said his team is still just scratching the surface of what it can be.
"The two games we lost, we lost them in the minute of the game. We shouldn't have lost those games, we had a chance to win in the last two minutes of each and had a disaster finish," he said. "We've straightened out some stuff and had three or four things we've really focused on and all of the sudden we're playing way better.
"We didn't even play great (last week) and we beat three nationally-ranked teams and we're nowhere near playing to our capability. We're still making a lot of errors, but we've cleaned up a lot. It's a process, you clean up a little bit each week and by March you want to be the cleanest team going."
Gulf Coast got all three of its most recent wins in Pensacola last week, knocking off Southern Arkansas University Tech 68-57, Odessa 71-68, and Lamar State 85-81.
As usual, the Commodores were led by their dynamic guard trio of sophomore Jammy Pierre-Louis and freshmen Chase Forte and Tauris Watson. Pierre-Louis averaged 20.3 points over the three games, followed by Watson with 14.7 per game. Forte averaged 12.7 points, six rebounds, and 6.3 assists in the victories.
Those three have been the engine that drives the Gulf Coast attack thus far, with each one capable of creating scoring opportunities off the dribble for themselves or for teammates. It's the kind of guard-oriented attack that Gaffney said he has always preferred.
"The other times I went to the final four we played three guards," he said. "We've really got three guys that can handle, shoot, pass, and defend, so we like that. It makes you a little smaller and maybe you don't rebound as well, but I don't know how many rebounds you get out of the point guard and two-man anyway. It's great to have three guys who can score it and handle it. They're playing off of each other really well.
"Even though they've never played together before this year, they've done a great job of making it look like they've played together for a long time. They've been kind of a three-headed monster for us."
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Gulf Coast hasn't gotten nearly as much offense from the frontcourt, though 6-foot-10 freshman Simeon German and 6-foot-6 sophomore Tay Hall have both provided quality rebounding and interior defense.
The Commodores could get a scoring boost in December with the potential returns of a pair of talented forwards in 6-foot-5 Evansville transfer Alex Matthews and 6-foot-6 Valparaiso transfer Goodnews Kpegeol.
A super athletic combo forward, Kpegeol was among the Commodores' best players in the summer before breaking his foot in a car accident. His health status remains up in the air, though Gulf Coast will definitely get Matthews in the lineup some time in December, either for the team's Dec. 17-18 trip to Waycross, Ga., or its Dec. 30-31 home games in the Visit Panama City Beach Tournament, according to Gaffney.
A big-bodied and versatile forward, Matthews is the kind of player that could be especially useful to this Gulf Coast team with his ability to handle and shoot the ball while also providing tough, physical defense against opposing wings.