At Georgia State, Ron Hunter has the winning formula
In his first year at Georgia State, Ron Hunter has the Panthers off and running on a impressive 10-3 start. (Photo courtesy of GSU Athletics)
Jim Swing
Sports Editor
Commonwealth Times’ Sports
In his first three months on the job, Georgia State men’s basketball head coach Ron Hunter felt like he was working at a morgue.
“Everybody was down, everybody was depressed,” he said. “Nobody smiled, no one laughed at my jokes.”
In the past eight years leading up to Hunter’s arrival, there haven’t been many reasons to smile around what has been a seemingly stagnant program. Georgia State hasn’t had a winning season since the 2003-2004 campaign when then-coach Michael Perry led the Panthers to a 20-9 overall record. They were a member of the Atlantic Sun conference back then, two years before joining the Colonial Athletic Association where they were headed no where fast.
But now Hunter – in his first year at Georgia State – has the program off to a speedy start, and has brought what was regularly a shoe-in for the CAA basement back to life. The Panthers are 10-3 and currently on a 10-game winning streak, which is tied for the seventh longest in the nation.
“We talked the very first day I took this job that what’s wrong with winning right now, who said that we had to wait to come into the CAA and we have to rebuild this thing,” Hunter said. “We talked about winning right away.”
For Hunter, stepping in and setting a program in the right direction isn’t brand new. In his 17 years at IUPUI, Hunter helped transition the program from the NAIA and Division II into NCAA Division I basketball in the Summit league.
Winning is nothing new either. Hunter won 274 games at IUPUI and became the school’s winningest coach in number of victories and winning percentage. And now he’s burst onto the scene at Georgia State and flipped the entire culture of the once dormant program.
“The first three months I had a basketball team that couldn’t look me in the eye,” Hunter said. “Really not even a basketball team, a whole program that I don’t think believed in itself, so I wanted to change the culture.”
Thirteen games into the job, Hunter said he’s changed a little bit of everything, however he still employs the same systemic approach to the game he’s been using for 18 years as a head coach. He didn’t recruit anyone on Georgia State’s current roster, but Hunter has the players buying into his system. A system that, so far, involves a lot of winning.
“We’ve practiced twice a day since the first day I got here, so these kids have put the work in and so now they’re reaping the benefits,” Hunter said. “I didn’t inherit a bad basketball team, I inherited a team that didn’t know how to win.”
His inheritance includes six talented seniors that enjoy locking down on defense and causing trouble for the opposition. During their current winning streak the Panthers have held their opponents to an average of just 51 points per game on just over 34 percent shooting from the floor. One in particular – senior forward Eric Buckner – has been nothing short of a force in the paint and is tied for 13th in the nation at 2.92 blocks per game.
Georgia State was picked to finish 11th in the conference in the CAA preseason poll and so far they defied the odds.
“When people were doing the preseason predictions, I don’t know if they failed to realize this, but Georgia State has five seniors that have played basketball at the college level for a long time,” VCU head coach Shaka Smart said. “A couple of them played at the high major level so that’s one of those things you really shouldn’t overthink.
“If you have five good seniors I don’t care what league you’re in or who you are, you’re going to win some games.”
The Panthers’ list of victims so far this season isn’t exactly anything to write home about, but their latest – and perhaps best – win came over a Drexel team picked to finish first in the CAA. Georgia State’s hard-nosed defense forced the Dragons to turn the ball over 25 times Monday night in 14-point rout.
“They play a style that can really give you problems out there,” Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint said. “They really keep you off balance.”
Happier days are beginning to dawn on a Georgia State program that has dug its way out of the abyss. The gap-toothed head coach with an outgoing personality is no longer receiving blank stares and dull looks.
“Now all my jokes are funny,” Hunter said. “We won 10 games in a row, everybody’s laughing at everything I say now.”
He’s revived a program that is alive and well.
