By Zach Smart
Central Pointe Christian Academy White, a postgraduate team comprised of guys who instantly struggled to acclimatize to a new system, found themselves mired in the woes of an early 0-6 free fall.
The then-piecemeal team put up listless performances during a pair of 30+ point losses, including a putrid home-serving of a blowout loss to Florida Sports Academy.
It ultimately was a trio of dispiriting losses at the Hoop Exchange All American Jamboree, however, when the White Tigers reach the end of their emotional rope.
“Just to be honest, losing games by 30+ points and that losing streak, that was actually the turning point for us,” explained 6-foot-4 combination guard Mekhi McIntyre, who is averaging 17 points and six assists as CPCA White has now ripped off seven victories in the last 10 games.
“We were facing the reality that we looked like the worst team in Central Pointe’s entire program. We really wanted to prove everyone wrong and play with that chip on our shoulder. A lot of us took it as a challenge.”
Through grit and mental toughness ingrained in them by head coach Francisco Hernandez and assistant coach Craig Green, a passion-bleeding skill development and quintessential player’s coach, CPCA White has authored a wild turnaround.
Historically and currently, post graduate basketball has sometimes been where me-first individualist prospects go to all but sign their own basketball death warrants.
Teams have a tendency to be marred by selfishness, suspect shot selections, and ball-dominant scorers seemingly hell-bent on padding their individual stats and recruitment.
CPCA White has been a rare throwback, a tight-knit core committed to extra pass basketball. This recipe and quickly established brotherhood has triggered the recent win streak.
“I tell the guys all the time, ‘selflessness.’ You have to be selfless,” said Green, who made it out of the notorious West Side of Augusta, Georgia to get his coaching teeth cut under the legendary Tim Jordan at Savannah High.
“We don’t have a Lebron James or a Kevin Durant walking through the door. We can’t worry about individual totals or stats, we have to play for the next man. Selflessness and the brotherhood concept is what’s stuck for this group.”
As has the emergence of guys such as McIntyre and 6-foot-5 Fort Lauderdale native Stewart Clough, an uber athletic at the rim finisher who scored 22 points (11-for-15 FG) during a recent 93-76 win over nationally ranked Rocktop Academy.
McIntyre is a shifty, high IQ point guard who plays with his eyes perpetually up. He’s materialized as a hard-attacking, three level scoring guard with a quick release jumper and multiple games of 20+ points this season. Clough has been a soaring presence, getting to the rim early and often.
“It’s been kind of crazy, Stu has unlocked parts of his game where you are just like ‘woah—I didn’t know he could do that,’” McIntyre explained.
“Seeing him scoring and dunking it, I probably didn’t think he could do this regularly coming into the season. He’s definitely got an engine that he just taps into during the game.”
They’ve received an uptick in production from bullish 6-foot-5, 215-pound forward Dalton Bradley.
Pint sized and pugnacious 5-foot-7 point guard Hector Colon has been instrumental in the fluid ball movement and commitment to the extra pass. Martell Collins has proven himself as a steady knockdown shooter from deep. Brandon Bush has helped provide a pesky on ball defensive presence. In Jaden Washington, you have a quick and defensive minded guard.
Suddenly, a group of misfits has been forged into a well meshing core that loves playing together. Part of the quick turnaround was the self-realization that this season could be their last season.
“We had a little team meeting after the last loss (at Hoop Exchange),” said McIntyre, who scored 35 points to help propel the White Tigers to a double digit victory over DME Academy.
“I told everyone, the truth is that this could be the last stop for some of us. It’s either college basketball or go take a job somewhere or another route. You don’t sacrifice this and come all the way out to Florida to slack off, you just don’t.”
Part of Green’s motivation in helping this group is he’s handled adversity in life before. At just 26, he’s got his own shambles to sugar story. Just a few years ago, while in dire straits financially, he was living out of his car.
“I really didn’t have enough money to even wash my clothes,” Green recalls.
“I had to break into the building I was working at during the nighttime, just to wash my clothes and take a shower. I was like, ‘there’s got to be more than life than this.’ I was at the lowest of the low. I could have either succumbed to what I had, or come to the realization there is something on the other side.”
That other, brighter side brought Green to Savannah, Ga., where he worked as an assistant coach under legendary Tim Jordan.
The venerable Jordan, who has accumulated 500+ career victories in his career as a high school coach, recalls seeing a young Green who “was first one to arrive at the gym, the one last to leave, and couldn’t get enough” of molding young players.
“The basic fundamentals are always going to be a big component of the game and that’s something (Green) really brought into,” said Jordan.
“He even started working out with kids out at the park. I told him, ‘that’s how you’re going to become a good coach,’ doing one on one and individual stuff. He just took to it, really took flight. He even took them out there in 100 degree weather. He didn’t mind working inside or outside. When I saw that in him I thought ‘yeah, this is the kind of young man I’ve been looking for.”
In head coach Francisco Hernandez, the team is pioneered by a no nonsense and defensive tactician who preaches conditioning with an iron fist. A gritty and harassing defender as a player himself in Puerto Rico, Hernandez has help hold this team to a high standard and improve incrementally with transition defense and sustained relentlessness.
“Coach Hernandez, everything he does just raises the level of intensity through the rooftops,” said McIntyre, who had a 21-point performance during the team’s recent 95-88 loss to Moc Valley Prep during the Thanksgiving Showcase at The Skill Factory in Atlanta.
“He’s in your jersey, just a fiery and competitive coach. So, it’s been a really good balance between him and Coach Green.”
It’s also been a good balance of personalities that have come together in one house in Orlando, where video games are akin to bloodsport in terms of competitive nature and the off the court bonds are tightened.
“We are always together,” McIntyre said. “We just started to mesh. We started to build the bond. There is a lot of unselfish basketball that goes around now. We’re just using this year to grow, not just as basketball players but as people.”
The Class of 2022 point guard continued, “We were looking at it to just shed the reputation or the label as the worst team in Central Pointe’s program. A lot of us took that as a challenge and put a chip on our shoulder. Every day, we want to prove everyone wrong.”
