Patrick Sellers has been at nine schools and recruited hundreds of players, but when he saw a name pop up from Florence, S.C., his hometown, it was a first.
“I didn’t know who he was until I got into the transfer portal,” Jordan Jones said. “We had a mutual friend who I knew through my father who reached out, said ‘There’s a school in Connecticut that might be interested in you, the coach is from this area.’ So I looked and it turned out to be a perfect fit.”
As UConn fans old enough to remember “The Dream Season” could tell you, the Sellers brothers, Rod, one of the stars of that 1989-90 Huskies team, and his brother, Patrick, who was an assistant coach under Jim Calhoun and is now the head coach at Central, hail from Florence.
“He went to Wilson High School, I went to South Florence, we were crosstown rivals,” Jones said. “We were familiar with the same stuff.”
Jones, a point guard, had been playing at Division II Coker, 36 miles from Florence. When Sellers saw his name in the portal, saw gaudy stats, 15.6 points, 6.5 assists, 48.2 percent shooting from the floor, he watched some video.
“I knew Coker, and his numbers jumped off the page,” Sellers said. “Then I saw he was from Florence. I called my best friend from high school, Larry Johnson, and I said, ‘Do you know Jordan Jones?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, I just talked to his Dad.’ Next thing you know, he was up coming up on a visit. I’ve been coaching 20-plus years, and every now and then there’s a player that pops up that fits perfect.”
Jones made the move away from home and has helped usher in this new era of basketball at Central. The Blue Devils (6-3), co-favorites in the NEC, have been impressive in the out-of-conference portion of the schedule, with wins over St. Joseph’s and UMass of the Atlantic-10, and Holy Cross, and a four-point loss at Providence. They have another huge challenge Sunday at Rhode Island (9-1).
“We want to play good competition,” Sellers said. “Going into the season, we knew we were going to be older and more mature. We have guys who have been here multiple years, so we’re mature. It doesn’t matter the level of competition, we don’t get rattled.”
The Devils, too, are hungry. A year ago, they won the conference regular-season title, but lost to Wagner in the tournament semifinals. This season, they are after their slice of March Madness.
“Man, building off last season, we were able to incorporate some of the same core values with the new guys who came in,” said Jones, who leads Central in scoring (12.9 points per game) and assists (3.6). We have a successful culture, we know we’re capable of winning games. Nothing less than excellence. We weren’t able to do what we wanted last year, and we don’t want ever want to feel that heartbreak again.”
Jones, in his second year at Central, is surrounded by veterans.
“We have four four-year seniors, which is very rare nowadays with the portal guys jumping around,” Sellers said. “Davonte Sweatman, Abdul Momoh, Jayden Brown and Joe Ostrowski, they’re like extensions of the coaching staff. It’s been clicking pretty good. Other guys just jump on board. I always tell them, ‘Hey, we have the age and we have the maturity where we’re playing chess, not checkers.’
“When you play chess, you don’t get rattled. You know, ‘I got a shot, but if I make the next pass, he’s got a great shot.’ So we talk about playing chess all the time as a group.”
Jones, 6 feet and 180 pounds, who averaged 13.1 points and 3.6 assists last season. He scored 21 against Providence, 20 against Holy Cross, his best games so far this season.
“Jordan’s an elite athlete,” Sellers said. “He’s a competitive, winner. Getting him here and trying to learn our system, it took a while. The summer (of 2023) he was awful. He was so bad, he’d be the first guy to admit it. After he left for the summer, we were on zoom calls talking about it, watching film, and he said, ‘Coach, I promise you I’m going to be so much better.’ The four-year guys took him under his wing. You put his athleticism and his will to win into the system we put together, and you get a really good player.”
Coker is a small school and campus. Jones said he’s really enjoying life on a large, teeming campus in a D-1, mid-major program, and being part of its resurgence.
“Right now, we’re getting a little bit of buzz, people don’t really know who Central Connecticut is. When they watch us, and they’ve never heard of us, I want them to say, ‘Who’s this team, they defend, they might be a smaller group, but they get out and score and do all the things a good team does, and they’re unselfish. They share the ball.’
“Somebody watching the first time, I want them to say, ‘Yeah, they’re a good ballclub, they’re well coached.'”
More for your Sunday read:
Christmas in The Fens
UConn football gets to play close to home, and in a post-Christmas bowl game, and the Huskies play North Carolina, a brand-name opponent on ESPN, with Bill Belichick’s presence bringing added national attention to the Wasabi Fenway Bowl. It all adds up to great opportunity to make a statement, much like the Huskies did in 2009 with the win over Steve Spurrier and South Carolina.
There was some wheeling and dealing among conferences and bowls to put UConn in The Fens. The American Conference is a primary partner for the Fenway Bowl, but league champ Army was tied to the Independence Bowl. Other conference teams preferred closer, warmer options. For instance, many had UConn going to Tampa to play Florida, but Tulane, the AAC runner up, went there.
So the American was agreeable to Fenway folk inviting a viable New England independent, and it’s paying off. Tickets sales, as of Friday, were said to be nearing 18,000, already exceeding the previous Fenway Bowls, played in 2022, when Louisville and Cincinnati drew 15,000, and ’23, when BC and SMU drew 16,200.
One drawback? Christmas becomes a working holiday. UConn will travel to Boston on Dec. 24, with “media day” at Fenway the 27th, the day before the game, which is a departure from a usual game-week routine.
“It lays out well for us, actually,” Huskies coach Jim Mora said. “What we will do is make it make it as family friendly as possible. Morning practice (on Christmas Eve), have a meal, have some meetings, have a chapel and a mass, a social with the parents.
“Then on Christmas day, we’ll practice in the morning, some community events, and then a holiday celebration dinner. We’re going to make it special for these kids and their families. My concern is for these kids having a great experience at the bowl, and the families still feeling like they can celebrate the holidays together.”
Mora’s first trip to Fenway Park came when his father was D-line coach with the Patriots in 1982. He says he saw Carl Yastrzemski hit a home run.
Sunday short takes
*Based on the 3-point numbers in UConn’s loss at Notre Dame in women’s basketball, 3 for 16 vs. 10 for 18, one has to believe a rematch could play out differently if Azzi Fudd is playing for the Huskies. Guess that’s obvious.
*Belichick’s hire by North Carolina is a jarring reminder of that unpleasant fact of life: The NFL season isn’t over yet, the Giants, Jets and Patriots are all still playing. And so are Saquon Barkley and Sam Darnold. Ouch.
*Why commit $200 million or more to a starting pitcher if he’s only going to go 4 1/3 innings? What am I missing?
*Fun fact: Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford and Phil Rizzuto appeared in a 1957 episode of The Phil Silvers show in which Sgt. Bilko (Silvers) connived to sell a naïve pitching phenom, played by a young Dick Van Dyke, to the Yankees. Mr. Van Dyke, coolest man on earth, turned 99 on Friday and one way or another I was going to get that into this sports column.
*Nothing good ever seems to follow the phrase, “with that being said …” Never see a transfer portal announcement without it. Could it soon replace “It’s not you, it’s me” as the go-to line in breaking off relationships?
*… With that being said, a lot of interesting college quarterbacks are entering the transfer portal, including Glastonbury’s Tyler Van Dyke, recovering from a torn ACL and leaving Wisconsin with one year eligibility.
*E.O. Smith-Storrs grad Sean Barry, now a fourth-grade teacher in Arizona, coached both the boys and girls teams at Collier Business Academy (they play in different seasons) to Littleton District middle school championships this year. Barry’s unique coaching achievement made a very proud mom of my Courant colleague, Lori Riley.
Late Red Sox legend Luis Tiant snubbed by Baseball Hall of Fame committee again
Last word
Rocky Colavito, who died this week at 91, had a unique career during the pitching-dominated 1960s, hitting 374 home runs. A nine-time all-star, he had an elite outfield arm; he pitched a game for the Yankees at the tail end of his career and won. In a week in which Dick Allen and Dave Parker finally made it into the Hall of Fame, it’s a reminder that several sluggers of that period, with more than 300 homers and other attributes, players like Colavito, Frank Howard, Dwight Evans, Boog Powell and Willie Horton, deserve a fresh look from Cooperstown’s committees. On the pitching side, hoping for Luis Tiant and Tommy John next time around.