Georgia State’s men’s basketball team will travel to Costa Rica on Thursday with three goals to accomplish.
The first is to give away more than 5,000 shoes to needy children as part of coach Ron Hunter’s work with the charity Samaritan’s Feet.
“I wouldn’t do this if we couldn’t give away shoes,” Hunter said. “We will run out of shoes before we run out of people. That’s the frustrating part.”
Guard Ryan Harrow said he remembers working with the charity while he was a player at Kentucky. The team went to an in-state school to wash the feet of children and provide them with shoes.
“That’s the main goal, going out there to help people that are less fortunate so we can be grateful,” he said.
This is the second trip Hunter has taken with the Georgia State team. He and the squad went to South Africa two years ago to give away shoes.
Hunter has taken seven trips on behalf of Samaritan’s Feet, including one previously to Costa Rica when he was the coach at IUPUI.
“I know the need is there,” he said. “I’m excited to go back and help some of the children we didn’t get to help before.”
Of secondary importance will be basketball.
The team will play four games against club teams from Costa Rica. Some of the shoe giveaways will occur in cities that will host the games, which will be played Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Hunter said he doesn’t expect some of the key players — last season’s leading scorer R.J. Hunter, second-leading scorer Harrow and perhaps Curtis Washington — won’t play in all four games. He said Kevin Ware, who transferred from Louisville in the offseason and is expected to start, may not play in all four games.
Ware suffered a horrific broken leg in the 2013 NCAA tournament. After appearing to be mentally over the injury, Hunter said Ware seems to have taken a step back after Pacers guard Paul George suffered a similar injury last week.
“We want to ease him into this,” Hunter said.
The good news is that there are several players Hunter wants to give a lot of playing time to while in Costa Rica.
Guard Jeff Thomas, a freshman from Norwalk, Ohio, already is penciled in as a starter.
“Jeff has been ahead of everybody,” Hunter said. “He’s caught all of our eyes.”
Redshirt freshman guard Isaiah Dennis has been right behind Thomas in improvement. Dennis has lost none of the explosiveness he showed last season before he was sidelined with a foot injury.
Another freshman, Jordan Session, is pushing for playing time.
The competition is fine with Ron Hunter. He wants a deeper bench than he had during last year’s Sun Belt championship season when the team rarely used more than eight players in critical games, and those players typically didn’t play many minutes or score many points. He also hopes that the four games can improve the team’s chemistry so that it can avoid a slow start similar to last season, when the Panthers started 2-5.
Harrow said the work has begun.
“We’ve really taken in the new guys and made them into our family like we did last year,” Harrow said. “Everybody is happy for the next person. There’s no animosity, no trying to compete, not trying to outdo each other. We are trying to be good collectively.”
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