Mercer doing it again in basketball

“I have great coaches and great players who want to be the best, and they trust me to put them in position to be successful,” Hoffman said last week after Mercer efficiently knocked off Florida Gulf Coast, the darlings of the NCAA tournament, at Hawkins Arena.

The Bears arguably are best team in the state this season.

Mercer ranks 67th in ESPN’s RPI. The Bears are 23 spots ahead of the next-highest team, Georgia State, and Georgia (117) and Georgia Tech (148) weren’t even in the picture through Tuesday’s games. RPI is a formula that the NCAA selection committee uses as it chooses tournament participants.

The Bears have wins over Seton Hall and Yale, which rank in the middle of their conferences, and Ole Miss, which is third in the SEC standings. They have close losses at Oklahoma, which is second in the Big 12, and Ohio, which is second in the MAC’s East division.

They are more than a one-year wonder.

The Bears were 99-73 from 2008-09, when Hoffman took over, to 2012-13. During the same stretch, Tech was 75-85, Georgia 77-83, Georgia State 73-87 and Georgia Southern 44-106. Mercer’s 99 wins through five seasons are the most in any five-year span in school history. Though in that span they haven’t made it to the NCAA tournament — which would bring instant respect — the Bears advanced to the second round of the NIT last year and won the CollegeInsider.com Tournament in 2011-12.

“The challenge has been to keep them believing in something,” Hoffman said. “If things don’t go exactly right, let’s wake up and see what we can accomplish that day. Be selfless in everything we do and find ways to make each other better. These guys do that.”

Sure the Bears don’t play in the ACC or SEC, where Tech and Georgia face much deeper and better competition than Mercer does in the Atlantic Sun. But that argument can be offset by pointing out that Hoffman isn’t luring ACC- or SEC-caliber players and bludgeoning opponents with talent.

The Bears win through practice habits, execution and recruiting the types of players who allow Hoffman to focus on coaching.

“Mercer basketball isn’t going to change, because it’s Mercer basketball,” Kennesaw State interim coach Jimmy Lallathin said. “Coach Hoffman has his idea, and it’s what he does. It produces.”

It starts with the staff, which has been together for four years, which Hoffman said is almost unheard of at a mid-major level. Because of that continuity, there is a consistency in the messages in practices and games, which makes it easier for the players to understand.

The Bears try to recruit players who understand the team concept and don’t worry about playing time. Hoffman said he hasn’t had to deal with an off-the-court issue in years.

“We don’t have a lot of players who average 20-30 points in high school,” guard Langston Hall said. “But we don’t need to have one person to have a good team. Everybody is good with the team. Everybody knows on some nights somebody is going to heat up. We’ve had a lot of people step up and have big games.”

Lallathin said the discipline of the players throughout the program, from seniors such as Daniel Coursey, Bud Thomas, Jakob Gollon and Hall to sophomores Ike Nwamu and Jibri Bryan shows the structure that Hoffman has created.

“He knows who he is as a coach,” Lallathin said.

Hoffman drives the team, Hall said, and he takes advantage of every teaching opportunity.

Though the Bears led Stetson by 20 in a game last week, Hall said Hoffman was out of his chair because someone didn’t defend a pick-and-roll correctly. Hoffman wants “echo communication” in practice, meaning when he calls out something he wants the players to say it back. He likes to focus on fundamentals, defense and free throws.

The Bears are the highest scoring team in the conference (81.4 points per game), have the second-best defense (66.2), are the best at making free throws (73 percent) and have the highest rebounding margin (7.1). As this week began, they ranked seventh in Division I in assists per game (17.5) and had the highest total (385) of any Division I team.

“That stat (assists) sums up how we play and how our guys root for each other,” Hoffman said. “That’s what sometimes separates us.”

The goal is the NCAA tournament. Mercer hasn’t made it since losing to Tech in the first round in 1985.

The Bears were upset by Florida Gulf Coast in the A-Sun championship game last year in Macon and were beaten by East Tennessee State in the finals of the 2009-10 event.

“It has given us a sense of urgency,” Hall said. “We thought last year we were good enough, but had a bad second half. We’re not taking any games lightly. This could be the chance to get to the NCAA tournament. This is our last go-round.”