By Jeremy Orr | LowcoSports.com
The situation has changed, but it doesn’t feel quite right to say the USCB men’s basketball has gone from the hunters to the hunted.
Because these cats can hunt.
Coach Ron Fudala’s Sand Sharks are gearing up for what could be their best season yet as they embark on the program’s third season — and its first with postseason eligibility as a full NCAA Division II member — and after last year’s run to the Peach Belt Conference Tournament final, any kind of continued positive progress would mean the Sand Sharks are NCAA Tournament-bound.
And make no mistake, that’s the goal.
It has been evident since the players stepped foot on campus this summer that they are carrying the burden of not finishing the job last year, as they took a tough 92-76 loss at the hands of rival USC Aiken in the title game.
The Sand Sharks have a roster centered around nine returners and seven newcomers with a wide array of experience ranging from true freshmen to Division I transfers. At the forefront of it all are the stellar tandem of senior Ke’Vaughn Price and sophomore Dominic Eason, who were both selected to the Peach Belt Conference Preseason All-Conference Team. Eason averaged 11.5 points and 3.8 rebounds during a sensational freshman season that earned him second-team All-PBC honors, while Price, the program’s leading scorer through two seasons, also put up 10.5 points per game in an offense that likes to share the wealth.
Junior guards Nolan Paladugu and Dylan Lewis also return to provide streaky scoring and stiff defense, along with the occasionally-unstoppable Hudson Norton, and Qurahn Anderson returns to the fold after sitting out last season.
The Sand Sharks lost leading scorer Kenney Gaines to graduation, but Fudala hopes the influx of talent coming from all levels will more than make up the void.
USCB was able to bring in a star-studded transferring class via the transfer portal, including 6-3 point guard Evan Kilminster, an Australian who transferred from College of Charleston. The newcomers also include 6-5 forward Ish Rashid (Northeast Mississippi Community College), 6-9 stretch forward Aidan Fitzgerald from Australia via South Georgia Tech, and 6-6 forward Seth Cullen (King University), an all-around athlete who can score at all three levels of the floor and brings the mentality of a veteran leader who backs it up with his vocal presence on the court.
Fudala and the rest of the program believe they have a roster from top to bottom that, health-permitting, can compete with not just the other 11 teams in the Peach Belt, but the other 305 collegiate men’s basketball programs across the country. The Sand Sharks have a roster that has all the bells and whistles needed to compete for a national championship: high caliber perimeter shooting, a supreme level paint presence, size, physicality, heart, toughness, character, and one the most charismatic defensive schemes in the country.
USCB opened the preseason with a team trip to Puerto Rico for team bonding and scrimmages against IUP — Fudala’s former school — and two other colleges, winning all three exhibitions. Then Sand Sharks opened the regular season with a battle-testing weekend at the Smith University Center in Florence, taking on Emory & Henry on Friday followed by a Saturday afternoon matchup with host Francis Marion.
The early returns look good.
USCB swarmed the Wasps for 59 second-half points in a 100-80 win in the opener and pulled away for a 103-91 triumph over the Patriots with a different cast of stars leading the offensive explosion each afternoon.
The Sand Sharks have a schedule that features 12 games in The Cove and 18 games on the road, indicating Fudala understands the importance of winning away from home if they’re going to compete for a national title.
The Sand Sharks hope to reinforce a road warrior mentality, but they know they have one of the best home crowds and fan bases in the Peach Belt.
Things are shaping up to be pretty remarkable for USCB in Fudala’s third year, and with an all-star squad that is ready to eat, it no longer seems impossible to imagine the Sand Sharks bringing a natty back to Bluffton.
Jeremy Orr is a graduate of Estill High School and USC Salkehatchie and a student assistant for USCB Athletics. He contributes to LowcoSports and has his own sports podcast “The Underestimated,” available on your favorite podcast platform.