CCU men’s basketball team opens practice shorthanded

For the Coastal Carolina men’s basketball program, the quest for a third straight NCAA tournament appearance formally commenced Friday as the Chanticleers held their first preseason practice.

But the preseason has started rather inauspiciously for the Chants as coach Cliff Ellis revealed prior to the practice that four of his players were injured in a car accident Thursday night and would be out for at least a few days.

Junior point guard Shivaughn Wiggins, sophomore guard Jaylen Shaw, senior forward Marcus Freeman and junior guard Ron Trapps were involved in the car accident near campus, and Ellis said three of the players sustained concussions and one a leg contusion.

“The good thing is there’s no life-threatening situations there, but ... four of our guys will not practice,” Ellis said. “So we’re only with nine guys to open up practice. The good thing is they’re going to be OK, but for a few days we’re going to be without the whole band of armor, so to speak. That’s unfortunate but something that we are having to deal with.”

That said, Ellis expects to have all of his pieces back soon enough and likes the potential of a team that returns four starters.

Veteran leader Warren Gillis and fellow backcourt mate Josh Cameron – the Chants’ two leading scorers last season – are gone, but Wiggins, junior guard Elijah Wilson, senior forward Badou Diagne and senior center Tristian Curtis among others all return.

And Shaw, a former star at Hartsville High School who sat out last season after transferring from South Carolina, is expected to plug right into the starting lineup in his Coastal Carolina debut.

“He has the ability to score. I think that he will take up the slack [in replacing] Josh Cameron because it’s going to be that kind of position,” Ellis said of Shaw. “I think he will definitely take up the slack.”

Ellis does have one unanswered question about his team, though.

“I think that Warren Gillis was such a chemistry piece,” he said. “He did a lot of little things – out of bounds passing, he made plays, when it really got down to it he was our go-to guy. How many times did we put the ball in his hands [at the end of games] the last two years? ...

“We’ll have to see who that’s going to be. You really don’t know that until you get into games. It will have to be Shivaughn, Elijah or Jaylen.”

Like Ellis said, that will likely take some time to figure out, but the potential of this team to make a third straight NCAA tournament appearance is clear.

Wilson closed last season on a tear while averaging 20.3 points over the final four games and has the skill set to be one of the top offensive players in the Big South Conference after averaging 13.6 points per game through his first two seasons.

“I’ve always been a player [that] works on every possible aspect of my game,” Wilson said. “I don’t really like to have too many weaknesses in my game, so just about anything I can think of I probably worked on it.”

Wiggins, who averaged 10.0 points per game last season, has Ellis’ trust at the point guard position and showed increased scoring potential in the Chants’ three-game exhibition series against the Cuban national team in August.

And Shaw could be the x-factor in what looks to be another very strong backcourt for the Chants.

“He’s good. He’s real good,” Wilson said. “Warren was a big loss for us, but I think Jaylen can come in and do a lot of things that he’s done for us. I think he’ll fit right in.”

In the front court, Diagne has always possessed boundless potential with his athleticism and two-way game and will look to build on a junior season in which he averaged 9.5 points and 7.3 rebounds per game.

Senior Tristian Curtis (4.5 points, 6.2 rebounds per game) will again start at the five spot while rotating with senior Marcus Freeman (5.4 points, 5.7 rebounds per game) and a couple promising newcomers in 6-foot-9 freshmen Kevin Holmes Jr. and Josh Coleman.

And senior forward Michel Enanga and junior guard Colton Ray-St Cyr will again work in as key reserves.

Overall, the roster has the look of a team that can match or potentially exceed the Chants’ 24-10 record from last season.

“We have a pretty good roster,” Diagne said. “We’ve got three freshmen with really, really high potential, and Jaylen is probably going to be able to come right in and help us cover for the big losses we had [from] last year.”

The Chants got a glimpse of how all those pieces fit together during their exhibition trip to Cuba in August, and now they have about five weeks to smooth out the rough edges before opening the season Nov. 13 in the Outrigger Resorts Rainbow Classic in Hawaii.

And Ellis was eager for his team to get back to work Friday afternoon.

“Anytime you get to this time of year you’re excited about getting started,” he said. “But we also know we were together this summer, which was a good thing because we all got to come together and we got to spend 10 practices and play three games so we got basically two weeks of good work in the summertime. So we understand our team.”

This story was originally published October 2, 2015 at 8:06 PM with the headline "CCU men’s basketball team opens practice shorthanded."