Following a basketball career that took him to Navarro College in Texas, Rock Valley College in Illinois, University of Pikeville in Kentucky and Fisher College in Massachusetts, former Hopkinsville star Josiah Patton is getting into coaching.
Last weekend, Mayfield Cardinals boys basketball coach Payton Croft announced that Patton was among a trio of new faces on his staff, and that Patton comes on as an assistant coach — one who Croft said would focus on skill development and scouting.
In his final season of college hoops, Patton started 20 of 23 games for Fisher, averaging 10.3 points on 35.6% shooting from the floor, 22.6% shooting from the arc and 73.6% shooting from the stripe in nearly 27 minutes per game.
Patton never suited up for UPIKE while there for the 2020-21 season, but arrived there from Rock Valley College as a 5-10 point guard who had just come off of a 10.2 points/3.8 rebounds/3.4 assists sophomore season. RVC would finish as national runners-up in the 2019 NJCAA Division III National Tournament.
During Patton’s freshman season at Navarro, he averaged 2.4 point and 2.4 assists per game.
During Patton’s 2016-17 senior year at Hopkinsville, he finished with 30 tackles on defense, 25 catches, 304 receiving yards and three touchdowns in football, as well as 6.2 ppg on 45.6% for those 28-7 Second Region champion Tigers under Tim Haworth. And during his high school hoops career, he was a three-time Second Region titlist.
The Mayfield Cardinals went 17-8 last season and finished as Third District runner up behind Graves County. They opened the 2022 First Region Tournament with a strong 64-54 win against Fourth District Calloway County before falling to eventual region runner up McCracken County, 58-32.
Patton joins a Cardinal squad with high expectations — wrapped around senior star forward Sam Stone, twitchy junior guard Brajone Dabney and senior small forward Nolan Fulton. The trio could combine to average more than 40 ppg this year.
