Centre College Athletics Photo
Greg Mason knew he was close to a historic 450th win at Centre College but not aware enough to be counting down to the big win. However, there was no way he could have imagined his 450th win with the Colonels would be quite as memorable as it was.
The win came Dec. 30 when Jaxson Banks hit a buzzer-beating shot to beat Methodist 68-65 in Lexington, Va. It was a trip Mason almost didn’t make with his team because of knee/leg issues he’s been having. He did go but when the team arrived for the two-day tourney, assistant coach Gavin Root became ill.
“I was going to let Gavin do the work and then he got sick,” Mason said.
Root was not able to be on the bench with Mason for the Dec. 30th game so Mason recruited bus driver Robert Couch to help him. The Colonels fell behind by 17 points before rallying to win.
Couch is the offensive line coach for the Centre football team but has an impressive Division III resume. He started 41 games on the offensive line at Vanderbilt from 1992-95 and played in the NFL for Atlanta and St. Louis and also played in NFL Europe. He was the Cincinnati Bengals offensive line coach from 2016-19.
“Robert actually drives the bus a lot when it is not football season,” Mason said. “Robert was a God-send that weekend and I don’t know how we would have pulled it off without him. We were amazingly luck he was there with us.”
Mason was an all-conference guard at Centre College under coach Tom Bryant who finished his career with 1,082 points and 374 assists. He held seven school records when he graduated in 1994 including most 3-pointers (244) and 3-point percentage (51.6). Centre went 64-37 in his four years and won three conference titles.
Mason became Centre’s head coach in 1999 and from 2002-16 the Colonels along with Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas and Wooster were the only programs across all divisions that won at least 67 percent of their games. He broke Bryant’s record of 383 wins for most wins in program history in 2019.
“I was very lucky as a young coach to have such great guys to coach. The guys I had the first five or six years were amazing. They let me coach and make mistakes and some of them are my best friends today,” Mason, who has taken Centre to eight NCAA Tournaments, said.
“Our program was so success for such a long time under coach Bryant. But I didn’t feel any pressure when I took over. Actually, I felt kind of relieved because I could start paying bills with my coaching salary compared to what I had been making as an assistant coach.”
The Colonels are 8-4 and start Southern Athletic Association play Saturday in Atlanta against Oglethorpe.
“Seven of the top 11 players in our rotation were newcomers at one point this season,” Mason said. “We are actually further along record-wise than I thought. I never expected to be 8-4 with such a young team. It’s been quite a blessing to coach these guys.”
Banks, a senior guard, has hit two-game winning shots and averages 14.6 points per game. Kalib Thomas, a sophomore guard, leads the team with 14.8 points per game. Landen Hamilton, another sophomore, adds 13 points per game but has missed three games due to an injury. Sophomore Riley Mastin averaged 13.9 points and 9.2 rebounds per game last year but has not played this season because of an injury.
“We have a very resilient group. We are getting better,” Mason said. “We have always been an old team and knew what we are supposed to do. We don’t have that knowledge right now. When you play a lot of freshmen, they don’t know how to guard at the college level but they are all working on their defense to get better.”
Johnny Djema, a 6-8 freshman, is adapting to college basketball but also is looking for other ways to help his coach.
“With my leg injury, Johnny prayed over me the other day. He’s an ordained minister at age 19 and he prayed for the sickness to leave my body,” Mason said. “That’s just the type of person he is.”
