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This is a production of WKNO Memphis.
Production funding for "Sports Files"
is made possible in part by...
Today on "Sports Files" I talk to members
of the nationally ranked White Station High School
boys basketball team.
♪♪♪
♪ Rockin' guitar theme ♪
♪♪♪
Last Saturday the White Station hoop team dropped their only
game of the season to date, falling to the number one team
in the nation, Montverde Academy,
in the finals of the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions event.
Now despite the loss the Spartans are still the number
six ranked team in the nation in the USA Today Super 25 rankings.
At 17-1, the Spartans are one of the favorites
to win the Tennessee State Class 3A title
and, barring a late season collapse,
look to be a shoe-in
to finish in the Top 25 National League.
This Saturday they'll play fellow Memphis power
Hamilton on ESPNU.
Today I go one on three with Spartan's head coach
Jesus Patino and senior standouts
Chris Chiozza and Leron Black.
That's next on "Sports Files."
Well guys thanks so much for joining me today.
I appreciate it.
Jesus, let me start with you.
What makes this Spartans team so special?
I think it's team chemistry.
You know, I think they like each other on and off the court
and I think they decided to take that pressure
of winning and decided that we're gonna have fun
and we're gonna play it hard and we gonna
do the things that coach ask us to do,
we're gonna be coachable.
And we're just gonna support each other for what,
you know, whatever happens and I think it's translated into wins.
I know last year left a little of a sour taste in your mouth
the way it ended.
Certainly, everybody was determined to come back
and make it a special year.
It was a decision that I was told that,
you know, in basketball coaches only have so much control
what's going on.
I said, players have to make a decision,
a choice.
You know, do we want to do it the way coach is saying
or are we going to continue to do, you know,
the way it's been being inconsistent about how we play?
And I think because that had that little bad taste last year
and I think they couldn't wait till the season started.
You can tell, you know, they went to the AAU Summer but they
couldn't wait to go back as this was all business this year and
that's the mode we're in right now.
All business.
Leron, seven seniors on this team,
you're one of them.
Chris is another.
You guys are leaders out there.
Why does it work so well?
Why is there great chemistry between all these players?
Because, we're just such good friends.
Like, if you see any of us around you gonna see
a group of us together, three or four of us together.
We're such good friends that we just take that
and use it on the court.
And we've been playing together for multiple years now.
Me, Chris and Nick Lavelle, we used to play together in AAU
with the Memphis Warriors then.
We've just grown closer as a team and we just feel like,
you know, if we continue to stay close as friends
then on the court we'll be unstoppable.
You see Chris, you see selfishness all over the place
in sports, not just basketball.
And especially at the prep level,
young guys trying to get theirs, trying to make a name for
themselves as they want to play at the next level.
Of course, you're heading to Florida,
Leron to Illinois.
Why do we not see that selfishness with this squad?
We found out last year that if you're selfish it's not going to
work out good in the end.
It's, uhh, we have to play as a team and we failed to do that
last year and that's why we didn't make it far.
But this year we're having fun playing it together,
playing it like a family.
We're just making sure everybody's happy and we're just
playing, playing real well together,
bonding with the new pieces we have and it's really working
well for us this year.
There's no doubt you guys have a bull's-eye on your back.
What's it like, Leron, going out there every single game knowing
you have to bring your A-game or somebody might knock you off
because they want to beat the Spartans so bad?
I mean, it's a good feeling, you know,
that, you know, everybody want to get you.
And then, you know, we don't take it as pressure,
you know, cause we been here before.
We've always had a bull's-eye on our backs,
you know, being ranked.
We've been ranked before so we know the feeling
and we know that regardless of who we playing
we gotta bring our A-game cause
anybody can have a great game the game they play us.
Chris, do you agree with Leron that there's really no pressure
although, again, you're the hunteds
as opposed to the hunter?
Yeah, I don't think there's much pressure on us.
It's just a good feeling to have to know that we're the target
and everybody's coming for us.
It lets us know that we're doing we're supposed to do and we're
just a great team and people want to beat us to prove that
they're trying to be like us and it's just hard to do.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
Jesus, obviously you're one of the top ranked teams
in the nation this season.
Can White Station be a perennial top 25 team nationally
as good and as strong as this area is, Memphis
producing basketball players and teams?
I think we can.
You know, I think the talent's here.
I think it's just a matter of somehow on the line we gonna
have to get kids and not so much kids but everybody associated
with the kids that play basketball that,
you know, change their mentality about understanding the team is
more important than the individual.
You have to be, you know, because at the end,
you know, even the way society is going,
you know, you talking about one voice.
Everybody listen to one voice.
Everybody doing the same thing.
Success bring success for everybody.
I know it's hard to believe
especially when you're teenagers.
It's hard to sell parents on that 'cause they want what's
best for their kids.
But, you know, somehow I've been fortunate to have this guys and
another group of guys that they understood that and they believe
that that was the truth about
being together and winning together we created more success
for everybody else and, you know,
you can look at our record.
White Station, we got kids all over the country playing
basketball and doing well academically.
When you play at White Station you expect to play some of the
best teams around the nation and play in some of the tournaments.
You guys were out in Hawaii in 2013 in the end of,
I don't know if it was November or December.
December.
Before Christmas.
In December.
What would, Chris, what was that like going out to Hawaii,
playing in a tournament and winning the tournament?
It was a great experience.
It's something I never thought I'd do,
especially in high school.
Maybe once I got to college.
But it was a great experience going over there with a group of
people that I'm real close with.
We're like a family and it was like,
it's really like a vacation with just a couple basketball games
in it cause we had a lot of free time and went sightseeing
and everything.
You always hear the coach say it's a business trip,
it's a business trip and you say it's a vacation.
You were able to mix pleasure with doing what you were there
for and that was to win the tournament.
Leron, was that tough to go to Hawaii,
that beautiful area, so many things to do
and to be able to concentrate on what you had to do
between the lines on that court?
No, I don't think it was tough.
I see it as a blessing.
You know, we're there playing, doing what we do most
what we love to do most, play basketball.
And just being there, you know, we're family so we just there
with our family, you know.
So, before games, you know, we got a lot of time to relax
and do stuff so I don't think it was tough,
you know, cause we so close that we try to use that spending time
together to take that to the court so that we play together.
Jesus, how big was that tournament as far as the
notoriety nationally for this program?
It's a great tournament because, you know,
it's sponsored by Nike and Nike brings everybody in and all the
top teams from all over the country comes in and then,
you know, and once you win that tournament it goes on
nationally.
So for us it was, we've been there before with Joe Jackson
to that tournament we finish fourth, I think,
the first time so I kinda got lucky and got invited again.
And I told these guys, man, they love it.
Chris was signing autograph on the back of cell phones
for the kids.
[laughing]
It was just fun but also the competition was great.
Great coaching.
And we knew if we can do well there they may put us
as a public school, you know, in a bit of situation where
we get better ranking.
You know, we talking about public school
and where they're ranked.
Well all the private schools around the United States
in the top, you know.
So, that's what that tournament did for us.
Chris, how neat is it to be here in Memphis,
born in Memphis, you know how good these teams are,
these players are and to be at that top of the heap?
Memphis is like the best city, I think,
in America as far as basketball talent.
So being at the top, it's just a great feeling.
It's a blessing to know that e have a talented group like this
and all of us attend the same school and just this close.
And it could have been at any other school
but we all came to White Station and just bonded real well
and it's a great feeling.
Leron you've been in Memphis since you were ten.
You were born in Omaha.
I know you guy are friends with a lot of guys that play
for other schools.
What's it like when you run into them?
Do you talk to these guys a lot or do you try to stay away
during the season or do you, is there a little trash talking
going on with other team members
from other teams around the city?
I mean before, like, before games we may say what's up but
on the court us, White Station, we're a family but nobody else
is part of that family when we're on the court.
So no friends on the court so people we cool with off the
court we're not going to be cool with them on the court cause we
gotta goal and we gotta meet that goal.
Jesus, let's talk about these two guys right here.
Give me a sentence or two on Chris and Leron as a player,
as a player.
As players, relentless.
You know, kids with really a mission.
You know, they play consistently,
aggressively.
They are true to their teammates.
They will have tremendous careers in college because of
their character and the way they approach things.
So, you know, I expect great things out of them.
All right.
Chris, describe your game for everyone.
I'm just a true point guard
and trying to get my teammates involved.
And, time calls for it, I can score.
Are you, do you feel better when you make that dish for a bucket
or when you hit a shot?
Definitely when I make the dish.
It just gets, it gets the crowd just as hyped
and I think more hyped when I make a great pass.
No look alley to Leron, something like that.
What guards in the NBA do you emulate?
Who do you like watching and maybe trying to emulate
their game on the court?
Chris Paul and, now, my favorite point guard Kyrie Irving.
Mhmm, of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Leron, your game for everybody who don't know it already.
I'm just a motor player.
I play off my motor so I play really hard and I get a lot of
rebounds and I can run me a rank shot through the rail.
And I'm a good slasher.
And a finisher.
And a finisher, yes Sir.
What players do you look up to in the NBA?
I watch, I like Thaddeus Young a lot and Karl George.
Ok.
Thaddeus Young, of course, a Memphian.
Jesus, they described their game to everyone.
Now what do you think Chris first,
and then Leron have to work on at the next level
to be more of a complete player.
Obviously they're very, very good at what they do
but everybody can get better.
Right.
Well, the biggest thing, the big adjustment for them is gonna be,
you know, their basketball IQ have to go to a different level.
You know, at that level you gonna play equal talent or,
you know, talent a little better than you.
So you gonna have to make those adjustments.
They also have to make the adjustment on their bodies.
You know, they're gonna have to get a little stronger.
The people they gonna play are older and stronger
than they are.
And I think but, I think being in our place,
being at White Station and being exposed the way we expose them.
I think we proud to say that our staff they will have a
good foundation.
And then, you know, the other stuff will come adjusting to a
new type of game.
A game that have to be played at a higher level because then
there's another level and so I think that that's going to be
the biggest adjustment for both of them.
People that follow the University of Memphis expect
every great player, prep player in the area,
to go to Memphis.
Obviously they only have so many scholarships
and everybody's not going to Memphis.
What was it like with recruitment?
Leron, let me start with you.
I assume Memphis was looking at you.
Did you ever get an offer from Memphis?
And talk about your decision to take your talents to Illinois.
Yeah, I got an offer from Memphis.
Coach Pastner was actually my first offer.
And, I mean, we had fell off at one point
but when he hired Robert Kirby,
me and Coach Kirby had been he had offered me when
he was at Georgetown and then he was at LSU and he had just been
recruiting me so he had been in the process the whole time.
They were in my last three schools when I had cut it down
to Illinois, Indiana and Memphis.
And I just, I just feel like it's in God's will for me to
leave the city to go to Illinois and play there 'cause
I had a close relationship with the head coach
whereas Memphis I had a great relationship
with assistant Robert Kirby
and I feel like if I got a better relationship with
the head coach, you know, I could be a better part
to the program.
It's a tough decision, isn't it?
Mhmm.
Because if you stay at Memphis like Joe Jackson,
one of your former players, you become a hero.
You're also scrutinized every time you make a mistake.
You go away, you don't have to worry about that but then again
you come home, you're the enemy.
So, is it that tough a decision to make?
I mean as far as the people, I mean,
you know, it doesn't affect me cause I'm not playing for fans
or stuff like that I'm playing for God
cause He bless me with the talent
so that's who I go out there
and play for every night.
So, I mean, people regardless of how I'm playing or me leaving
I feel like people still gonna love me cause of my personality.
People gonna be mad, of course, at the beginning but people who
really there for me and really love who I am
they're still gonna love me regardless.
Chris, how about you as far as recruitment?
I got a offer from Memphis over the eleventh grade summer
coming into this year.
But I just felt that Florida was a better choice
because Billy Donovan I think
he's the best coach in college basketball
and he always does well with point guards around my size
and they like to play small guards.
They're a fast paced team and he played,
he was a point guard in the NBA hisself
so he's just got the brain of a point guard
and I just felt like that was the best situation.
He would help me get to the next level
if it's in God's will for me to get there
and I think he's just a great person
so even if I don't make it
I think he'll have opportunities for me.
Maybe coaching or something.
Something like that.
How tough of a decision was it for you?
It was kinda tough.
I always wanted to stay home.
Go to the home school and, uhh, since I was little.
But I just felt it was a better choice for me to go to Florida.
Get away from Memphis.
Coach, what words of advice do you give to your players?
Because we see with Chris and Leron their going elsewhere.
With Joe he stayed in town.
You know the highs and lows that come with both moves.
You know, it's a tough decision because Memphis is such a good,
you know, basketball school.
You know, they got a lot of tradition at Memphis too.
But at the same time, you have to think about,
you know, they have so many choices.
People, you know, from all over the country
come in our school to recruit.
And the biggest choice is, you know,
do I fit in?
What do I want to do with my talent?
Who do I feel more comfortable with?
Who is recruiting me the best?
So, with them always, you know, it's a family decision.
I'm just there to be and advisor.
So, we put everything in perspective.
What the team has.
What talent they got coming back or the possibility of,
you know, if you have a dream to play at the next level
can you develop there?
Can you do the things that would do,
you know, with the same that were under Hollins and Joe.
You know, Joe had over all the way from Kansas to Duke,
and everywhere else.
But Joe, you know... he wanted to stay in Memphis.
Chris loves Memphis.
He always want to go to Memphis.
You know, and it was hard for him to make that decision.
Even to the last minute, you know,
he still call me and said coach I really.
I said, Chris, it's a tough decision.
You're just gonna have to decide though.
You gotta listen.
You know, you gotta decide by really listening where can you
develop and where you get the opportunity.
Cause I feel like Joe being in Memphis
was a lot of pressure for him and Joe was never as good
as I thought he was going to be his freshman year.
And it wasn't because he couldn't play
it was because it was a lot of pressure.
He never understood that.
You know, it was looked as the savior of the program
which he has done that in the last few years but it's tough,
yeah.
You hear about the pressure
but until you actually go through it.
You feel it.
It is tough.
So I told them that, you know, it's a lot of factors
but at the end the decision's made through family and them.
Cause I don't want them to look back and say, Coach,
you know, you gave me bad advice.
So, I don't give advice in regard
this is where you need to go.
What I do is give advice based on...
I sometime make harder for them
when they even decide to go somewhere I say,
do you really want to go there?
And I try to persuade and to said to think about real hard.
And once they say yeah that's where I want to go
I say hey I'm fine with it.
Well you made those decisions early.
You signed.
It didn't linger so you were able to
go into your senior years and concentrate
on the goal at hand.
And I imagine, Leron, that's to win a state championship.
Yes, sir.
I mean, least season I was back and forth
with from meeting to Baylor and then I decommitted in January.
So, I mean, for me last year was tougher to play
with all the recruitment process on my mind.
This year, this year it's all gone.
I feel relaxed, relieved and I feel like that's why
I'm playing so much better basketball.
And the rest of my teammates, you know,
Chris and I, we're playing a lot better 'cause
we aint gotta worry about none of that.
We know that we got scholarships and we signed with colleges.
That's a great point.
Chris, anything less than a state championship
would it be disappointing?
Our goal is a national championship.
GREG: National championship?
Yes, sir.
GREG: Well, talk about that.
You think you can get it accomplished?
I know we can.
The question is are we going to do it?
We gotta keep playing as a team.
We play as a team I don't think anybody in the country can beat
us and I think we have the best shot at doing it just with the
pieces we have and how close we are on the court.
Coach, we'll wrap it up with what we started with.
Seven seniors.
This is a...
Is this your best White Station team?
No, it's hard to say, you know.
Different personalities, you know.
The Joe bunch was seven seniors too.
I'd be interested to see them play against each other.
I think it would be a tremendous game.
But I think they're pretty close.
But overall I think they're better,
deeper.
You know, with all the seven seniors we had Joe,
Andre, Nino and Marvin Williams.
I think those four will hold their own but then after that
the other seniors weren't quite as good as the ones we have.
You know, so deeper, deeper team I think,
you know, over all.
So I say yes, because of their depth.
The depth this year is much deeper than Joe's team.
Our final thirty seconds.
State championship, national championship,
can you get it done?
Well it's just a matter of going there and playing,
you know.
The national championship is so delicate.
You know you lose one game, two games and you're not longer
considered for it.
So that's why it's a delicate thing.
It's good to think about it.
Hey, what is wrong with dreaming,
you know.
It all I told them.
If you think big, you go for something big whatever you fall
down is much better than never think about it.
That's what I told them.
Why not think big?
I mean, what can we do?
We're a public school.
When was the last time a public school has done this?
Exactly.
Yeah.
And it may not only be a dream it may be reality
after it's all said and done.
So guys, you're making the city of Memphis proud.
Leron, thank you so much.
Congratulations on your decision to go to Illinois.
Chris, on your decision to go to Florida.
And Jesus, thank you so much for bringing the guys along.
Continued success with this team and,
of course, with the program for years to come.
Thank you so much gentlemen.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
We'll take a short break.
When we come back Overtime is coming your way.
♪♪♪
Major League Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett
was recently in the Bluff City as the guest speaker
for a University of Memphis baseball fundraiser.
Brett, who played his entire career with the Kansas City
Royals ranks 15th on the All Time Hit List with 3,154
and has a career average of .305 and before he spoke
at the event, Brett spoke to us.
And here's a little taste of what he had to say.
one of the things I like to talk about,
umm, the importance of an education.
Of all these guys going to University of Memphis maybe
three or four might sign to go play professionally.
Maybe out of those three or four maybe one might make it
to the big leagues.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a college education
to fall back on?
I was very fortunate.
I never went to college and got a chance to play
basically with an expansion club.
In 1971 I signed out of high school.
Well the Royals didn't become a team until 1969.
So their farm system wasn't that strong,
it wasn't that deep.
It was pretty easy to go from rookie league
to the big leagues.
I never hit .300 in the minor leagues.
I hit .200 my first year in the big leagues at the All Star
break with 200 at bats.
I listened to my coach.
I had faith in my coach.
I did what my coach told me.
I gave him my soul and 3,000 hits later I made it in the Hall
of Fame So, umm, there's adjustments to be made
at every level, I guess.
But, and I guess one of the things is just enjoy baseball as
long as you can cause some day it's gonna be a very sad day
when you take that uniform off for the last time.
It happened to me in 1993.
It happened to a son of mine in college last year at St. Thomas
University and it just happened to my son who's a sophomore
Kansas University.
He was told he was no longer on the team.
They were, they were devastated.
Some due to injury, some due to not performing well.
My middle son that was KU had major shoulder surgery,
never gained his velocity as a pitcher and the coach said you
don't throw hard enough you're not on the team anymore.
Well he was devastated.
And, uhh, and so just enjoy it as much as you can.
Be a good teammate.
Be a good team player.
Winning is important.
And just be a good individual.
That's it.
He talked a lot about respecting the game
and playing the game the right way.
And the big thing that we're stressing with this year's team
is trust and he talked a lot about trust.
So that was just phenomenal and, you know,
I'm obviously, he would not be here tonight if it wasn't for
his friendship with Brad Martin.
And what Brad has done for our entire University and especially
our athletic department in his short term here is remarkable.
And this is just a small, small part of what Brad's doing but he
has found a way to reach out and help every program and this is a
way he's helping ours.
My brother Ken was, uhh, he was six years older than I was.
He was drafted out of high school in 1966
by the Boston Red Sox.
The fourth player taken in the draft.
In 1967 at age 19 he was pitching in the World Series
for the Boston Red Sox.
So I looked at him and I said well if he can do it
I can do it.
Cause he was my brother, you know?
It's not like I didn't know this guy,
you know?
I was the youngest of four boys growing up
and my brothers were all better than me at everything.
Basketball, I had two brothers better than me.
Football, two brothers were better than me.
Baseball, they were all three better than I was.
But for some reason some scout saw something in me
and drafted me in the second round in 1971
and, to be honest with you, when I got drafted and I signed
I didn't think I was gonna make it to the major leagues.
And three years later, two and a half years later,
I was in the big leagues.
But he say something.
It wasn't the ability.
It wasn't raw ability but it was the desire to get better.
And the desire and the love and the respect that I had for the
game of baseball and I think that's why they drafted me high.
Before we say good night, two quick updated on a pair of
guests we've previously had on the show.
Lausanne Collegiate School Head Football Coach Ken Netherland,
the State of Tennessee's all-time leader in prep football
wins with 368 announced his retirement from the game and
will be replaced by assistant Kevin Locastro.
Netherland started the Lynx football program from
scratch in 2011.
In 2013, their first year as a varsity program,
they went 6-3.
And congrats to former University of Memphis soccer
star Mark Sherrod, who was taken in the second round of the
recent MLS Superdraft by the Houston Dynamo.
Sherrod was the 32nd overall pick.
The Knoxville native ranks 3rd
on the Tigers all time goals and points list.
And that will do it for the show.
Remember you can see any of your previous programs by going to
WKNO.org and clicking on KNO Tonight.
Have a great week and we'll see you next time.
♪♪♪