Liggett Varsity Looks to Improve with the Addition of a New Head Coach.

After showing just a 9-11 record last year, the University Liggett School men’s varsity basketball team is looking to improve this year with the addition of a new head coach. 

Men's basketball has had a losing record the last two years, and that has caused the athletic department to hire a new coach in hopes to improve the record with his new style of coaching.

New coach Jaylen Rutherford has always had a passion for basketball, being a standout in high school, and continuing his career at Mid Michigan College. He became the all-time leading scorer there, then finished his career at St. Thomas Aquinas College. 

He has been coaching since, sometimes with his good friend Miles Bridges, who plays for the Charlotte Hornets in the NBA. The duo has even founded their own team, called Miles Bridges Elite. 

He said his experiences as a player influenced his coaching, “I know what it looks like,” and that’s why “I'm able to coach and get to the kids, you know, and be like, this is where we’re gonna grow at.”

When asked why he chose to coach at Liggett, Rutherford said, “it’s an amazing school” and that the “community and the great culture” make him love coaching here.

After staying below .500 last year, Rutherford is looking to work on specific points of their game, mainly the communication on and off the court. 

He said, “The communication part is just so big because kids don’t know how to communicate. So they’re finding ways that are effective, you know, to get their message across, and try to get them to work together.” 

Tise Courtright also expressed how important communication was and the improvements from last year, saying “the communication is a lot different from last year,” and “off the court, he’s trying to create a culture where, you know, all the players are, you know, united as one. And last year that was just not the case.”

The first game was on Dec. 5, and it ended in a 35-60 loss. Rutherford said that, going forward, the most important thing is keeping the mindset that “we didn't have a bad day; we had bad moments because we can fix things, and, you know, we can’t control the past, but we can control the future.” 

Athletic Director Brian Anderson said, “Most of the games we're playing in are the same league ones we played last year, so, you know, there might be a couple tweaks here and there, but it'll be pretty similar.” 

This will be a measure of Rutherford’s new team, as they will play the same teams as last year, putting his coaching style and players to the test.  

Anderson said, “Coach Rutherford is a great fit for Liggett. The kids seem to really have taken to him, and you can’t deny what his energy is and just the amount of enthusiasm he’s brought to the school and the program.”

The basketball team is on the older side, with a lot more juniors and seniors than sophomores and freshmen. Courtright said, “There aren't many young players,” pointing out that there is only one freshman and two sophomores.

 The team is definitely on the older side, but fan Charlie Laethem said, “I feel like that leadership aspect could take us pretty far.”