'We're going to win a national championship'

Reisman looks back at successful campaign


By BRAD KEITH
Stephenville Empire-Tribune

    In his 24 seasons leading the Tarleton State men's basketball program, Lonn Reisman has experienced this before. He knows all too well how a heartbreaking finish to a single-elimination NCAA Division II Tournament game feels.

    Reisman has also learned the disappointing endings - such as last Sunday's 64-63 second-round overtime loss to Arkansas Tech - can never take away the accomplishments earned over the course of an entire season.

    “We accomplished a great deal with this group, especially these seniors,” said Reisman in retrospect this week. “It always hurts when the moment comes that you exit the NCAA Tournament. There's only one way to walk away from it smiling and that's if you win the national championship.

    “We're going to do that someday,” he added. “It's the only round of the tournament we haven't played in, and we truly believe we will get there and we will win a national championship.”

    The 2011-12 Texans may not have won 'THE' championship, but they were champions, splitting the Lone Star Conference regular season title with Midwestern State.

    “I've said this before back when we won the North Division or the South Division depending on where we were at the time,” Reisman said. “The regular season is a long grind. It's a marathon that requires contributions from everyone in your program.

    It's a great accomplishment to survive a conference schedule like ours - there are some very good teams in our league - and come out on top.”

    Tarleton was 27-6 on the season including 15-3 in the LSC regular season race. The Texans reached the final of the Lone Star Conference tournament for the third straight year, falling again to eventual regional champ Midwestern.

    Midwestern and Tarleton faced off in three thrillers - the Texans won 79-75 after 17 lead changes and 12 ties in Stephenville and the Mustangs won 80-75 in three overtimes in Wichita Falls and 57-51 in a game determined in the final minute in the LSC Tournament in Allen.

    Tarleton gave Lonn Reisman his 500th victory at the school in a 78-53 drubbing of Texas A&M-Commerce on Jan. 21, and finished the year 510-216 in his long career.

    Fabian Wilson went out with a bang, earning Dakronics first-team all-region honors in a vote of South Central Region sports information directors. He had consecutive double doubles in Tarleton's two playoff games, finishing the season averaging 13.1 points and 7.5 rebounds.

    Chris Harrell also got to go out a star. Once known as an offensive specialist and defensive liability, the three-year Texan improved enough to earn an LSC Defensive Player of the Week award. He averaged 12.5 points and was considered a strong rebounding guard at 4.2 boards per game.

    Wes Dipprey came to Tarleton as a junior from Division I Cal Poly. He had a double double at Midwestern, just missed one against the Mustangs in the LSC Tournament final and scored 11 points while collecting seven boards in the regional quarterfinals.

    Shedrick Haynes scored 15 and 22 in the NCAA Tournament games and finished at 10.9 per contest. The senior point guard transferred into Tarleton from Big East member South Florida for his final year.

    Then there's the two longest-tenured Texan players - Warren Webb and Larry Petite.

    Webb made a name for himself as a true freshman in the 2008 regional tournament, but suffered a serious knee injury early in the 2008-09 season. He would never be the same, redshirting a year then playing predominantly off the bench for the Texans.

    “Warren is a program player through and through. He loves Tarleton and I'm pretty sure Tarleton loves him,” said Reisman. “An injury kept him from having all the statistics and things you normally associate with a great career, but he found a way to have a great career any way.”

    Webb has long said it is his goal to someday return home and be mayor of Houston.

    “He shows that kind of leadership for sure,” Reisman said. “He's as good a leader on and off the court as we could ever ask for.”

    Petite never got to be a big factor because of a serious knee injury his first year on campus after being the MVP of Fort Worth's 4A basketball district.

    All the aforementioned players are seniors. But while they will never again hit the hardwood wearing Tarleton purple and white, Reisman says they are forever Texans.

    “Whether it's a high school senior or a Division I transfer or they're anywhere in between when we recruit them, we don't just recruit them for the rest of their college basketball careers,” Reisman said. “We recruit them for life. The young men who go through our program here will always be part of our family.”

    There are two critical pieces to the puzzle of success returning. Junior Brian Word improved as the year progressed, averaging 15.3 points in the LSC Tournament.

    “Brian is such an unselfish player. He could score more than he does, and we want that out of him,” said Reisman. “Sometimes he's too unselfish. A player as talented as Brian needs to look to score when he has the ball, and he'll do that. I felt like he got more and more comfortable as the year went on, and I'm looking forward to what he can do for us next year after a productive off-season.”

    Then there's Coleman Furst, a sophomore on track to be a four year letterman who has shown the potential to become one of the LSC's top guards.

    “Coleman may not have been a regular in our starting lineup, but anyone could see he is starter quality,” Reisman said. “A lot of times he was in our finishing lineup, and that means a lot more than the starting lineup. He truly is developing into one of the top guards in the league, and I think that will become very clear over the next two years.”

    Furst played 30 minutes off the bench and scored nine points while dishing out four assists to help Tarleton run over Missouri Southern State in the second half of its NCAA Tournament opener.

    Reisman is also looking forward to witnessing the development of the program's young players.

    “We have some freshman who we are very excited about,” he said. “You don't usually get to see that right away because there is a big learning curve going straight out of high school and into a competitive league like ours, but we are confident we have some very good talent in that class.”

    Leading the freshmen is Damion Clemons, a power forward Reisman said nobody recruited.

    “What a sleeper,” he said. “I think we all saw in the LSC Tournament how Damion's athleticism will help our team in the future.”

    Clemons had a pair of acrobatic tip-ins during Tarleton's 59-37 rout of West Texas A&M in the semifinals in Allen.

    “Plays like that show up in the stat sheet and on the highlight reel, but what doesn't show up is how he's always playing so hard,” Reisman said. “He puts the maximum effort into everything he does, and if he continues to do that he will develop into a great player and an even better young man during his time with us.”

    Big freshman center Davene Carter out of Duncanville is an explosive athlete Reisman said he is looking forward to watching mature. Same goes for smaller guard Cameron Lenzy. Carter and Lenzy saw limited action this year, though Lenzy did get in during both the LSC and regional tournaments and played in the overtimes of the regular season battle at Midwestern.

    “A lot of people have been asking me if next year will be a rebuilding year with only two starter types coming back,” said Reisman. “My answer to that is simple - look at our history. We haven't rebuilt, we've reloaded, and that's what we're planning to do again.

    “Our coaching staff led by Coach Chris (Reisman) worked extremely hard all year, and I know they are already working hard on the recruiting process,” he continued. “I can't say enough about how hard those men - Jabarr Adams, Nick Cantrell, all of them - work every day to keep this program at the level it's reached.”

    Reisman rests assured there will be more post season runs - more opportunities to win that coveted national championship ring.

    “We have proven to be contenders almost every year,” he said. “We are always tweaking little things here and there, but our philosophy has proven sound and will not change. Eventually we're going to go al the way.”