Good continuing basketball career as LMU assistant

Patrick Good has started the next phase of his basketball career.A few seasons removed from a record-setting career at David Crockett High School and a championship run at East Tennessee State, Good is an assistant at Lincoln Memorial, currently the No. 8 team in NCAA Division II rankings.The Railsplitters are 12-1 with their only loss 83-81 to Alabama-Huntsville, which is coached by former University High coach John Shulman. Good credits the success of the players to their work and commitment.Good, who finished his college playing career at Winthrop, caught the coaching bug when he teamed up with a group of ETSU alumni to compete in the TBT tournament. Plus there was a matter of family when it came to continue playing or start coaching."Finishing up at Winthrop last year I thought about continuing to play, whether it was Europe or somewhere else overseas. But the risk-reward of leaving my daughter wasn't worth it," he said. "I knew I needed to pursue something else. If I'm playing professional basketball, I knew I would be gone eight months out of the year."Instead he's just two hours away from home in Harrogate. Good also had the influence of playing high school ball for his father, John, at Crockett. There have been times Patrick has corrected his players for referring to him by his last name."Originally the guys would say to me, 'Coach Good.' I had to tell them 'Coach Pat' because I hear 'Coach Good,' and I think of my dad," he said. "Without my dad I wouldn't be in the situation I'm in now."He held me to the standard I wanted to be held at. It's hard to say all he's done for me on the coaching side of things and being a great father as well. He was the ideal person and coach I would want to surround myself with."He was also fortunate to be surrounded with older successful siblings. Sister Johneshia, now working in the medical field, was the first of the family to earn the Johnson City Press/Kingsport Times News Northeast Tennessee Player of the Year award. Older brother C.J., now teaching at the Rafael Nadal Academy in Spain, also was honored with the award.Patrick is one of a select group to win the award twice. Another former Northeast Tennessee player of the year, Omar Wattad, was influential in Patrick getting the opportunity at LMU. Wattad, a former LMU assistant and now head coach at Lander University, passed on the reference to LMU coach Jeremiah Samarripas, who is in his second year after taking over for the highly successful Josh Schertz, now at Indiana State.Good draws from his own playing experiences to relate to the players. With the Arby's Classic going on, Good reflected back to the 2015 tournament when Crockett finished fourth against a talented field of teams."Being able to experience a sold-out Viking Hall, we knew we were prepared to play any team we were matched up against," Good said. "Peyton Ford hit like eight threes when we beat Oak Ridge. You have to enjoy and embrace it because even at the college level, it's rare to get fans with 5,000 or 6,000 people in the stands."To being able to produce with the hype the Arby's brings, it's one of the best tournaments in the country, we felt we set a standard with our fourth-place finish. The Arby's Classic holds a special place in my heart."Later in the season, the Pioneers beat Oak Ridge to advance to the school's first-ever state tournament. Although they had the double-overtime win over the Wildcats at the Arby's, the Pioneers entered the game as underdogs."When we lost to Science Hill in the regional championship, most people were writing us off," he said. "The people in the locker room, we knew we could go out there and compete. To win on the road in a sold-out arena, we had guys like Dustin Day and Brendan Coleman step up."Dustin hit the three straight threes and then we had a recipe for success. Josh Releford was huge for me personally because he was my matchup every day in practice. He made me better, made me sharpen my game and work on my craft."Tee Higgins, the star player for Oak Ridge, went on to win a national championship in football at Clemson and scored a touchdown for the Cincinnati Bengals at last year's Super Bowl. His success doesn't surprise Good, who said Higgins has that look of a competitor in his eyes.Good was quite a competitor on the court as well. He started his college career at App State, played at ETSU and Winthrop. Good had a great individual performance, scoring 26 points including a game-winning, 3-pointer in ETSU's 68-67 win over Western Carolina which clinched the Southern Conference regular-season title. However, it was the Bucs winning the Southern Conference tournament of which he is most proud."Winning the regular-season title at Freedom Hall ranks among my top three basketball moments," Good said. "The No. 1 moment for college was winning the SoCon championship in Asheville. Winning the regular-season championship was part of the journey, but to win three games in three days in Asheville, it showed the maturity we had."Coach Forbes would always say, 'Gritty, grimy, tough and together.' We lived by that and wanted to be able to compete no matter who we were matched up against."Now that he's on the sidelines, Good wants to pass on the positive experiences to others. He said he feels fortunate to be at LMU and sees it as a great first step on his way to achieving personal goals."I want to impact each and every person from a player to an administrator at LMU," he said. "It's an opportunity most people don't get their first year to step on that stage. It would be great to be a head coach one day or a player development coach in the league, but I have to take it one day at a time and learn. I still have a lot of growing to do to become the coach I want to be."