A recap of the 2023-2024 HPU men's basketball season

With March Madness in play, the High Point men’s basketball team will be on the outside looking in watching the NCAA March Madness tournament as the Panthers’ name was not called on Selection Sunday. Despite a disappointing finish in the semifinals of the 2024 Hercules Tires Big South conference tournament and not getting selected to play in the NCAA tournament, the Panthers had an extraordinary season, one of the best in High Point program history. 

 

Up by two points, 77-75, in the semifinals of the Big South conference tournament, High Point was 50 seconds away from advancing to the championship game against the winner of the No. 2 seeded UNC Asheville versus No. 3 seeded Gardner-Webb game. However, the Panthers were outscored by Longwood 5-2 in the final 49 seconds to win and advance to the Big South championship. A fantastic regular season for High Point had Panther fans ecstatic for the possibility of High Point playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in program history as a Division 1 competitor. Those hopes were shattered as the final seconds winded down in the semifinals as Longwood celebrated their upset win on the Qubein Center court over the No. 1 seeded Panthers to head to the championship game. 

 

In Head Coach Alan Huss’ first year as a head coach, coming from an assistant coaching role at Creighton for the last six seasons, he coached the Panthers to a program record since joining the NCAA Division 1 and Big South conference in the 1999-00 season, 27 wins. With 11 new additions to the roster and only six return players from last season, the Panthers were predicted to finish seventh in the Big South conference before the start of the season in the preseason poll. Few people believed in High Point and would have thought that the Panthers would end up winning 27 games and earn the No. 1 seed in the Big South tournament.

 

Huss’ 27 wins were the most wins by an HPU first-year men’s basketball head coach dating back to the 1920’s. His success earned him the Big South Coach of the Year award 

 

High Point did not start the season off particularly well, losing two of its first three games which included road losses to Wofford and Queens in a combined three-point difference in those two games. The Panthers would then go on a hot streak, winning seven of their next eight games including wins over Iona, Morgan State and Western Carolina. 

 

“After we had the losses early in the season, we came together and we all talked as a team. We just do not want to have that losing feeling anymore. We all came together and we started communicating better and everybody has just been playing hard,” said HPU junior guard Duke Miles.

 

The Panthers faced their first power five conference school, Georgia, in Athens on Dec. 16 in a game that resulted in the two battling the entire game, but Georgia coming out on top, 66-58. High Point would then go on to win its next three non-conference games before heading into Big South conference play and the new year.

 

The Panthers finished non-conference play with a record of 11-4, the team’s most non-conference wins since becoming Division 1 in 1999. The Panthers tipped off conference play with a matchup against Radford on Jan. 3. High Point would win at Radford as well as win their next eight conference games as the Panthers held the nation’s longest winning-streak and a program record, 12 games. 

 

Junior guard from Paris, France, Kezza Giffa, in his first season with the Panthers was the star during that 12-game winning-streak as he recorded at least 24 points in 7 out of the 12 games including two 30-point games. 

 

Giffa stepped up as the starting guard in junior Duke Miles’ absence as he missed three games during conference play with a lower leg injury. During the three games Miles was out, Giffa averaged 29.7 points per contest including him shooting 43.6 from the court and 85.4 percent from the free-throw line. His sixth man role coming off the bench was elevated when Miles was out, and he succeeded in filling in for the void of the team’s leading scorer. 

 

“It is crazy to talk about a first team all league guy as a sixth man right. He [Kezza] is very unique. I will say firstly about Kezza, the fact that he stepped up in Duke’s absence and performed the way he did,” said Huss. “He gives us an unbelievable spark… I can not say enough about him and his maturity level and the way that he has bought into the team over himself at accepting his role.”

 

The Panthers had a rough patch down the late stretch of the season, going 4-3 in the final seven games. Despite the Panthers’ struggles late in the season, High Point clinched the Big South conference regular season championship in a win on senior night against Winthrop for the first time since the 2015-16 season.

 

The High Point men’s program did a complete 360 from last season. The Panthers finished last in the Big South conference last season with an overall record of 14-17 and 6-12 in conference play under first year head coach G.G. Smith. After an underperforming season, High Point fired G.G. Smith and hired Alan Huss three months later, the team’s fourth head coach since 2018 and 14th head coach in program history. Huss had to start from scratch as they lost three of the team’s top four scorers from last season. With only one starter from last year still on the team, Abdoulaye Thiam, who averaged 13.6 points per game last year, Huss had to form an entirely new team. 

 

Huss brought in plenty of guys to try to build a winning culture at High Point, players that either big power-five programs did not want or players that were hardly recruited at all. Take for instance, Juslin Bodo Bodo, the 7’0” center from Yaounde, Cameroon. Bodo spent two years at the high school juggernaut, Southern California Academy. In two years with the program, Bodo averaged seven points, eight rebounds and 0.8 blocks a game. The three-star recruit was not heavily recruited and was looking for a home late in the season. High Point started recruiting him late in the summer and he ended up signing with the Panthers. His lack of basketball experience was shown early in the season as it was evident that his potential was through the roof but that he was still very unpolished and raw in a lot of areas. Bodo bought into the work, trusted Coach Huss and the results showed as he was awarded Big South Conference Player of the Week nine times which is a Big South and program record, Big South All-Freshman team, Big South Freshman of the Year and the Big South Defensive Player of the Year at the end of his freshman season. Bodo averaged 6.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.8 blocks a game while shooting 65.2 percent from the court. 

 

"His [Bodo] impact on our program I really can not put into words,” said Huss. “We were looking for someone late and he was looking for a home late… I give all the credit to him. He has worked unbelievably hard.”

 

Not just with Bodo, but Huss brought other players that were once counted out such as Kimani Hamilton. The sophomore forward from Jackson, Mississippi was the No. 80 player in the 2022 recruiting class and was named the 2021-22 Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year, which is awarded to the best player in each state. Hamilton committed to the in-state school, Mississippi State. However, Hamilton did not see much time on the hardwood as he appeared in 12 games and averaged only seven minutes a game. Counted out by some, High Point believed in his 6’7”, 220 pound frame. Hamilton came in and was an immediate impact player for the Panthers, finishing the season averaging 14.9 points, fourth-best in the conference, 7.5 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 31.1 minutes played a game. After averaging 2.6 points per game his freshman season, Hamilton was named Big South First-Team All Conference his second season. 

 

Those two, Bodo and Hamilton, would end up becoming a dominant force presence down low and around the glass, deterring shots and grabbing rebounds while spreading out the floor for shooters like Trae Benham and Duke Miles on the perimeter. 

 

“The second half of the conference season in particular, I think that Bodo and Hamilton have been the best front line guys in our league. They have been really invaluable,” said Huss.

 

Not only was the Panthers’ frontcourt dominant this year, but their backcourt was just as dominant with Duke Miles and Kezza Giffa leading the charge. Miles, a junior from  Montgomery, Alabama spent his first three seasons at Troy University before becoming a Panther. Miles went on a scoring tear all season as he set the tempo on the offensive end, averaging a career-best and team-high 17.7 points per game which would also be good for the second best in the Big South conference. Miles shot the ball at an efficient 53.7 percent from the court and 80 percent from the free-throw line. He recorded a career-high 32 points earlier in the season against Hofstra, and has scored at least 25 points five times this season. His tremendous play this season earned him Big South First Team All-Conference and the Big South Newcomer of the Year.

 

“He [Duke] just really stays in the moment, stays level headed, doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low and has a real knack for making difficult plays when it matters,” said Huss.

 

With Miles and Thiam starting at the point and shooting guard positions, Giffa came off the bench as the sixth man, a role that he would take pride in and excel in. The guard is at his third spot, previously playing at UTEP his freshman season and Daytona State his sophomore year. His emergence was crucial in the Panthers success this season as he averaged the third most points per game in the conference, 15.9, on 40.4 percent shooting from the court and 88.1 percent from the free-throw line. Despite only starting six games this season (he started 25 games last season at Daytona State), he averaged 29.3 minutes per game which was third on the team behind Miles and Hamilton. Giffa also earned himself Big South First Team All-Conference.

 

“I am pleased for him [Giffa] that he has had the personal success that he has had just because it is hard to find a guy that is talented number one, that will even talk about coming off the bench and embrace it,” said Huss. “He plays with joy, he plays with thankfulness, he plays with passion all the time. He never let the bench, or the minutes role or the different roles bother him. He just came out and played every night so I am proud of him.”

 

In less than a year, Huss formed a winning culture unlike players that have been on the team previous years have experienced before in the program.

 

“This year especially there has been a big leap and culture change on campus every day,” said senior guard Bryson Childress. “This is a grind. It has been a grind so much. The whole culture of the program is just about that. It is about embracing that grind, and then if you just embrace that grind and buy in then the rest takes care of itself.”

 

“I thought we really bought into the winning culture here and I think that is what Coach Huss wanted to install as well,” said senior guard AJ Hoynack. 

 

High Point entered the Big South tournament with home court advantage as the No. 1 seed. The Panthers cruised through Radford in the quarterfinals, 77-63, to advance to the semifinals against Longwood. High Point and Longwood split the season series 1-1. The two’s last matchup against one another came in the final game of the regular season at Longwood in a game in which Longwood would end up winning on a buzzer-beating bucket, 74-72. 

 

High Point jumped out the gates hot against Longwood and maintained their amazing play through the majority of the game as the Panthers at one point held a 15-point lead. However, Longwood came storming back to force overtime. Despite 32 points from Giffa, Longwood was too much to handle in the overtime period as High Point fans watched the most successful season in program history come to a disappointing end against Longwood, 80-79. 

 

“We all recognize it has been a special year. We were picked seventh. We have 11 new scholarship players on this team. One guy that played a significant role on the team last year. Even in the world of 2024 where there is so much change in college basketball, it is impressive the way this group has come together," said Huss.

 

High Point’s tremendous offense that carried the team the entire season could not keep up with Longwood down the stretch. The Panthers had one of the most high-powered, prolific offenses in the entire country as they ranked 11th in the entire country in points per game at 84.2 a game, first in free throws made per game at 20.5 a game, and 15th in free throw percentage at 77.88 percent. 

 

While the Panthers did not qualify on the big stage in the NCAA tournament or even the NIT tournament which they appeared in during the 2013-14 and 2015-16 seasons, they competed in the College Basketball Invitational as a No. 1 seed in Daytona Beach, Florida for the first time in program history. High Point won its first two games in the tournament against Cleveland State, 93-74, and Arkansas State, 81-80, before advancing to the championship game against Seattle. The Panthers kept it close and competed the entire game, however, Seattle ended High Point’s season with a 77-67 win to conclude the Panthers’ 27-9 overall record. 

 

With only two seniors graduating, Childress and Hoynack, Coach Huss and the Panthers will look to try to bring back the rest of the team from this season, despite the rise in the number of players entering the transfer portal, in hopes of finishing unfinished business, running it back and this time accomplishing the end goal of cutting down the nets in the Big South championship game. 

 

“I am really disappointed for my guys because it is really difficult to put together special seasons like this,” said Huss. “It is really difficult to find these groups and to keep these groups together. It is just the magic that gets created to get you to these points. It is hard to recreate year in and year out. I hope that this group stays together and we have opportunities in the future to redeem ourselves,” said Huss.