Basketball is here — getting to know Coach Dwight Perry

As a teenager growing up in Durham, NC, Wofford head men’s basketball coach Dwight Perry was certain he wanted a career in basketball.

But, he recalled, “I could see pretty early on that it wasn’t going to be as a player.”

Perry was a good enough high school player, though, to earn a walk-on spot at the University of Kentucky. There’s arguably no better place to experience the culture of big-time college basketball than Lexington, KY.

Perry graduated from Kentucky in 2010 and played three seasons. The Kentucky program was in a bit of a lull during the years Perry was there. He played for Tubby Smith, who was nearing the end of his run with the Wildcats, and then for short-timer Billy Gillespie.

But we shouldn’t take Perry’s Kentucky experience lightly: Tubby Smith had won a national championship there. Wofford’s new head coach learned the game from a national championship coach.

Perry went on to work for Shaka Smart, who took Virginia Commonwealth University to a Final Four and is now the head coach at Marquette.

So Perry has been around some of the biggest of the big-time coaches and programs.

He has also experienced successful Southern Conference programs. He worked under Niko Medved at Furman – and, of course, served as the top assistant for Jay McAuley at Wofford.

McAuley and his staff recruited well. The teams played hard and won a solid share – including some big wins over such teams as UNC and Georgia as well as a trip to the SoCon Tournament championship in 2020.

With Perry as the interim head coach for most of last season, the Terriers won some exciting games, including a road win over Texas A&M, and appeared to play with lots of positive energy. Reportedly, the players were happy when Perry was selected as head coach.

There were other intriguing candidates for the job – notably Kevin Giltner, a former Terrier player who has been on Mike Young’s staffs at both Wofford and Virginia Tech, and University of Alabama-Huntsville coach John Shulman, who also had served as an assistant at Wofford (under AD and former head coach Richard Johnson).

Shulman would have brought head coaching experience – including in the SoCon. In addition to leading the Division II UAH program, he had an up-and-down run as Chattanooga’s coach from 2004-2013. And Giltner is a Mike Young protégé who appears to have terrific potential as a young coach.

In what felt to fans like a somewhat protracted decision-making process, Wofford’s administration chose Perry over at least two strong candidates.

For Perry’s part, his overall resume – as described, in part, above – is quite impressive.

Perhaps as importantly, his experience with our program over the past four years gives him important perspective on current realities at Wofford and around the Southern Conference. He knows first-hand the challenges Wofford is facing in the era of the transfer portal and NIL as well as the college’s current selling points to recruits.

“It’s going to take time, but we can get Wofford back to being at a championship level,” Perry told me when talked during the summer.

I didn’t ask for a prediction about the upcoming season, though his “take time” comment suggests that Perry isn’t expecting to dominate the league in his first full season as head coach. But, he said, “I like our group of guys. They aren’t about their own egos. It’s a group of players who are like sponges. They want to learn and get better each day.”

A three-point loss to the University of South Carolina in a recent exhibition game suggests that this Terrier squad has solid potential. Returning players Kyler Filewich, Jackson Sivills, Chase Martin, and Corey Tripp were among the starters, along with Dillon Bailey, a guard who transferred in from the Division II ranks.

There were contributions, too, from freshmen big men Jeremy Lorenz and Belal El Shakery as well as guard Quentin Meza. Transfer guard Chase Cormier played significant minutes, and Tauris Watson and Anthony Arrington also saw playing time.

It’s difficult to draw too many conclusions from a preseason scrimmage, but a close contest against an SEC opponent, along with a fairly balanced box score, offers some reason for optimism.

A focus on fun — and the “whole Wofford experience”

In our conversation and in other interviews, Perry has stressed that he wants players to work hard – but also have fun.

“I want us to compete at a high-level … but I want our guys to have fun while they’re competing,” he told Wofford play-by-play man Jim Noble in a recent video interview.

It’s a pretty straightforward thing to say. To win in basketball, players have to put lots of work in. At the same time, it’s a game, and amateur athletics ought to be enjoyable for young people.

But I think Perry’s comment contains more meaning than perhaps meets the eye.

Let’s address the obvious issue: Wofford has lost a ton of players in the transfer portal in the past two years.

There are a number of things Perry can’t control (and that McAuley, before him, couldn’t control). Wofford doesn’t have a graduate program, so it’s difficult to keep guys who have completed academic coursework for graduation and can pursue graduate studies, along with basketball, elsewhere. Storm Murphy, Ryan Larson, Messiah Jones, BJ Mack – we can be glad these guys earned Wofford degrees and grateful for their on-the-court contributions, but it would have been great to see them stay past graduation.

The end of the Covid freebie season – that fifth year of eligibility – should calm things down some. Still, everyone agrees that Wofford is at a bit of a disadvantage without a graduate program.

It’s the other transfers that have created true cause for alarm. In the past two off-seasons, Wofford has lost underclassmen in the transfer portal to major conference schools, to Division II schools, and to other mid-majors.

The program has gotten hit from every angle: There have been rising stars we couldn’t keep, (Jackson Paveletzke, Max Klesmit) players who apparently wanted to get back closer to home, guys who left the team midseason without explanation.

And a common thread, according to various accounts, is that many of the kids simply were unhappy during McAuley’s tenure.

And that’s why I think Coach Perry – who took over as interim coach last season following an apparent player revolt that led to the ouster of McAuley – emphasizes the idea that being on a basketball team should be fun.

In terms of rebuilding the program, the transfer portal is likely to be an ongoing challenge for which there are no easy answers. This isn’t to say it’s all bad – Wofford has recruited some talented players out of the transfer portal, and our coaches have done a nice job of going to the portal to shore up immediate personnel needs and finding kids who seem to be a great fit at the college.

Still, on balance, the transfer issue has clearly been a setback.

And Perry seems to understand another thing: It’s deflating for fans when players transfer.

Wofford fans are accustomed to watching players develop over four years, earn Wofford degrees, and become proud members of the alumni community. Seeing player after player decide to leave our college and basketball team for opportunities elsewhere is a blow to the collective psyche. As much as fans want to see a return to championship basketball, there may be an even greater yearning for stability and the kind of we’re-all-in-this-together spirit that makes college sports special.

“There’s no secret that there has been a lot of change and turnover,” Perry said. “But the biggest thing I want to say is that the Wofford is going to be a program where guys play hard and have fun and wear the Wofford jersey with pride.”

In addition to getting back to a sense of fun, Perry stresses that he’s working to cultivate “the whole Wofford experience” – the academic experience, of course, but also a well-rounded social life with “relationships across the campus community.

It comes down this, Perry said: “We want our young people to be happy and to maximize everything that Wofford has to offer.”

“The best collection of people I’ve ever worked with”

Perry believes he’s laying the groundwork for good things to come. In addition to strong buy-in from the current group of players, he says the staff is “the best collection of people I’ve ever worked with.”

Tysor Anderson (grandson of legendary college coach Lefty Driesell) and Will Murphy return as assistant coaches.

Murphy was recently promoted to associate head coach. In an official statement, Perry said, “From recruiting and player development to relationships in and around the community, his impact has been invaluable.”

Murphy has important perspective, too. He was on Mike Young’s staff during the historic 2018-2019 season.

Another assistant coach with ties to the Young era is Drew Gibson, who joined the staff during the off-season.

Gibson was an all-conference point guard at Wofford and later served on Young’s staff. He most recently worked as an assistant at the Naval Academy.

As an alum, Gibson understands what it’s like – academically and socially – to be a student-athlete at Wofford. His perspective on the Wofford experience, as well as his pride in holding a degree from the college, should prove valuable in recruiting and in giving guidance to young players in the program.

In addition to all this, “Drew is a really good coach and a great person,” Perry said.

A culture of pride

I appreciate Coach Perry’s taking the time to speak with me. And I came away impressed. Not only does he have a strong resume as a young coach – I was struck that he appears to bring a combination enthusiasm and optimism without being unrealistic.

“We’ve got to figure out the new landscape of college basketball and what that means for our model,” Perry said. “But we intend to create a culture of success that everyone involved will take pride in.”