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Ron Hunter And Georgia State Deserve Recognition

By W. M. Lawson

NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 16: Head coach Ron Hunter of the Georgia State Panthers talks with his team during a timeout against the Cincinnati Bearcats during the game in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 16, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TN - MARCH 16: Head coach Ron Hunter of the Georgia State Panthers talks with his team during a timeout against the Cincinnati Bearcats during the game in the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena on March 16, 2018 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Frederick Breedon/Getty Images) /
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The Georgia State Panthers were one-and-done in the 2018 NCAA Tournament. But Coach Ron Hunter and that team deserve some love.

Georgia State (24-11) got bounced on Friday from the NCAA Tournament. They lost to a very good Cincinnati team. No shame there. And, truly, they had a chance. Just couldn’t buy a bucket in the last 6 or 7 minutes. But this year is another in a string of successful years, and what that team has done under Head Coach Ron Hunter deserves some praise and acknowledgement.

Most people, especially outside of Georgia, think of Coach Hunter falling out of his chair when his 2015 team made a run in the Tournament. His son was balling out. The team was winning. They were tourney darlings. Part of the story that year.

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But this program is way more than that. What Coach Hunter has done there is nothing less than impressive. Look at these season win totals while in Atlanta: 22, 15, 25, 25, 16, 20, 24. In that span, the program jumped from the CAA to the Sun Belt. That’s doing work.

This most recent iteration of the GSU Panthers featured a 6-3, 200 lb Guard (Soph.) from Gainesville, Georgia, D’Marcus Simonds. Dude went for 24 Pts, 4 Reb, 1 Ast on 50% FG in that NCAA Tournament game. That’s nasty. In fact, nine of the players on their roster are from the State of Georgia.

That is all true with a backdrop of the state school firing a Head Coach, after nine years, because he couldn’t make the tourney and he couldn’t recruit local kids.

Think about that.

Is the result disappointing for Panther Nation? Sure. Losing in the first round of the NCAA Tournament is like being out with friends, finally finding a slamming spot, getting a tight angle in that spot, and then a couple of your people saying they want to roll. It ended too soon.

But when you look at what’s going on at GSU, you find a situation that is quietly killing it. Local kids getting an education and winning a bunch of games at a high level.

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Show some love to those Georgia State Panthers. They deserve it.

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