Turner Scores High Hopes for CHS Boys Basketball

After going 13-14 a season ago, the Columbia boys basketball team has a new coach, a new system, new expectations and a new beginning. Former CHS boys basketball standout and former junior varsity head coach Eddie Turner took over the reigns of his old program, following Jerry Hill stepping down from the position of varsity head coach a year ago.

The '03 CHS grad has set his sights high immediately in a very difficult Super Essex Conference American Division, saying that he expects his squad to win a state and county championship this season.

"Somebody asked me the other day 'what would be a good record?' And I said 29-0 or 30-0," Turner said. "I don't look down at the schedule and say 'well if we lose this game' or 'if we win that game.' I want to win every game. I don't go into any game expecting to lose."

Columbia is stocked with a boatload of returning seniors and a group of incoming players from a junior varsity squad which won the JV county tournament last season, with Turner as their coach. Turner said that he has not set a starting lineup yet, and has about 14 kids competing for serious playing time. Everything right now is a wide-open competition

"It's not just a varsity and JV thing, it's a winning thing," Turner said. "Everybody wants playing time, so when you get there, I have options so you have to show me something when you're in the game."

A year ago the club was built on defense, going 9-1 in games in which they held opponents under 50 points. Despite the graduation of center Femi Agunbiade (over 10 points and 10 rebounds per game with two blocked shots per), Turner said that the squad will be defensively oriented once again. Players like Andrew Ehinger and possibly sophomore Evans Osuji will have to fill the void left in the middle by Agunbiade.

Columbia's strength this season is speed. They're going to look to run the ball up and down the court and force teams into mistakes with their transition game. Relying mainly on fast break buckets as their offense, the Cougars will have to get defensive rebounds and force turnovers and bad shots to score points.

"Defense is about 90 percent of what we do. If we struggle on defense, we're not going to win many games," Turner said. "We're not going to beat a team 80-75. If we give up 75 points, I guarantee you we're not winning that game."

Defensively, Turner will employ a straight up man-to-man philosophy, trying to put constant pressure on the ball and deny plays from forming. Of course, that makes each players' individual defensive ability very important.

"We hold everybody accountable for it and we expect not to get beat," Turner said. "So if you're going to beat us, you're going to do it on one-on-one and we're not going to let you get set and get into your plays."

The top returnees for Columbia this season are Jamar Chavis (led the team in scoring last year 12.4 ppg), Austin Little (starting point guard last season) and Dukens Germaine (fourth leading scorer, second leading rebounded).

An impact newcomer, aside from Osuji, could be junior Maxim Michele. Last season on JV, Turner said that he averaged near 25 points per game off of the bench during the second half of the season. He expects him to have a great season.

Perhaps the biggest test for the Cougars will be the first month of the season. Six of their first seven games and eight of their opening 10 games are on the road and nine of their first 10 games are against teams which made the postseason a year ago.

"We have to play almost flawless basketball," Turner said. "There's not really too many mistakes that we can afford playing against those teams. …More importantly, I don't really looking at it as who we're playing. If we play the way we're supposed to play and push ourselves the way we're supposed to be pushed, then the problem is going to be on our opponent."

While playing at CHS, Turner was a four year varsity player, coming off of the bench during his freshman year. His teams were ranked in the state's top 20 twice and he was a part of a 20-4 season in which they lost to two teams twice, including East Side, which had current NBA player, Randy Foye, as a member of their team.

While playing for and coaching underneath Hill, Turner said that he learned about defense, and plans to implement the coach's teachings, but with his own touch.

"I took what coach Hill gave me, but added on my own twist to it, from my playing experience and from knowing these kids personally," Turner said. "Coach Hill basically taught me how to coach defense."

After graduating from CHS, Turner attended North Carolina A&T before transferring to Rowan and then finishing his college education off at Fairleigh Dickinson University-Teaneck, where he graduated.

Turner has been coaching for quite some time, even at just 25. He began his own AAU team at age 19, and had a lot of success across the country, with some of the best players in the nation. He then returned to CHS and became head coach of the JV team in the '06-'07 season.

"I played here, I graduated from here and I've coached here. So there's not really much about Columbia that you can tell me about," Turner said. "I was here when things went wrong and I was here when we were successful. …I've seen everything from the inside out, not the outside in, so it's easier to fix things from there."

Columbia's first game of the season is on Friday at 7 p.m. against East Orange.