Redemption day is here for Southwest: "We’re playing for something bigger than ourselves, and we want to be a part of that history"
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The ticking of the clock remains the same, but it sure can feel slowed.
“Oh, it’s been a long week, for real,” Chase Dupree said. “People say it goes by fast, but I think it goes by real slow.”
Time hasn’t moved too fast from a year ago, when Dupree and Southwest were in the same boat: spending a week preparing – and talking and listening and practicing and watching tape – for the chance to live a dream.
Southwest has spent every day getting over a year ago, when the Patriots – in front of an overflow crowd of nearly 9,000 – worked to bring back a taste of the program’s championship history but came up short in the GHSA Class A/Division I title game, 62-56 to B.E.S.T. Academy.
The biggest opponent may not have necessarily been the Eagles.
“I don’t think they were expecting it to be 10,000 people,” Southwest head coach Monquencio Hardnett said. “Once the game started, I saw there was a little bit of shakiness and nervousness. We feel like we let one get away last year.”
C.J. Howard didn’t play like the collection of humanity was an issue, hitting 12 of 17 shots – 5 of 8 from 3-point range – for 31 points in 31 minutes. But …
“I know I (clenched) up,” Howard said. “I was like, ‘Man, I ain’t seen so many people at the game …’ It was like a college game, for real.”
They’ll see that many again Friday afternoon when the 29-6 Patriots take on 29-2 Rabun County for the Class A/Division I title. Fans better be on hand before halftime of the East Laurens-Elbert County girls championship game that starts the action at 1 p.m.
“Redemption” has been part of the Patriots vocabulary, and certainly Dupree wants to erase memories of last year, when he struggled on a 4-for-12 shooting afternoon – missing both free-throw attempts – en route to 10 points.
Too, no Patriot has had more social media hyperbole – exaggerated scouting reports and unfair expectations – and attention plopped on their shoulders than Dupree, who has been a focal point for three seasons.
Rabun County Wildcats Southwest Patriots
Huey Blalock, 5-10, Sr. G C.J. Howard, 5-11, Sr.
Trace Adcock, 6-4, Fr. G Chase Dupree, 6-3, Sr.
Reed Burrell, 6-1, Jr. G Alex Butts, 6-4, Jr.
Cord Burrell, 6-1, Fr. W Octavious Raglin, 6-2, Sr.
Hayes Free, 6-7, Sr. F Jonathan Hurley, 6-5, Jr.
Not that it shows. The bigger realization is finality.
“It’s kind of sad,” he said. “This is my last game, so this is my last practice. Have to kind of take it in.
“Last year, (I) honestly was kind of tight. It was my first time being in the state championship. I didn’t look, but I heard ‘em. I thought, ‘Whoa.’”
The ghosts of Southwest past will again be hovering in a building older members of Patriot Nation remember well, when a young school with a massive enrollment took the state’s high school basketball world by storm before its fifth birthday.
But Southwest’s past has nothing to do with its present, so that run from 1970-90 of five state championships is just that: history.
After all, the Patriots were basically a non-entity on any postseason stage for a long, long time, failing to reach double-digit wins in many seasons since that last 1989 title.
Other programs have spent more time atop the title mountain since then as well, like Miller Grove (six straight from 2009-14) and Mitchell-Baker (six between 1990-2003) and Wilkinson County (10 from 1999-2023).
The head coaches are certainly different, with Hardnett nowhere near as flashy or eyebrow-raising as Duck Richardson.
Very few people who will be in the Coliseum on Friday laid eyes on Terry Fair and Michael Hunt and Jeff Malone and Company during those unforgettable years, as well as the trophies that came after.
But there are some blood connections with past and present. Howard’s grandfather Wayne Howard played at Southwest, and regularly told his grandson and others before passing away a few years ago that CJ would be playing in the Coliseum one day.
He’ll play in it twice.
“I’m going to be looking upstairs,” Howard said of his hoped-for postgame reaction if Southwest avenges last year’s loss. “This (is) for him, this (is) for him.”
Two of Hardnett's uncles, Carl and Gerald Hardnett, both on title teams in the late 1970s. And Dupree’s dad Joe was on that 1989 team.
The pressure to restore Southwest’s reputation last year has only grown after that loss to B.E.S.T., and considering this is a senior-heavy team.
But they’ve worked to ignore all that, and focus on the simple and clear task at hand.
“They’ve acted like a veteran team that’s been here before,” said Hardnett, happy with sharp and focused practices this week. “Hopefully, we can go in and behave that way. They’ve been carrying themselves that way the entire season, so hopefully, that’ll carry over.”
Last year
🏀What went right for Southwest through three quarters stopped in the fourth, and B.E.S.T Academy disappointed thousands by taking state title
🏀 Ending the season at the Coliseum in a championship game used to be normal for Southwest, but it’s been a long time, and an upstart is in the way of finally doing it again
🏀 Destination: Macon Coliseum and a GHSA basketball championship
Memory Lane
🏀 Southwest's legendary team to be honored Saturday, 40 years after a perfect season
🏀ESPN looks back after 30 years
🏀 "Best team in Georgia history" is what many called the 1978-79 Southwest boys, and the 1978-79 Southwest men will reunite Saturday night
🏀Together again, 40 years later, the Southwest Patriots of Duck Richardson (story and videos)
Hardnett gambled with a personnel decision early in the season.
Forward Renaldo Callaway was a huge part of last year’s team, in the paint as a physical presence but all over the court as an emotional presence. You couldn’t miss him, from the stands or bench.
But he graduated at the end of last semester and is now at Rutgers on a football scholarship. Still, Hardnett had him in uniform for the first part of the season, a gamble relying on a player early on that he wouldn’t have down the stretch.
The Nardo Effect is something Hardnett was worried about since then.
“I hate to even bring it up,” he said after the Patriots’ fairly sluggish 66-48 win over Woodville-Tompkins in the first round of the playoffs. “But Rinaldo Callaway not being here is such a huge hole for us on so many levels: leadership, toughness. And then, when you pair him with Montese (Green), now we got some dogs.”
Green is a small forward teaming with 6-2 junior Octavius Raglin and 6-5 junior Jonathan Hurley to make up for Callaway’s numbers, with a boost in that area as well as the backcourt from 6-4 Westside transfer Alex Butts, a talented junior.
But it was the right button to push, from simply having Callaway around for a little while to mentor the younger post players a bit and forcing Southwest to make adjustments, albeit with plenty of time in the season.
“It’s really crazy that we made it this far without him,” Howard admitted. “That first week when he left, we weren’t really thinking about the downfall of the season. We were just like, ‘OK, now we got to pick up where we left off when he was here, we just got to get better without him.’”
Southwest went 7-3 with him, losing to Peachtree Ridge, Pebblebrook, and Houston County, all much bigger schools. And the Patriots have gone 22-3 without him.
The opponents bring some size to table, albeit with 6-7 Hayes Free and 6-4 Trace Adcock more comfortable away from the basket. Adcock, in fact, won the GHSA’s 3-point contest on Wednesday.
Rabun County has a drive to get here, in addition to the drive on the court.
The county is tucked in the farthest northeast corner of the state, and Tiger - population of about 450, similar to Bolingbroke and Culloden and Yatesville, among other Central Georgia towns – is closer to Greenville, S.C. than Atlanta.
Rabun County paid a little attention to last year’s title game, having lost to eventual champion B.E.S.T as the second seed.
The Wildcats are a program that also has sought consistency. They went 23-6 last year, having started to find success in 2021-22 after five straight losing seasons, including two six-win seasons.
Navy signee Huey Blalock is an eye-catching point guard with elite ball skills and basketball IQ, who is a lock to inspire “oohs” and “aahs” throughout the game.
He went off for 27 points in the semifinal, scoring from everywhere in the halfcourt. Blalock has scored 25 points or more in nine games, and more impressively, has 15 double-digit assist games this year, including three straight in the playoffs.
Blalock made everybody happy in a 93-45 win over Murphy, N.C. with 19 assists.
“These guys have a point guard and he’s spectacular,” Hardnett said in comparing Rabun County with Model, who lost 62-60 in OT to Southwest. “He’s a spectacular player, trying to break guys down and trying to make plays for the other guys.”
Adcock is the son of head coach David, and “is one of the best shooters I’ve seen in awhile,” Hardnett said.
Free, who can hit the 3 with little effort, had 29 points and four rebounds in the Elite Eight win over Fannin County, and 27 and 13 in the semifinal romp over Fitzgerald, turning an early third-quarter nine-point deficit into a 71-59 point win.
Rabun County led 29-28 at halftime and needed a timeout less than two minutes into the third quarter, suddenly down 38-29. The Wildcats took the lead for good on a stuff by nifty dribble-drive reverse layup in traffic from Blalock with 52 seconds left in the third.
There’s no reason to expect anything but a full 48-minute, four-quarter game.
Rabun County won seven games by single digits, and one by three points, going 1-0 in overtime games. Southwest has only three single-digit wins, but has won a pair of overtime games, including against Model.
The Wildcats will have to adjust to the first-time stage and most of the expected 8,500 or so fans on hand to be loudly against them. Handling that pressure may be bigger than handling whatever Southwest throws at them.
But Southwest hasn’t been in that atmosphere for a year, either. And there’s that 37-year-old monkey wearing a Patriots jersey and waiting to hold a state championship trophy.
“Honestly, believe it or not, the big crowd is coming, and half of them are coming to see us fail,” Hardnett said. “For whatever reason, and it doesn’t make sense to me, but it’s part of the territory.
“Experience is the best teacher, and I think they’re excited. They were so close last time, and as far as the history, they kind of understand it, because I make them remember that we’re playing for something bigger than ourselves, and we want to be a part of that history.”