Charlton Young took two days off following his Georgia Southern men’s basketball team’s season-ending loss to Elon in the quarterfinals of the Southern Conference Tournament on Saturday night in Asheville, N.C.
    Young returned to Statesboro on Sunday. On Tuesday, the third-year head coach was back at work and searching for a point guard to fill the void left by senior Willie Powers.
    “I’m going to recruit a point guard,” Young said Wednesday from Connecticut, where he was scouting players at a prep school tournament. “But I’m very happy with Jessie Pernell and Jelani Hewitt, who are playing like two point guards who can handle the ball for us. It’s definitely hard to replace Willie (Powers) and Ben (Drayton), but I think that with the experience that we’ve gotten, those young kids are going to be really good.”
    Young said he will scour the high school and collegiate levels looking for a point guard.
    “We’re going to find the best fit,” he said. “Point guard and probably the best available (player, regardless of position).”
    Young also said forward Eric Ferguson will return for his junior season, so any rumors of the Statesboro native leaving GSU early for the NBA can stop right now.
    “He’s definitely going to stay for his junior year,” Young said. “That won’t be an issue at all. After his junior year, I can’t say that. But this year we’ve got a lot of work to do. He’s come a long way. He’s a great talent. We’ve got to get him to become a better player. He has to make free throws. He has to play with more energy, consistently. But he had a great year. You could argue that he was the player of the year.”
    GSU beat Chattanooga, 76-70, in the first round of the SoCon Tournament on Friday night. It was the Eagles’ first SoCon Tournament win since Feb. 28, 2007, when GSU beat The Citadel, 62-46.
    After winning one SoCon game last season, Young guided GSU (15-15 overall record) to a 12-6 record in the league this season, tying Auburn (1926-27) for the second-greatest turnaround (plus 11) in the SoCon’s 91-year history.
    “That’s huge,” said Young, a former Georgia Tech assistant and Georgia Southern player. “But what I don’t want to be lost is what we accomplished, and what Ben Drayton and Willie Powers did for Georgia Southern basketball. They pulled us out of the basement, out of the cellar, out of the gutter. And like I said at the (postgame) press conference (after losing to Elon), they should be forever celebrated in this program because we were in a tough situation. I mean really bad.
    “To be totally honest with you, I’ve never told anybody else this, but when I got here (in 2009) and I was briefed on what was going on, I started to get right back in my car and drive to Georgia Tech. I just couldn’t believe that Georgia Southern basketball had dropped that low. I couldn’t believe that the talent level had dropped that low. It was almost like we forgot the definition of scholarship. We had guys on scholarship that just couldn’t do it. And not just in between the lines (on the court), but in the classroom in terms of academics. It was a bad situation.”
    After struggling through a 9-23 season during his first season, and a 5-27 record in his second season, Young had this season’s team playing an exciting brand of basketball that enticed fans to return to Hanner Fieldhouse.
    “My staff doesn’t get the credit that they should get for coming in here and helping me do the heavy lifting, rebuilding this thing and going through the pains to get where we are now,” Young said of assistants Steve Smith, Pershin Williams and Chris Capko, and director of basketball operations Erik Podell. “We’re going to have a big banquet. We’re going to have a lot of picnics, a lot of barbecues. Georgia Southern basketball, we’re going to celebrate this spring what we accomplished. You’re looking at a team that engineered the second-biggest turnaround in the history of the Southern Conference.”
    The job that Young and his staff have done turning around GSU’s program is similar to the turnaround that Horace Broadnax has spearheaded at Savannah State University. Broadnax inherited a team that finished 0-28 in 2004, the year before he arrived. This season, Broadnax guided SSU to a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference regular-season championship (14-2) in the Tigers’ inaugural season in the MEAC. SSU, the No. 1 seed in the MEAC Tournament, lost 59-46, to eighth-seeded Hampton University on Wednesday night. The Tigers finished 21-11 overall.
    “I’m so happy for him. I’m a Horace Broadnax fan,” said Young, a Miami, Fla., native who played at Carol City Senior High School.  “When I was a young kid, I went to the (Florida high school) state tournament and saw Horace Broadnax get 43 (points) on Miami Jackson. He was playing for Plant City. He was a great high school player in the state of Florida.
     “My daddy used to take me to the state tournament every year. Saw (Broadnax) play. He was the truth. The whole state of Florida was in mourning when he signed with Georgetown and didn’t sign with the Florida Gators.
    “It’s definitely inspiring. It gives me a sense of pride. It shows you what you can do when you stick together and you work together. We’re doing that here at Georgia Southern.”
    Young said his players learned the importance of securing a first-round bye during the regular season. GSU entered the SoCon Tournament with a two-game losing streak. The Eagles lost to College of Charleston and lost to Davidson to end the regular season. They needed to win one of those games to earn a first-round bye in the SoCon Tournament.
    Young said GSU, if it didn’t have to play Chattanooga in the first round, would have been fresh against Elon in the quarterfinals and the Eagles “would have won by 25” points.
    “We have some very good, young talent in our program,” he said. “And not only are they talented, but they’re championship people. We have the right people in the program and that’s why we were successful. Willie Powers and Ben Drayton were the right people. I’ve got five sophomores, three freshmen and one junior, and they’re hungry. And they’re going to work. And they’re going to get better.
    "I think the way Eric Ferguson and Jelani Hewitt and all these guys have developed, I think it’s very, very impressive. It’s a testimony to the program. Not just to myself, but to John Erwin, our athletic trainer, and Brandon Howard, our strength and conditioning coach. Our assistant coaches, with the individual instruction. These guys are getting better.
    “Because of our experience, we’re going to be able to be an elite team in November. That’s our goal.”
   
    Noell Barnidge can be reached at (912) 489-9408.