Stoppin’ Coppin Has Not Been Easy Despite Adversities, Program Collects Wins
A year ago, few college basketball fans had ever heard of Coppin State. Virtually no one knew what state the school was in, let alone what city.
Coppin shed some of that anonymity last March with a marvelous performance in the NCAA Tournament, beating sixth-ranked South Carolina before losing to Texas 82-81. Coppin gained further respect this season by defeating Missouri on the road and playing well for 30 minutes against Arizona.
Yet attracting top-notch recruits remains a battle for Fang Mitchell, who spurned several attractive coaching offers last spring to remain at this college of 3,500 students in Baltimore’s rugged inner city.
Mitchell is both the basketball coach and athletic director at Coppin State. He also is a salesman, because the success of his team depends heavily on his ability to get athletes to agree to play for a squad that competes in a lightly regarded conference in an aged gym that seats 3,000.
“It’s a hard sell when you look at the location,” Mitchell conceded. “All I want to do is get to the door. If I can get inside, then at least I’ve got a chance.”
Coppin State is the elite team in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference because of Mitchell, who for years have taken his team to all corners of the nation in search of the appearance guarantee that goes along with playing big-time schools at their home arena.
“We don’t care who we play. Just tell me where I’m going to go,” he said. “They have a major advantage when they can pick out the referees, the crowd is theirs and they play in their own gym. But what choice is there?”
Mitchell doesn’t complain. He knows the situation and he deals with it. Period. Sure, he’d love to play some of the big-name schools at his place, but that’s just not going to happen any time soon.
“I’ve been begging everyone. Louisville won’t even take my calls,” he said. “Ten-year plans are really difficult when you don’t have a lot of money. I’d want to be a Top 25 team, but it’s difficult the way things are right now to do that.”
Getting quality recruits is just as troublesome, even after last year’s breakthrough season. But at least he doesn’t have to do it alone - his players are more than happy to help out when Mitchell lures a prospective star to the campus.
Antoine Brockington scored 31 points in the Eagles’ victory at Missouri and had 32 against Arizona two weeks ago in a 99-82 loss. In addition to leading the team in scoring, he’s also Mitchell’s right-hand man in terms of recruiting.
“I tell guys who are looking to some place like Duke that you may get recruited, but you may not play,” Brockington said. “Everybody who comes here is like second-fiddle. They may be good, but not top-quality. I’m hoping in the years to come that we can get some top people, because this program is going to expand.”
Players such as Brockington and Larry Stewart, who went on to play in the NBA, contributed to Coppin’s success in the NCAA Tournament last season. The Eagles became only the third No. 15 seed to win a game, and followed the upset with another stellar effort against Texas before losing in the waning seconds.
“The icing on the cake was what happened last year. It was just a great feeling for us,” Mitchell said. “But the success we had just didn’t suddenly happen. It was the work of all the people who have been in our program for years and years.”