Griff Aldrich claims he doesn’t have the “magic sauce” when it comes to finding transfers. But the Longwood coach did add two seasoned basketball players from the Triad to the recipe that helped his Lancers make their first NCAA Tournament appearance this season.
Greensboro Day alumnus Jordan Perkins and Mount Tabor graduate Isaiah Wilkins are the only players on Longwood’s roster with experience in the Big Dance, so their leadership will be crucial when the 14th-seeded Lancers (26-6) take on third-seeded Tennessee (26-7) in Indianapolis at 2:45 p.m. Thursday.
“Their maturity has had a really positive impact on our team this year,” Aldrich says. “We’ve had so many close games, and when it comes down to what they call ‘winning time’ you see their maturity and confidence and calmness really permeate through everyone on the court.”
After starting for most of four seasons and playing in two NCAA Tournaments at N.C. Central, where he is No. 2 all-time on the Eagles’ assists list, Perkins has adapted to coming off the bench. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound point guard is averaging 4.9 points, 2.8 assists and 2.3 rebounds per game.
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Wilkins began his college career at Virginia Tech and was a member of the Hokies’ 2019 NCAA Tournament team as a freshman. The 6-4, 220-pound wing stayed through a coaching change, but transferred to Wake Forest for his junior season and was part of coach Steve Forbes’ first Deacons team. Wilkins decided to use his final two seasons of eligibility elsewhere and has started every game since transferring to Longwood, where he’s averaging 12.8 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists.
Obviously, Perkins and and Wilkins brought basketball talent to Longwood, but that’s only part of what Aldrich and his staff were looking for when they recruited them, as well as the other five Division I transfers on the Lancers' roster.
“The biggest thing for us has been the character element,” Aldrich says. “We really want to find guys who are going to fit into our culture and embrace development, not just as a basketball player but as a person.”
'I have to sacrifice'
After graduating from N.C. Central with a degree in sports management, Jordan Perkins could have given professional basketball a try, either overseas or in the G League, or he could have gone into business.
“I just felt like I needed a change of scenery,” he says. “I was at Central for four years and we definitely won, but I wanted to go to a little bit better conference. I just wanted a new experience. I felt like it would be good for me to get out of my comfort zone and make me a better player.”
Perkins strongly considered Hampton, Southeastern Louisiana and Tennessee State, but he liked Longwood’s focus on development and he saw an opportunity to be a part of something bigger.
“All of them talked about wanting me to come in as a point guard and run the show,” he says, “but for my last year I just wanted to win. I felt like I was in a good position to win at Longwood.”
Aldrich and his staff did their homework on Perkins, talking with former Central and Longwood assistant coach Brian Graves to get a feel for who the graduate student was and what he could bring to the Lancers.
“He’s a gifted point guard who has a tremendous ability to get into the paint and find teammates for open shots,” Aldrich says. “At the same time, he’s also an offensive threat. He’s worked so hard at trying to improve his jump shot. He’s been a lot more effective this season shooting from the perimeter.”
That’s the basketball player, but Aldrich says what really stood out about Perkins was “his personality.”
“He is one of the happiest individuals,” the Longwood coach says. “There’s always a smile on his face. I’m an intense coach who drives hard, and he’s had to really adapt to our system, our culture. He almost invariably does it with a smile on his face when he’s being corrected. That’s been huge.”
Aldrich says Perkins was recruited with the idea that he would play with sophomore Justin Hill in the backcourt because the coach likes having two ballhandlers on the floor and he wanted someone with experience to partner with Hill, but a partially torn patellar tendon slowed Perkins during the summer.
“The way it worked out, Jordan came off the bench,” Aldrich says. “Part of that is his humility, part of it is his desire to win and his competitive spirit, but a huge part of it is his unselfishness.”
Perkins says going from playing 35 minutes a game to 20-25, “It’s different. I had to play differently. I had to be more aggressive. In the end, it helped me not be complacent.”
One thing that wasn’t different was Perkins’ approach to the game and to life, one he learned from his parents, Reggie and Lisa, and from Greensboro Day coach Freddy Johnson.
“I felt that if I just kept God first and embraced the situation, was strong in my faith and strong in my work, everything would work out for the best,” says Perkins, who is on track to complete a master’s degree at the end of his year at Longwood.
It certainly worked out for Aldrich and the Lancers, who came to appreciate what Perkins brought to the team, even if it was in a different role than the coach or the player expected.
“It just takes one little crack and everybody starts to go, ‘Well, what about me?’ ” Aldrich says. “One of the main things that has been the secret to our success this year has been our chemistry, which is rooted in our unselfishness. Jordan is the clearest example.
“He came to Farmville, Virginia, and accepted a role I’m confident he was not anticipating, and he’s done it with great dignity, class and love for his teammates.”
Perkins says simply, “I’m on a special team, so I have to sacrifice.”
'I needed to be where someone believes in me'
While Perkins considered transferring from N.C. Central to Longwood a move up, Isaiah Wilkins was on a different trajectory after playing in the ACC at Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.
“Isaiah is a humble kid,” Aldrich says. “But he’s coming from Wake Forest to Longwood and you could easily see him saying, ‘I’m gonna come get mine.’ He’s never had that attitude once.”
Aldrich had already tried to recruit Wilkins to Longwood when he left Virginia Tech, and he learned a lot about the former Mount Tabor standout during that process.
“He was a joy to talk to,” Aldrich says. “The chances of him coming from Virginia Tech to Longwood were slim to none, but he was extremely courteous and just an outstanding young man.”
When Wilkins cut Longwood from his list, Aldrich says, “He called and did it the right way.”
The second time through the transfer portal, Wilkins chose Longwood over UNC-Asheville.
“I know my road’s been a little rocky and I needed to be where someone believes in me and will allow me to play my game and help the team win,” he says.
Aldrich liked Wilkins’ “calm confidence” developed under coach Andy Muse at Mount Tabor, but knew how fragile that could be for a player on his third school.
“With Isaiah, he’d had such a tumultuous path that we wanted him to know we really believed in him,” Aldrich says. “It was like, ‘Hey, man, come be you. We’ll tell you when you’re doing too much and rein you in.’ My hope is that he felt a breath of fresh air and some air being pumped back into the balloon.”
Aldrich says it was apparent during summer practices that Wilkins had found a home with the Lancers. “He was just one of the guys trying to adapt to the culture and do his part to help build the team,” the coach says.
Now, Wilkins is on a team headed to the NCAA Tournament, while Wake Forest is in the NIT, but he doesn’t take any satisfaction from the Deacons’ fate.
“That’s them,” he says. “I’m just glad that we made it. ... I was telling one of my teammates the other day that it makes me happy to see them happy, because I’ve already experienced being in the NCAA Tournament.”
That experience means Wilkins’ role with the Lancers is “to lead by example,” he says. “I’m older, so it’s providing that veteran leadership. I’ve stepped into that role and they’ve responded. It’s easier to work with people who actually listen. Every single person on this team listens.”
What Wilkins has been telling his teammates is to embrace their moment in the spotlight.
“What we’ve done … this doesn’t happen a lot,” he says. “Don’t get caught up, just enjoy it. You never know when it could be taken away from you or you may never get that opportunity again. If we do us, we’ll be all right.”
A growth mentality
Maybe one reason that Aldrich has had success with transfers such as Jordan Perkins and Isaiah Wilkins is that his road to success as a basketball coach has not been a straight line.
A player at nearby Hampden-Sydney College during his undergraduate days and an assistant coach for one year at the Division III school, Aldrich graduated from the University of Virginia’s law school and became a partner in one of Houston’s most prestigious firms, then helped build a successful private oil and gas company and served as chief financial officer for a private equity firm. Meanwhile, his love for the game led him to start a faith-based youth basketball program in inner-city Houston.
The itch to get back into the game full-time became irresistible in 2016, when he joined the staff of college teammate Ryan Odom – the son of former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom – as director of recruiting and program development at UMBC in Catonsville, Md. Yes, the same UMBC program that upset reigning NCAA champion Virginia in the 2018 tournament.
After that season, Aldrich became the head coach at Longwood. He’s built the program on developing players and people.
“A big part of Longwood basketball, we feel, is that for you to grow as a basketball player, you have to grow as a young man,” Aldrich says. “Everybody walks into Longwood with issues they need to improve. … We all have them. At 47, I could write a list of mine.
“Part of our job is to help these guys know themselves better by the time they leave. But that requires an individual who’s OK with that, someone who wants to learn and is willing to be challenged.”
Wilkins and Perkins accepted that challenge and it’s helped them lead Longwood to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since the program moved from Division II to Division I in 2012.
“I’ve come to understand that you can’t be an inconsistent player or an inconsistent person,” Perkins says. “That doesn’t benefit you in any way. Coach Griff pushed us to be more consistent every day, and that led us to everything else falling in line.”