SCOOBA — Drew Bernd’s first experience as a coach at the college level wasn’t about prominence and location. It had to be about style and fit.
Bernd officially joined the staff East Mississippi Community College this week after doing what he calls the “more important experiences of his life” in a nine-month internship as an assistant basketball coach at the prestigious Canarias Basketball Academy.
“I was the assistant coach running as many as 50 kids through individual skill drills at a place where all we did was train and workout,” Bernd said. “It was clear that if you were serious about improving your game, you came to this place in Spain. We had kids from 25 different countries at this camp.”
The international basketball factory on the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, Bernd assisted players with their day-to-day workouts and practice sessions, including as many as eight players who have gone on to sign NCAA Division I basketball scholarships.
“These kids knew how to speak English and the whole point was to get them prepared to play at Division 1 colleges before they ever arrived on campus,” Bernd said. “We had a kid in (Jordy Kuiper) who busted his butt the entire time at the camp and he has diabetes. He got a scholarship to UNC-Greensboro and that touched me emotionally that his dream came true.”
Kuiper, a 6-9 center/forward, is a native of Groningen, Netherlands and played this past year at the prestigious Canarias Basketball Academy in Spain. The left-handed post player averaged a team-high 16.0 points and 9.0 rebounds per game at the CBA and is a very physical defender. He was rated the ninth best international player at the National Prep School Invitational in Rhode Island this February. Kuiper played high school basketball at N.H. Werkman College in Groningen, Netherlands prior to his final year at Canarias Basketball Academy.
“Jordy is a young man that has been extremely productive against high level international competition and comes from an excellent program in the Canarias Basketball Academy,” UNCG men’s basketball coach Wes Miller said. “He possesses an advanced skill set, has a high basketball IQ and plays with a great toughness and energy.”
The cliché fad in basketball right now is how the American game is having much more of a international feel to it with four players around the perimeter and having tall forward be able to handle and shoot the ball to the efficiency of smaller guards. At the academy in Spain, Bernd learned quickly that european players are just as interested in learning the tougher and more physical American brand of basketball and translating that knowledge into the up-and-down style they’re already accustomed to.
“All of these kids in Spain and in Europe are fed the NBA 24 hours a day and it’s the second-most popular sport behind soccer,” Bernd said. “They understand that learning the American game is the way they’ll get a chance here and possibly then a chance at the NBA. They treat it as a profession at 15 years old and beyond.”
At EMCC, Bernd found a program that is willing to play at a more frantic pace like he grew up relishing in at Waupaca (WI) High School as a player. As a player in high school under Tim Locum, who still leads the University of Wisconsin with 227 made three-pointers in a career, the Comets averaged 75.4 points per game in a 32-minute high school game. Contrary to the typical style of Wisconsin basketball that relies on defense and low scoring, Bernd’s teams, at Waupaca reached the 80-point total in seven games in a season.
EMCC, under coach Mark White, the Lions have intentionally tried to play a style that will light up the scoreboard as they attempt on average 23 three-pointers per game and scored 75.5 points per game last season on the way to a Region 23 championship.
“My senior year of high school we led the state in points per game and at EMCC we’re going to do the same drill work that we did at the academy,” Bernd said. “There’s a comfort level here to know that we’re going to expect our big guys to do the same ball handling stuff as everybody else. It’s a easy transition that I’m already enjoying.”
While earning his bachelor’s degree in teaching and coaching in 2010, Bernd for Mississippi State University under then-head coach Rick Stansbury. Bernd’s responsibilities included the coordination of all team travel as well as developing scouting reports was invited to stay on board Stansbury’s staff as a graduate assistant for two more years. In addition to the daily supervision of MSU’s staff of five undergraduate team managers, Bernd assumed additional responsibilities as the basketball program’s video coordinator.
During his six-year association with Stansbury at MSU which included two more seasons of post-graduate work while he completed a Masters degree, Bernd was affiliated with three SEC western division championship teams, an SEC tournament title club and five postseason tournament squads. In practice Bernd worked with NBA players Jarvis Varnado, Arnett Moultrie and Ben Hansbrough as well as 2013 NBA Draft pick Romero Osby and current overseas pro players Dee Bost, Barry Stewart and Jamont Gordon.
“The difference at EMCC is I’ll be working them through these drills instead of being the dummy pad for these players,” Bernd said. “However, while I did my practice work at MSU under that coaching staff, I watched and took mental notes as to why this and that was being emphasized.”
When former MSU assistant Phil Cunningham got his first head coaching position at Troy University, he called Bernd, his former student manager with the Bulldogs, for some of his players at the camp in Spain to immediately create an influx of talent into the program.
Cunningham signed 6-foot-3 point guard after he’d played for his native Dominican Republic at the 2011 U17 FIBA Americas Tournament. Dicent Guante led the Dominican Republic with 3.8 assists per game and finished third in points (12.8) and fourth in rebounds (6.0), while shooting 54 percent from the floor and 40 percent from beyond the arc.
“”He is a versatile guard who truly knows how to play the game,” Cunningham said. “Miguel definitely needs to get stronger in order to compete at this level, but he has that South American flair to his game that our fans will enjoy for the next four years.”
The youth movement continues at EMCC as Bernd, 27, will work with Shelby Lindley, a native of Wellsville, Utah, arrives on the Scooba campus as an assistant after serving as the interim head men’s basketball coach last season at Central Wyoming College. As one of the youngest men’s basketball head coaches in the collegiate ranks at just 24 years of age a season ago, Lindley took over CWC’s hoops program prior to the season and proceeded to guide the 2012-13 Rustlers to a 23-7 record.
Bernd understands this is the first step in his journey to becoming a head coach of a basketball program. In Division 1, there are already currently 10 coaches that are under 34 years old.
“I want to be a head coach and I want to have that opportunity to go recruit and develop talent,” Bernd said. “If you look at Coach White and his journey to being a head coach at EMCC, nobody would’ve thought he’d be at the level he’s gotten to here. I’m so blessed to have opportunities to get better at my craft in some of the most unique places in the world.”
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