McNair
Carl Edmondson, Jr.

Sitting on a table in the Brentwood Academy locker room is a silver basketball that the team earned last year.

Top-ranked BA is hoping to win a gold one this season.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the main goal,” Eagles guard Jayson Nixon said. “We use that silver ball in our locker room to motivate us every day. I mean, every time we look at it, it’s just a reminder of how close, but how far we were to winning it all.”

BA took second in Division II-AA after a 72-51 loss to Montgomery Bell Academy in the 2021 final.

The Eagles have won their first 21 games this season, for one of their best starts, if not the best, in school history.

BA is first in the seven-team Middle Region with a 7-0 record.

The Eagles survived a close call when senior DJ Senter hit a 15-foot baseline jumper at the buzzer for a 63-61 win at Pope John Paul II on Tuesday.

“We would love to have another shot at winning the last game, but it’s so tough to get there,” BA coach Matt Hoppe said. “Our league, right now in the Middle, East and West, there are probably eight or 10 teams that have a legit shot to win it. I mean, there are so many good teams, players and coaches.”

Hoppe said he’s biased, but he calls D-II AA “the toughest league in the state.”

Powered by 6-foot-7 Vanderbilt signee Malik Dia, Ensworth (17-4, 5-2) is right behind BA in the Middle Region. Dia erupted for a career-high 41 points in Wednesday’s win over Christ Presbyterian Academy.

Trent McNair, a Mr. Basketball finalist for the Eagles last year, is averaging 14 points and 5.2 rebounds this season.

“He’s just a great all-around player,” Hoppe said. “I think he’s one of the best-kept secrets in the state, to be honest with you. I think people are missing out on him. He’s definitely a high D-I talent.”

McNair averaged 20 points last year, but the senior has a stronger supporting cast this season.

The 6-5 guard has offers from Covenant, Trevecca and Columbia State.

He was honored for reaching 1,000 career points last week.

McNair is visiting Alcorn State this weekend. His father, Steve, won the 1994 Walter Payton Award as the top football player in Division I-AA there.

Trent’s mom, Mechelle, and Steve, a former Titans star quarterback, met at Alcorn. His mom was on the school’s Golden Girls dance team.

Baseball was Trent’s favorite sport when he was a youngster.

“Back then, I liked baseball a lot more, so we would hit baseball a lot,” Trent said of his dad. “Like he would pitch to me and stuff like that. After a while I think I just got tired of it because basketball was just my thing.”

JPII coach Charles Wade played high school basketball against Trent’s dad in Mississippi when he was a post player at Wesson and McNair was a point guard at Mount Olive.

“Actually, I told Trent last year I had the opportunity to play against his dad twice in high school basketball,” Wade said. “It was kind of a full-circle moment for me. He does have a lot of his dad’s athleticism.”

Father and son have different builds because Trent is slimmer.

“(Steve) could score, he could shoot it, drive, strong – a lot like his son,” Wade said. “Just had an all-around game, really good defensively.”

Wade said he has no doubt that Trent could play at Alcorn.

“(Trent) has a nice repertoire,” Wade said. “He’s a pretty good 3-point shooter, but he’s awesome at putting the ball on the floor and he can finish with both hands. Really patient offensively, he doesn’t every really feel like you can speed him up or rush him.”

BA returns four starters from last season’s 20-4 team: McNair, Senter (9 ppg), Tyler Tanner and Drey Moss (6.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg, 4.5 spg).

Tanner is averaging nearly 18 points per game and Nixon is averaging 12.

“I feel like the real fuel is not wanting to lose like we did last year,” said Tanner, a sophomore point guard who averages 5 assists and 4.2 steals per game. “We didn’t want our year to end like that, so that really motivates us to be a better team than we were last year.”

BA attacks opponents with its man-to-man defense.

“For us, I think it starts on the defensive end because we just constantly pressure teams for the whole 32 minutes and a lot of teams usually can’t withstand that pressure,” Nixon said.

Wade said his top priority for playing BA was taking care of the basketball because the Eagles force so many turnovers.

“We’ve played them twice and they really jumped on us early in December, and we had a little trouble handling their pressure,” Wade said. “I think you have to have really good guard play to be able to even stay on the floor with them. If you don’t have good guard play, good luck.”

Wade said the Eagles run the pick and roll effectively on offense.

George MacIntyre, a 6-5 freshman whose uncle, Mike, is the Florida International football coach, is averaging 7.5 points per game for BA. His grandfather, George, coached Vanderbilt from 1979-85.

“We’ve played a really tough schedule, so I didn’t anticipate us being undefeated,” Hoppe said. “No, I didn’t see it coming and no, I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

BA alumni updates

Former BA star Darius Garland is averaging 19.7 points and 8.2 assists for Cleveland, where he’s an NBA All-Star candidate.

He was ninth in Eastern Conference guard voting (343,551) through Thursday.

“I think his success is just due to how much he works,” Hoppe said. “Of course, he’s supremely talented. I mean, he’s one of the best basketball players in the world. How he approaches his craft is a really special thing.”

Forward Brandan Wright, 34, works out at BA in the hopes of returning to the NBA after injury setbacks.

He played in the NBA from 2007-18 for seven teams.

“Like Darius, he loves our guys, loves our school,” Hoppe said. “He shoots in our gym all the time.”

Catcher Jacob Stallings was traded to Miami in November after a Gold-Glove season with Pittsburgh.

He was the only catcher not to allow a passed ball last year. Stallings tied Houston shortstop Carlos Correa with 21 defensive runs saved, the most of any player at any position.

Stallings spoke at BA last week.