LU Basketball Preview: Sanders' decision was huge for the Flames

The ship was sinking, and everything that Jesse Sanders had watched develop during his freshman season was quickly slipping away. Seth Curry, the high-scoring freshman who helped put Liberty on the national radar, was gone. Ritchie McKay, the coach that recruited Sanders, left soon thereafter.

Sanders was understandably shaken, and new coach Dale Layer knew this. So one of Layer’s first orders of business in April was to head to Sanders’ hometown of Houston to try to reassure the point guard that the Liberty program would soon stabilize.

Layer’s Texas trip was as important as any recruiting foray. Curry’s departure was a blow to the program. But had Sanders followed suit, Liberty truly would have been starting from scratch. Sanders, who is believed to have the only triple-double in Liberty’ Division I history, injured his ankle in practice the week Liberty played Old Dominion in ESPNU’s Bracket Busters.

And without Sanders, the Flames floundered. Liberty lost two of the three full games it played without Sanders, and lost them badly. Old Dominion beat the Sanders-less Flames by 26. VMI beat Liberty by 37. And after Sanders reinjured the ankle in the semifinals of the Big South tournament, VMI turned a five-point halftime deficit into a 20-point victory.

For Sanders, the decision to return to Liberty, even after all of the turmoil that went down in late March and early April, had much more to do with basketball.

“It was a really tough time,” Sanders said. “I was shocked and disappointed. I never saw it coming. I had to get over my own initial disappointment. I had to get past that and see Liberty for what it was.

“It wasn’t one person. I still have a great respect for coach McKay. I was hurt by the process, but I’m still friends with him. He made a choice. It’s not my place to judge. Coming out of it, I had to think what this school and this basketball program meant to me. I prayed about it a lot. I felt at peace about it.”

Since Sanders made the decision to return, his commitment has been unwavering. He was a precocious leader as a freshman on a team full of youngsters, and he’ll have the same role again this season.

Kyle Ohman, Tyler Baker and walk-on Taylor Jensen are the only upperclassmen on the team, and the rest of the roster is comprised of 11 freshmen and sophomores.

“We have to improve everything,” Layer said. “New players, new coach, a new system. That’s a recipe for being behind. That’s a recipe for not being consistent. I really like this group. It’s extremely competitive. They’ve got as good a work ethic as any team I’ve been around. I think they want to learn, they want to grow, they want to improve.

“But to have so many young guys on the floor at once doesn’t allow me to sleep very well at night. Let’s put it that way.”

Even the returning players have questions. Ohman made a huge leap last season as a consistent scorer, but he was Liberty’s third option behind Curry and Anthony Smith. Can he handle the load of being a primary scorer? Will Sanders be forced to be more of a scorer this season? How will Baker handle being counted on as a starter after dealing with so many injuries in his first four seasons on campus? Can Jeremy Anderson regain the shooting form he had as a freshman after missing all of last year with a foot injury?

Today’s game at George Mason opens a brutal November stretch for Liberty.

Ready or not, this young team will have to grow up in a hurry.