Terris Sifford won’t be playing Division I basketball next season but he will get plenty of Division I coaching.
Sifford has signed with Greensboro College, a Division III school.
The coach, however, is Eddie Payne, whose last job was at PAC-10 Oregon State.
Payne, by the way, recruited Sifford’s coach, Mike Gurley, back in 1984 and Gurley had a big say in Payne recruiting the 6-foot-3 wing player.
Payne was sitting with Gurley watching High Point Andrews (which beat West in the sectional finals) dismantle Mooresville in the Western 3A Regionals in Hickory.
“Coach was watching another kid,” Gurley remembers, “and he made the comment, ‘I’m looking for guys who compete.’”
Sifford and some teammates were sitting below the two. “I said, ‘Coach, see him? He competes harder than anyone in North Carolina.’ ”
Payne called some people, watched film and decided Sifford was what the Pride needed.
Although Sifford had offers from other small schools, Greensboro was a perfect fit.
“No. 1, T has a lot of relatives in Greensboro,” said Gurley. “No. 2, a small school setting was what was impressive to him. He liked the small classes that would help make sure he stayed on course to graduate. And No. 3, coach Payne said, ‘I need you.’ I thought that was a real good recruiting ploy.”
Coming to Division III is somewhat of a surprise, that is, a surprise to everyone but Gurley.
“A lot of the guys who have been on top become a scout or sit on the money. But Coach Payne wants to coach, whether it’s D-I, D-II or D-III. He says his best years were at Belmont Abbey and going to Greensboro is a chance to recapture some of the innocence.
More good news is that Sifford is not damaged goods any longer.
Before West’s last football game — in the third round of the 3A state playoffs — he suffered a broken kneecap in a pickup game that limited the senior leader to just 12 basketball games. But by playoff time, he was getting low on defense and being the aggressive pest that made him famous in gyms around the South Piedmont Conference.
He averaged just seven points but could average more at Greensboro.
“Coach is going to put him on the floor every night and allow him to make mistakes,” Gurley said. “Like I said, he had other offers or could’ve gone to junior college but he was totally impressed with what he saw on his visit.”
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