For the Longwood Lancers, punching a ticket to March Madness is a monumental achievement. The Big South is a small mid-major conference that can only send one of its nine programs to The Big Dance.
Head coach Griff Aldrich is entering his seventh season at the helm of the program, where he has since shifted the discussion, expectations and narrative around Longwood men’s basketball. Among the roster, the longest-serving player on the team is graduate student forward Michael Christmas, who has been named to the all-conference second team. Christmas spoke to MidMajorBasketball.com in the build-up to the new season.
Matthey: How do you plan to approach your fourth year at Longwood? Is it any different from the start of seasons prior?
Christmas: I think I approach every year the same. I just try to make sure the team is together and make sure we’re in the same mode going into the year. I try to use my experience as an advantage to allow these guys to get comfortable with the start of games.
Matthey: How is the team planning on building from the title last season?
Christmas: I think having some new crew this year…for the returning guys to build on what we have got from (the title) and help teach these guys what it takes to get to that point. There’s going to be a lot of struggles along the way, but we have to stick together and always have one goal.
Matthey: Being the longest-serving player on the team, how are you taking on your leadership role?
Christmas: It’s good to be the older person here because a lot of guys look up to me and look to me for guidance. If they are having struggles with anything they can always come to me and I can talk them through it. Having the opportunity to teach people is a good feeling because I’ve gone through a lot of experiences and a lot of the guys haven’t.
Matthey: Longwood was ranked third in the preseason poll. How do you and the team handle having high expectations?
Christmas: I think we just approach it like anything else, just go out there and execute our game plans. (We need to) make sure our values are kept up and make sure we go win the game.
Matthey: What have you seen from the new players that you really like?
Christmas: They definitely have the mindset of what we want here at Longwood. We’ve kind of talked about how we want things to go and they’ve been very receptive to it. Another good thing about this group is that we have a lot of talent.
Looking Ahead
Longwood’s season begins on Monday at home against Randolph College. The Lancers may be the defending champions, but it will be another tightly contested battle for Big South supremacy once again in 2024-25. High Point and Winthrop were the only two schools picked ahead of Longwood in the Big South poll, both of whom Longwood beat in Farmville, Virginia, last season.
