Spring Garden senior Andrew Morris made it official last Tuesday. He’ll play his basketball for the next two years for the Gadsden State Cardinals and coach Todd Ginn.Morris was a four-year starter at Spring Garden for Jason Howard. He ended with career totals of 1,096 points and 721 rebounds.
Morris said he considers his size – he’s listed at 6-foot-4 in this year’s Northeast Regional tournament program and may be taller – and his ball handling ability to be his primary assets as a player. He started playing as a guard and never left the position even as he grew.
“My whole life, that’s where I’ve played,” Morris said. As a freshman, he reached 6-foot. Now he believes he’s 6-5 and, “I still think I’m growing.”
That’s good news for Ginn and the Cardinals.
“Any time you can get a guard who’s 6-4 or better, you’ve got all kinds of potential,” Ginn noted, after watching Morris and his parents sign all the necessary paperwork.
Ginn added that he did not expect Morris to handle the point guard role for Gadsden State as he did at Spring Garden much of his senior year but that playing the point “improved his court vision and his ability to handle the ball.”
Ginn, who recently completed his first season as Gadsden State’s coach, described his system as 1-2-3-3-5.
“I try to get four guys that can shoot the ball and put them around a big guy,” he said.
Ginn thinks Morris will be one of those shooters.
“He’s got a great opportunity to play the 3 for me,” said Ginn. “I tell everyone, ’You’re going to have to work. I’m not going to give you anything.’ He’s very, very smart, very respectful. He’s got great folks who brought him up right. I don’t have to worry about losing him at Christmas. He’s going to go to class and I think he’s going to work hard.”
Howard knows about Morris’ work ethic.
“He brought it every day at practice, practiced hard,” said his high school coach. Then Howard added, “I’ve never seen anyone put us on his back and tote us like he did that last stretch.”
The “last stretch” brought Spring Garden to the Northeast Regional tournament at Jacksonville State for the third time in four years.
Ginn’s move to the head job at Gadsden State is one of the things that attracted Morris to the school.
“They’ve got a new coach and he comes from a good line of basketball talent,” said Morris.
Morris won’t carry any preconceived notions about his place on the team with him to Gadsden.
“I think I’ve just got to go down there and find out what my teammates can do, find my role,” he said.
He added that he’s willing to do whatever his team needs him to do to win games.
Morris joins Kaleb Owens of Faith Christian and Eric Nix of Ider as Gadsden State commitments.
“He’s just going to continue to get better and better and better,” predicted Ginn. “If he works, he could be a very good player for us.”
