Prime Time back on the court and going ‘100 mph’

The Prime Time Players semi-professional basketball team returned to the court earlier this month with the same brand of basketball that has garnered them so much success over the years.

They’ve added a new point guard and generated bigger roles for some of their post guys, but the Players are mostly comprised of the same team that’s gone 57-5 over the past five-plus seasons and won five consecutive league championships, including two straight East Coast Basketball League titles since joining that circuit in 2015.

“We have a few guys playing a couple of different positions,” said owner and coach Chris Thomas.

“But we’re the same run-and-gun and let-it-fly team that we’ve always been – there’s no doubt about that. We’re still up and down the floor 100 miles-per-hour and we’re going to try to outscore everyone to win. That’s always going to be our style.”

The Players’ formula has worked well so far as they’ve started the season 2-0.

They blitzed S.C. Upstate Redhawks on March 4 to open the season as six Players were in double figures led by reigning MVP and U.S. Basketball Guard of the Year Chris Moore, who scored 45 points and added 12 rebounds and eight assists.

First-team all-league pick and ECBL tournament MVP Terrell Smith scored 31 points and sixth man and ECBL Defensive Player of the Year Danny Sanders added 25 points and eight rebounds.

New addition point guard DiJuan Harris had 19 points and 12 assists in his debut, and the former Charlotte 49er star has Thomas excited for this team’s continued success.

“We added DiJuan to try to help us out,” he said.

“That moves Chris Moore over to the shooting guard to give him more of a chance to be a scorer instead of trying to play the point and be a scorer. Now we have two excellent point guards with DiJuan and Victor Street. We have that two-headed monster that will help us with The Basketball Tournament (a national tournament that pays the winning team $2 million), which we’ll get into right after the year is over.”

The Players also have some changes in the post.

Thomas Phaff and Brian Mobley were both injured last year, and this year both of them are back and healthy.

“Thomas is our main post player, and I’m real confident that he’ll be able to take over down low,” Thomas said.

Phaff made his debut in the 115-105 win over the Charlotte Goldnen Bulls in the Players’ second game of the season on March 11.

The 6-foot-8 center out of Lipscomb played well with four points and seven rebounds, but is expected to have a larger role going forward.

The Players didn’t need much scoring in the paint against the Golden Bulls as Moore poured in 46 points and was joined in double figures by Smith (18 points, 11 rebounds), Mobley (18 points, eight rebounds) and Harris (10 points, seven assists).

While the 2-0 start is nice for Thomas, he’s focused on making a run in The Basketball Tournament this year.

Last season ended in disappointment as his team lost to Atlanta’s Trained to Go team in the first round. Trained to Go made the final eight at The Basketball Tournament, reaching the same round the Players got to two seasons ago.

With mostly the same roster and a few key newcomers, the Players think they have a shot to get at least that far this year.

“Injuries really hurt us last year,” Thomas said. “Donald Rutherford wasn’t able to play so we moved Brian Mobley from the small forward to the power forward and moved Chris Moore over to the two guard. Now that DiJuan is with us and we have Thomas in the post I think we can keep this going.”

This story was originally published March 30, 2017 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Prime Time back on the court and going ‘100 mph’."