Alum receives 200th Win

     Augusta State Alum and Head Men's Basketball coach marked a major milestone in his career recently. Now in his fourth year with the Jaguars and his 12th season overall as a head coach, Darren "Dip" Metress notched his 200th career victory.
     "I guess it means I've been around for a while now," joked Metress of reaching the career milestone. "It was a good win for us. We were coming off a hard-fought game on Saturday. Any conference win is a good win, especially when it's on the road in a league as competitive as this one is."
     During his tenure at ASU, Metress has accumulated 68 victories against just 35 losses. Included in the win total is the second-best season in school history in 2006-07 when the Jaguars posted a 24-7 mark, won the PBC Championship and advanced to the NCAA South Atlantic Regional.
     "It's great to be able to coach at your Alma matter, when I go and recruit a player I can say that I went to Augusta State and I know the type of institution it is," says Metress. "I've been fortunate to coach some great players here, and it's the players that have won these games for me."
     The winningest coach in Jaguar history in terms of winning percentage, Metress has also recorded more wins in his first 100 games than any other coach in the program's 42-year history. He has also posted nine straight seasons of 15 or more wins, and six campaigns of 17 or more victories.
     When asked about the future of ASU basketball Metress states that when he first came on as head coach here he said he wanted to fill the seats and people said it couldn't be done. Well, ASU has had some of the largest crowds ever during Metress's tenure. The game on January 21st against Aiken hosted a crowd of over 3,000 spectators. "I didn't want to be a one season wonder, and being ranked nationally for an entire calendar year has shown we aren't," says Metress. I hope we continue to recruit a top notch team and continue to bring fans to the gym with quality play.
     Earlier this season the Alumni Association took a charter bus to watch the Jags take on the University of Georgia Bulldogs in Athens. While the Jags barely lost the game, they won in many other regards. The fans that were present, almost filling several upper-level sections of Stegman Coliseum were twice as loud as UGA fans. They truly showed the spirit of ASU! "It was great, the fans have been very supportive of the team, I mean our fans were louder than the Georgia fans at that game," says Metress. "Having 500 or so people support us at an away game like that shows that we not only have a team, but we have a basketball program here at ASU."