By Doug Gorman
Clayton News-Daily Sports Editor
The Clayton State men's basketball team went 15-14 this year in a season that took the Lakers and their fans on a roller coaster ride of winning streaks, followed up by several losses in a row.

Clayton State started the year winning nine games in a row, and knocking off fellow Peach Belt Conference rival Augusta State en route to cracking the Top 25 for a quick appearance.

From there, things went in the opposite direction, as the Lakers lost five games in a row, including four in a row by a combined eight points. Don't expect that to happen again on head coach Gordon Gibbons' watch.

One of the winningest head coaches in NCAA Division II history, Gibbons turned Clayton State from a struggling basketball program to a perennial 20-game winner when he took over in the spring of 2001. Now he is the winningest coach in Laker history and wins are expected.

"Expectations are always going to be high at Clayton State," Gibbons said. "This year was no different than the last six or seven years. We felt like we had an experienced team back. We had eight players that had been here the year before, and we were adding players that had been with our team.

"We just felt like this was going to be a year where we were going to challenge for the championship."

Gibbons admits the Lakers had high hopes for a successful campaign after the way his squad finished last year.

After struggling in the middle of the 2007-08 season, the Lakers got hot at the end of the year, won the Peach Belt Conference Tournament to pick up the automatic bid to the NCAA Division II National Tournament.

Once there, they gave a new meaning to the term "March Madness" as they won twice to reach the "Sweet 16."

We also had a bunch of guys coming back from a team that really finished the season strong," Gibbons said. "We were rocking along pretty good, and then we hit the league. The first hurdle we hit, we lost five games in a row after being 9-0 and ranked 16th in the country.

"Two of those losses were at the buzzer, and three were at home."

Gibbons says perhaps that streak shook the confidence of some of his players.

"There comes some doubt maybe a little bit, and confidence in each other. And then you have to battle through it."

The roller coaster ride started from there as Clayton State went on to win three out of four games and in that stretch, played a tough brand of defense, holding its opponents for 54 points a game.

"We really felt like we were back," he said. "We knew maybe we weren't guaranteed any NCAA Tournament, but who knows."

Clayton State then lost six straight, with five coming by an average of three points. During that stretch, the Lakers went from being ranked 16th in the country to 12-12 overall.

However, the Lakers finished the year with a 3-2 record to finish one game above .500

"That's when I saw the true colors of this team," Gibbons said. "Pride kicked in, tradition kicked in, we weren't going to have a losing season. It put us in position to finish the year above .500 and make another run in the conference tournament."

The veteran basketball coach knows why things didn't always go in the Lakers' favor.

"The league was very good, maybe the best it's been. We also made a few lineup changes during the course of the first hurdle, and you wonder if that was right. The third thing is we just lost a bunch of close games.

"When a coach evaluates that, he is going to blame himself for that, but there can also be some misfortune and bad luck. But it is what it is."

Still, there were some good things Gibbons will take from the season, including an historic victory against league foe North Georgia when the two squads played in January. With the victory against the Saints, the Lakers won for the 150th in Gibbons' tenure.

In addition, a 66-55 victory over Francis Marion in the regular season finale gave Gibbons his 400th victory in his illustrious Division II head coaching career of 18 seasons.

"That's the most victories by any program in our league in that same time period. Our seniors were involved in two straight trips to the NCAA Division II National Tournament. It's just this year we weren't able to have the same kind of season that we expected."

Those seniors included All-Peach Belt Conference guard Bernard Fields, who led the team with a 13.7 points per game scoring average, and Freddie Williams, who averaged 12 points a game. Morrow graduated Tre Goss, plus forwards Brian Kelly and Ricky Garrett finished their careers at Clayton State.

Despite the losses, Clayton State still managed to have one of the best defensive teams in the country, leading the Peach Belt Conference in scoring defense and finishing in the Top 20 in the nation in scoring defense for a seventh year in a row.

Now, it will be up to Gibbons to keep things going by adding another strong recruiting class.

"Recruiting is going real well," Gibbons said. "We are going to miss these seniors, but our goal is - we aren't going to finish in the middle of the pack any more. That's the buzz word going around our program. The combination of recruiting, player development, motivation and work ethic are going to push us right where we should be."