Wattad excited to lead Lander to D2 title game

Omar Wattad and the Lander basketball team have one more step to go. Wattad, the all-time leading scorer in Science Hill High School history, is in his fifth season as Lander University head coach. He has led the Bearcats (30-5) to the NCAA Division II national championship game on April 5 when they will take on Gannon (34-3). Lander enters the title contest on a 15-game win streak. "It's been a great run. We have a group of guys who don't blink when things go wrong," Wattad said during a phone interview. "They stayed focused and stay together. You have to have that mental toughness to advance in tournament play. We've put ourselves in position to win every single game, and we've taken care of it five times in a row." The Bearcats are led by Greyson Pritzi, a 6-4 junior guard who is averaging 13.9 points and 4.6 rebounds per game. Jacob Daniels, a 6-foot freshman, has posted 13.7 points and 5.6 assists per game. Terry Leonard Jr., a 6-3 sophomore, and Dylan Canoville, a 6-6 senior, are others in double figures. Lander, the champion of the Peach Belt Conference, is averaging 80.8 points per game. The Bearcats have outscored opponents by an 11.1-point margin, and on the defensive end have advantages in turnovers, steals and blocked shots. Wattad, who played at Georgetown and later Chattanooga in college before playing professionally overseas, talked about how he's also changed as a head coach over the five years since he first arrived on the Greenwood, South Carolina campus. The Bearcats went 14-15 in 2021-22 before posting 22-10 records the next two seasons. They had another winning season in 2024-25 before this year's big breakout. "I wasn't a very good coach my first season," Wattad said. "It's hard when you move over a chair, very different when you become the head man. When you're an assistant, you think you know what should've been done. As a head coach, every decision falls on you. There are the split-second decisions during the game, and the decisions that affect the overall program." Different recruiting trips across the nation has made Wattad appreciate the coaching he got in high school. He sees it as a level above most of what he sees across the country. "Having recruited nationally at a lot of high schools, I started looking back at my time at Science Hill," Wattad said. "I'm able to say what I was able to learn as a basketball player with Coach (Ken) Cutlip started the process of what I'm doing now. The coaching I got is exponentially better than over 90 percent of what I see nationally." Wattad explained it went beyond the X's and O's, or just what was taught on the court. It was setting an example for the young men, something he tries to emulate himself. "Coach Cutlip taught you the process, but more importantly, he was a man who set a proper standard," Wattad said. "He was about doing the right things on and off the court. That was so valuable at that age." This isn't Wattad's first experience at the Division II Final Four. He was an assistant at Lincoln Memorial under head coach Josh Schertz, who led the Railsplitters to two Final Four appearances including national runner-up in 2016. Ironically, Lander beat Lincoln Memorial 76-71 in the first round of this year's Division II tournament. Meanwhile, Schertz has gone on to coach Indiana State and now Saint Louis after leaving LMU. His Saint Louis team defeated Georgia in the first round of this season's NCAA Division I tournament. It was reported Sunday that he turned down an opportunity to be the new head coach at N.C. State. "I owe everything to Josh Schertz. He took a chance on me at 25 years old and took me under his wings," Wattad said. "Every part of being a college head coach — evaluating talent, being the CEO of a program, how to treat and love people in a style I've never seen before, a paradox of loose and disciplined — that fits my personality well." Wattad describes this year's team as mentally tough and able to defend the 1 through 5 positions with athletic guys who can slide their feet. He loves how they rebound, and how they're skilled well enough to create their own shots and get to the paint. He joked, "We're good, other than free-throw shooting where we're horrendous." They were able to knock down 20 free throws in a 91-81 national semifinal win over Nova Southeastern. Gannon, based out of Erie, Pennsylvania, beat Oklahoma Baptist in its semifinal victory. Looking ahead to the championship game, Wattad sees a lot of the Golden Knights possessing some of the same qualities as his own team. "They play a similar style, a lot of the press game," Wattad said. "They like the run-and-gun style where you have to be on your p's and q's for 40 minutes. I've been a part of it since growing up as a player. The knowledge I learned with press offense and defense at Science Hill gave me a great baseline going forward."