By Robert Wilson
MADISON – Madison-Ridgeland Academy honored its long time basketball coach Richard Duease Friday night with a Richard Duease Appreciation Night.
And Duease – who is retiring this season after 51 years as a head coach, the last 44 years at MRA – was appreciative of the nice things said about him and his program.
“I have mixed feelings,” Duease said. “I spent 44 years here. It was wonderful and nice and we had a great night. I want to end this thing the right way with a championship.”
Duease – the winningest high school basketball coach in Mississippi history, the second winningest active boys basketball coach in the country and a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame – took another step toward that goal with a 67-52 victory over defending MAIS Overall Tournament champion Jackson Prep in a MAIS Class 4A non-district game before an estimated 750 at MRA’s Duease Hall, named after the legendary coach.
The 73-year-old Duease announced this past summer that this is his final season. The Indianola High, Mississippi Delta Community College and Mississippi State graduate has 1,878 victories (1,286 boys and 592 girls) with 725 losses, a 72.1 winning percentage, with 41 state championships and 15 MAIS Overall Tournament titles (13 boys and two girls) in his career. He has won 1,238 boys and 439 girls games at MRA.
MRA – ranked No. 2 in Mississippi and No. 1 in MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – improved to 26-2 and won its eighth game in a row. MRA’s only two losses are to MHSAA Class 5A Columbus High, ranked No. 6 in Mississippi, and Zachary High, the No. 1 rated team in Louisiana by MaxPreps. MRA swept the two-game series with Prep, also winning 64-34 Dec. 11 at Prep.
Prep – ranked No. 54 in Mississippi and No. 6 in MAIS Class 4A – dropped to 15-12 and broke a six-game winning streak.
MRA head of school Termie Land and MRA athletic director Ross Hailey honored Duease and his wife Kim before the boys game at half court.
“Richard joined MRA in 1982 and is now in his 51st year of coaching,” said Land as he introduced Duease to the crowd Friday night. “For decades, he has been the standard – not just for excellence, but for consistency, discipline, and heart. His induction it not the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame was well earned, and anyone who has watched Mississippi high school basketball over the years knows just how dominant his impact has been. Richard and I share something in common – we were both raised in Sunflower County. Long before I knew him as a colleague, I admired him as an athlete. A five-sport standout in high school (at Indianola High), he was one of those guys everyone knew about. Later, I got to know him as a professional, mostly from the opposite bench (as girls basketball coach at Indiana Academy and as boys basketball at Pillow Academy). And if I’m being honest, I feel like I contributed a fair amount to Richard’s win total over the years. I am deeply grateful for how collegial, respectful, and professional our relationship has been since I become head of school at MRA. Richard has been a joy to work with a steady presence on this campus, and a coach who has always represented MRA with class. I could not be more proud or more honored for Coach Duease’s years of service, his leadership his competitiveness, and his love for this school, and it students. His legacy at MRA – and in Mississippi basketball – will last for generations.”
“Coach Duease is the gold standard of Mississippi basketball coaching,” said Hailey, who was also an assistant coach to Duease. “He’s coached so many young men and women to achieve so much, but getting to see alums return to campus and tell him the impact he’s had speaks volumes. We had an alum from Kansas City, Missouri, show up tonight, and I can’t tell you the number of people who have been contacting him over the past month. We’ll reschedule his retirement celebration (postponed due to this weekend’s weather concerns) for a weekend in April and that will be a great day to honor a man who hews meant so much to this school, the association and the state.
“He’s been loved by MRA fans and hopefully, at least appreciated, by fans of our rivals. He taught me basically everything I ever knew about basketball, and while I felt like I was a pretty good coach, I know I missed so many of the little things he’s been able to teach our players. His knowledge of the game is incredible, but it pales in comparison to the way he has been able to help our students and players at MRA. Coach Duease has gotten the most out of teams that weren’t supposed to accomplish nearly as much as they did. The way he gets kids to put aside their selfish tendencies and play together so the team can accomplish its goals is unparalleled. When coaches on other teams have issues with getting kids to play, he has always found ways to impress upon our student-athletes the importance of putting MRA first and playing that sport. Coach Duease has been a mentor to so many coaches at MRA, and the impact he’s had on me is immeasurable. He’s been able to impress upon coaches of all sports the importance of putting MRA first, and our coaching staff has been better because of leadership in the athletic department over all these years (Duease was MRA’s athletic director from 1996-2022).”
“There were many people here that I haven’t seen in a while,” Duease said. “Chareck Cable (Class of 1996), who was the first African-American to play for me was here with his two boys. That was special to see him. Also, Lilewis Davis (Class of 2018) was here (and drove from Kansas City). Kim’s brother, Joe Gibbs, and his wife, Lila, came.”
“I was glad that we were able to honor Coach Duease Friday night,” said MRA assistant coach Harper Hudnall, who also played for Duease. “He deserves all of the recognition he has received throughout the season, even though he wants none of the spotlight on him. As incredible as his win total is, his legacy is built on the many lives he’s impacted throughout his coaching career. I am very grateful for the impact Coach Duease has had on my life, from playing for him to now coaching with him.”
EJ Dampier – a 6-foot-10 sophomore center who is ranked No. 3 in the country in the Class of 2028 by ESPN, made second-team freshmen All-American by MaxPreps, a member of the USA National Under-16 Team and son of former Mississippi State and NBA star Erick Dampier, who is now an MRA assistant coach – led MRA with 16 points, 8 of 11 from the field including 4 dunks, 19 rebounds, 6 blocked shots and 3 assists. Junior guard Jack Dalton had 14 points and 12 rebounds, senior guard Will Bizot – who was recognized for scoring his 1,000th career point earlier this month – and senior guard Evan Carr had 11 points each and sophomore gaurd Caeden Harvey had 10 points.
“We played well the first three quarters, but we lost focus and Prep came back in the fourth,” Duease said. “We’ve got to do a better job shooting the ball.”
MRA led 23-11 after one quarter, 36-17 at halftime and 54-30 after three quarters before Prep rallied to within 59-47 with 5 minutes, 40 seconds to play before MRA pulled away.
“MRA is really talented,” Prep coach Zach Allison said. “Dampier changes the entire game. His presence on the defensive end is special. The kid will be a draft pick in the near future. Their guards can be extremely aggressive on the defensive end because they have a fantastic rim protector in the back. Dampier is elite defensively and makes it very hard to score.”
Prep was led by 6-3 junior guard Cray Luckett with 26 points, two short of his career high. He made six 3-pointers, tying his career high, out of 10 shots from long range. Considered one of the top 3-point shooters in Mississippi, Luckett now has 74 3-pointers this season and is within range of the school record of 93, set by Ben Segrest in the 2023-2024 season. Luckett – son of former Prep and Millsaps College point guard Cratin Luckett – also made 6 of 10 shots from 3-point range and scored 24 points in Monday’s win against MHSAA Class 5A South Jones in the Rumble in the South at Mississippi College. Luckett came into Friday averaging a team-high 15.7 points per game.
“Cray is a special scorer,” Allison said. “He is an elite shooter who can really change the game on the offensive end.”
Although Allison hasn’t coached against Duease for a long time – he was an assistant under Tim Wise at Prep for three seasons and head coach at Heritage Academy for one season before coming back to Prep as head coach four years ago after head coach Tim Wise went home to Memphis – he has an appreciation for Duease and his coaching career.
“It has been a honor to share the court with Coach Duease,” said Allison, who grew up in the Birmingham area and played at Auburn, Wallace State-Hanceville, Ala., Community College and Birmingham Southern. “He is a fantastic coach who identifies special talent and lets his kids play with great freedom. We have a lot of respect for Coach Duease and his program. We wish him the best in retirement and appreciate everything he has done for the game of basketball in Mississippi, especially in the Jackson area.”
