By Robert Wilson
Madison-Ridgeland Academy boys basketball coach Richard Duease – the winningest basketball coach in Mississippi history and the second winningest active boys basketball coach in the country – is starting his 50th season of brilliant career and 43rd season at MRA Tuesday at Central Hinds Academy in Raymond.
Duease is a year older – he turned 72 last February 18 – but that’s about the only thing that has changed about the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame member, who was inducted this summer.
He is still excited about coaching, about his team, about his difficult non-conference scheduled with several tournaments outside of Mississippi and showcases and public school opponents inside the state, and especially the rugged MAIS Class 6A conference schedule.
Duease has 1,834 victories (1,242 boys and 572 girls) with 710 losses, a 72.1 winning percentage (73.9 boys and 67.9 girls) with 41 state championships and 15 MAIS Overall Tournament titles (12 boys and three girls) in his career. He has won 1,194 boys and 439 girls games at MRA.
“I’m looking forward to the season getting started,” Duease said. “I feel great. We are going to have a nice team. We lost (point guard) Sam Hailey (who graduated after leading the team in scoring and assists and now at a freshman at Division III Huntington College in Montgomery, Ala.), but I like our guys coming back, our new players and the players coming up. We have a great non-conference schedule, and our league is loaded. Our second game is against Paul Bryant High out of Tuscaloosa (Saturday in the Steel Dynamics Cavalier Classic in Caledonia). We are playing in the Arby’s Classic (a national tournament in Virginia) after Christmas with teams from California, New York, and Texas. We played in it when Josh Hubbard (Mississippi’s all-time leading scorer was a senior at MRA two years ago and now a junior at Mississippi State). They have about 6,000 fans a game. It’s a great atmosphere. Josh had 37 points and we beat a team from the Bronx 75-73 in overtime and Josh had 39 points and we lost to a nationally ranked team from Norcross, Ga., 77-75 in overtime. We are also playing in a tournament in Gulfport against Baker (La.) High and (MHSAA Class 4A) Northeast Lauderdale. We are playing in the BASSA and the Rumble in the South (both at Mississippi College). And our conference is very good. Jackson Prep, JA, Hartfield (Academy), Madison St. Joseph and PCS (Presbyterian Christian School) are all good teams. (Defending 6A state champion and Overall champion) JA already beat (MHSAA Class 7A) Murrah High by 29 and 30 points in two scrimmages and the other teams as good as well. It’s going to be fun.”
JA kept Duease from winning his 13th Overall boys championship last season, rallying to win in the title game.
MRA won its first 24 games last season and finished 33-6. Duease has three returning starters, led by 6-foot-10 freshman center EJ Dampier, son of former Mississippi State and NBA star Erick Dampier, who is also one of Duease’s assistant coaches. Dampier – rated as the No. 1 player in the country in the Class of 2028 – averaged 10.1 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.9 blocked shots as an eighth grader last season. He had 16 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocked shots against JA in the Overall championship game. Dampier had highs of 21 points (three times), 19 rebounds against Heritage Academy and 4 blocked shots against Copiah Academy last season.
“Dampier is twice as good as he was last year,” Duease said. “He was invited to the USA Trials and there were 40 of the top players in the Class of 2027 and 40 of the top players in the Class of 2028, picked by NBA and college coaches. Dampier finished third among the 80 and was the first center and the other two players were from the 2027 group.”
In addition to Dampier, senior guard Jas Smith and junior guard Will Bizot (currently playing wide receiver on MRA’s football team) are back. Smith averaged 10.4 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2 assists and Bizot, son of former high school and junior college basketball coach and current Mississippi College athletic director Kenny Bizot, averaged 10.3 points, 3 rebounds and shot 42 percent from 3-point range.
Other key players Duease is counting on are junior point guard Evan Carr (sixth man last season), 6-3 senior forward Jack Pentecost, junior guard and Texas transfer Blake Hansberry and 6-3 senior guard, Madison Central transfer Kingston Dixon and 6-3 sophomore guard Jack Dalton (who is playing wide receiver on MRA’s football team). Hansberry’s older brother, Marcello, played for Lanier several years ago and Hansberry’s father, Tim, has been nationally ranked in tennis during his adult career and is a tennis professional. Dalton is younger brother of Davis Dalton, who was the Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Football Player of the Year and All-State basketball player at MRA and is a sophomore wide receiver at Southern Miss.
“We have a lot of guys who can score,” said Duease, who hasn’t won an Overall title since 2021. “Evan has a lot of potential. Jack has improved a lot. Blake is quick and fast. Kingston didn’t play with us this summer and transferred when school started. He’s left-handed and a smart player.”
One starter missing from last season is 6-6 senior forward Ashton Magee, a Division I prospect who transferred several weeks ago back to MHSAA Class 5A South Jones High. He had been at MRA for two years.
Duease will be going up against another Mississippi coaching legend in James Crain, who is in his first season at Central Hinds. Central Hinds head of school Billy Wayne Hankins, who coached football when Crain coached basketball at Simpson Academy, asked Crain to come out of retirement to coach at Central Hinds.
Crain, who just turned 70, is the second winningest boys basketball coach in Mississippi history with 1,038 victories. He passed Ingomar’s Norris Ashley, who had 1,023 wins from 1969-2012. Crain won his first Overall championship in 2020 with Simpson, and retired until this season. He has won nine state championships, and this is his 40th season, 23 years at Mendenhall (two state championships), six at Hillcrest Christian (three state titles), and 10 at Simpson (four state titles).
Crain, like Duease, has had several of his basketball players playing football. Central Hinds ended its football season Friday night with an overtime loss to Columbia Academy.
Central Hinds is 0-2 with losses to MHSAA Class 1A Bogue Chitto and MAIS Class 5A Brookhaven Academy.
Crain has one of the top players in the MAIS in 6-6 senior Wesley Lindsey, who received an offer from Southern Miss last week. He scored 19 points in 19 minutes against Bogue Chitto and 14 points against Brookhaven Academy after missing several weeks of practice with an illness. Lindsey averaged 18.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.7 steals, 2.3 assists and 1.7 blocked shots last season as a junior.
“Wesley had a great summer, and we had a lot of college coaches come in here to look at him,” Crain said. “He’s impressive. Wesley can do a lot of same things that (former All-State guard and Mississippi State starter) Brad Smith could do for me at Mendenhall. He can play any position on the floor.”
