MBB Feature: Veteran Eagles Serve as Mentors

STATESBORO – Grant Weatherford hears the consistent jabs from his teammates.

“Grandpa G!!”

“You need some WD-40?”

“Where’s your walker?”

Even men’s basketball coach Brian Burg takes subtle shots during practice in the midst of a teaching moment.

“Grant, you’re the oldest player in college basketball, and you still don’t know how to fight through a screen,” he’ll say. Then later, “Grant, my apologies; I made a mistake. You’re not the oldest player in college basketball. You’re the third oldest.”

At 25 years and six months now, he is indeed the third-oldest player in college basketball and playing meaningful minutes in his seventh season. Though Weatherford takes most of the ribbing, he has plenty of company. He is the oldest player on the Georgia Southern roster, but the Eagles are the 19th-oldest team in college basketball this season.

Sixth-year senior Tre Cobbs clocks in at 24 years and seven months, making him the 15th-oldest player in the country, and Gedi Juozapaitis is 23 years and four months old. Kamari Brown turned 23, and Elijah McCadden turned 22 in December.

Cobbs still tries to correct people, telling them he is a fifth year and not a sixth year because this is his fifth season playing.

It is semantics. The fact is Cobbs and Weatherford played in their first collegiate games in 2016, when Eagle freshmen Mannie Harris and Donovan Stocks were just 13-years-old.

“That’s crazy,” says Cobbs with a laugh, upon being informed of that revelation.

The age gap presents quite a few pop culture references that get lost in translation to the youngsters. Weatherford, who shares a room with Harris on road trips, found the movie “Home Alone” on TV during some downtime in the room. To be fair, the film came out before Weatherford was born as well, but it had always been a staple for him during the Christmas season. As Weatherford talked about the movie, reminiscing on his youth, Harris looked at him with a blank stare. He had never seen it.

“It's mind blowing - the movies I grew up with - he has no clue, no recollection,” says Weatherford.

An NBA junkie, Weatherford will be watching games with Harris and mention former NBA players like Peja Stojakovic or even Hall of Famers like Reggie Miller only to find Harris gazing at him with a quizzical look.

“LeBron has been in the league longer than Mannie has been alive,” says Weatherford. “That's another thing that blows my mind.”

A native of Cicero, Indiana, Weatherford signed at Purdue and redshirted the 2015-16 season when the Boilermakers advanced to the NCAA Tournament but fell in double overtime to a game Little Rock squad, which featured a coaching staff that included Burg. Weatherford transferred to Midland College and after a season there, he went to IUPUI where he redshirted a season because of injury and played two years before joining the Eagle roster last year for Burg’s first campaign. He was honored on Senior Night last February but opted to come back for his final year of eligibility.

“I sat down with the coaches, and last year didn't end the way a lot of us had hoped,” he says. “We thought there was a lot of things that we could take advantage of going into this year - having the summer, having our core group of guys and bringing in some pieces. We were honest with each other about what we thought our future could hold both together and individually, from them helping me and me helping them and then the team. I like everything that Coach Burg and the staff are preaching - the culture - and being a big part of that.”

The clock will finally run out on Weatherford’s eligibility this spring but not before he has taken full advantage of his opportunities in the classroom. He has so many degrees and certificates that he cannot remember them all.

“Sales and selling, business, communications, organizational leadership and supervision (OLS), general studies, science and engineering with a focus in OLS,” he rattles off before pausing. “I have an associate's in another field of business; I can't even really remember.”

Weatherford graduated with a bachelor’s degree in OLS after his first semester at IUPUI and earned his master’s in science and engineering with a focus in OLS from there two years later. He will finish another master’s degree at Georgia Southern this May, this time in sport management.

A native of Lima, Ohio, Cobbs started his career at Northern Kentucky where he was recruited by current Eagle assistant coach Chris Shumate. He played three seasons for the Norse (received a medical redshirt for a fourth) and was a member of three NCAA Tournament teams, one NIT team and two Horizon League Championship squads. After a coaching change, Cobbs decided he wanted to transfer prior to the 2020-21 season. Georgia Southern was in the mix, but he opted for Division II Kentucky Wesleyan.

“I just decided the Division II route was best for me at that time,” Cobbs says. “When they granted us another year, I'm like ‘ok, maybe I can go down South and be coached by Burg and Shumate.’ I decided to take this COVID year and use it to pursue my master's and try to win another conference championship at the Division I level.”

Cobbs earned a bachelor’s degree from Northern Kentucky in organizational leadership with a minor in marketing and a degree from Kentucky Wesleyan in communications. He is working on his master’s in sports management from Georgia Southern and is scheduled to receive it in 2023.

Weatherford has played in every game this season, and Cobbs has started every game he has been available for. Both have made significant contributions on the court, but equally as important to the program, are the intangibles in terms of leadership they bring to the program.

“I'm someone who has been through many, many different scenarios and seen a lot of different things,” says Weatherford. “So, my role is being a coach who is not a coach. Helping translate messages and helping guys see things from a different viewpoint. Helping to implement the culture, bring energy, whether it’s on the bench or in the game, and be there for them on and off the court.”

Cobbs’ experience this year has been a little different than Weatherford because this is his first year with the program.

“It's been a little difficult because you are trying to learn and trying to lead at the same time,” he says. “I’m trying to be a leader as a guy who's been to the NCAA Tournament and show the guys that what the coaching staff is trying to put together for us is the route that we need to take. I’m trying to bring toughness and a competitive edge and then do whatever the team needs to win, whether it's points or a charge or a stop on defense - whatever it is.”

The Eagles are leaning on the experience of the upperclassman as they get into the heart of their Sun Belt schedule in a season that has begun to present a lot of twists and turns as a result of another COVID-19 surge.

“The old adage in college basketball in regard to your roster is, ‘stay old,’” says Burg. “Guys like Grant and Tre have been through a lot and seen just about everything, and their experience and leadership are tremendous assets for our program, both on and off the court.”

Georgia Southern will try to extend their six-game home winning streak as the Eagles are slated to host Coastal Carolina Thursday and Appalachian State Saturday. Thursday’s game is 90s Night and set for a 7 p.m. tipoff, and Saturday’s game is a Blue Out and starts at 3 p.m.