Basketball coach thinks Panthers can take it all

Byron Rimm has coached for nearly half of his 39 years of life, but takes a unique approach to the job.
 He has triple duties as coach, psychiatrist, and comedian to the team.
 On any day of the week you can find him laughing with the assistant coaches or playing practical jokes on the players.
 "He loves to laugh, but he keeps it in context, but sometimes he just gets silly with us," said senior guard Carl Blair. "He is a player's coach, you can talk to him about anything he always has his door open."
 Prairie View played its biggest rival on Feb. 2 and was trampled, 84-48 by the TSU Tigers.
 "It was just one of those days where they just did not miss. And Jourdan was hurt, but that is no excuse, we were not playing that well," said Rimm.
 Rimm's Panthers are 11-16 overall, and 6-8 in the SWAC conference. He attributes the losing record to the stiff competition that the SWAC has shown this year.
 "People say this is the best year in the SWAC. The SWAC schools are starting to be real contenders to beat the bigger schools," said Rimm.
 However, even with the SWAC's higher quality basketball skills this year, the last four years the SWAC champion has entered the competition at the No. 16 seed spot and a 16 seed has never advanced past the first round in the tournament.
 The non-conference wins the Panthers have secured has given Rimm the belief they would dodge that fate.
 "If we make it we have to beat the No. 1 seed to advance, but we might not even be a 16 seed cause we got some pretty good wins out of the conference.
We just have to concentrate on the games coming up and then we can concentrate on the tournament, and when that time comes will be ready," said Rimm. "We are getting better everyday; by Saturday we will be better, by Sunday we will be even better than that and by March we will be the best."
Seniors Jourdan DeMuynck, Carl Blair and Ryan Gesiakowski will no longer be with the team after this year.
However, even losing most of the main scorers Rimm does see other potential leaders.
"Josh Eleby and Montrael Scott will be back next year and we have another guy coming who is a super athlete like Eleby, so we should be good next year," said Rimm.
When it comes to new recruits Rimm seeks to find a scorer, preferably a point guard to command and lead the team on the floor since starting point guard Blair is leaving.
"We need some guys to come in and shoot the ball since we were not shooting the ball very good this year," he said.
The fans are the deciding factor in any athletic teams plans of dominance in the future.
"Our Gold Members Club will not let us lose. We have the best fans in the country. That is what keeps PV basketball going, the fans," said Rimm.