Mount Olive College head men’s basketball coach Joey Higginbotham left the team bench and joined the “Kornegay Krazies” student section for the annual Mount Olive “Green and White” intrasquad scrimmage November 4 at Mount Olive’s Kornegay Arena.

Higginbotham, who was named 2008-09 Conference Carolinas Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year in his first year at Mount Olive, says the idea came to him the night before the scrimmage.

“I thought of it around midnight while I was in bed,” said Higginbotham, who is a Mount Olive graduate and was an assistant coach for seven years before taking the head coaching job. “I wanted to jump start the Kornegay Krazie school spirit, so I e-mailed a bunch of students and got the word spread around campus.”

Assistant coaches Akeem Miskdeen and Eric Gabriel handled the coaching duties Wednesday, while Higginbotham remained a fan – most of the time.

“Every once in a while I caught myself coaching,” said Higginbotham. “But I’d stop and turn back into one of the Kornegay Krazies.”

Higginbotham led Mount Olive to a share of its second consecutive Conference Carolinas regular-season championship with a 17-3 conference record to go with an 18-10 mark overall. The Trojans were ranked as high as No. 18 in last year’s Division II rankings.

Mount Olive tips off its regular season November 16 on the road at Lenoir-Rhyne for a nonconference matchup. The Trojans play host to the 44th annual Pickle Classic November 20-21 at Kornegay Arena. Participating teams in this year’s Pickle Classic are Mount Olive, Barton, Mars Hill and Virginia Union.

This year’s Pickle Classic features two of the last five Division II national champions: Virginia Union (2005) and Barton (2007). Mount Olive joined Virginia Union in advancing to the 2005 Elite Eight

-Mount Olive SID David Shulimson