Price is a good fit at La Salle

A SUMMER OF death and seasons of change brought Jordan Price to the pinnacle of Big 5 basketball.

That always seems to be the path for these quick-fit La Salle transfers.

Price cycled through three high schools in 4 years. He found himself mired in a lousy situation at Auburn, injured, out of shape, losing.

He lost his grandfather, then his mentor, in a span of 2 months.

"It was a painful time for me," Price said. "I know God's always with me. Just got to get through the day."

His days have brightened considerably.

Price is the featured player on a close-knit team with a history of achievement and a future that looks bright. He is a sophomore who, with some seasoning, could carry the Explorers to national prominence again.

Sound familiar?

Ramon Galloway and Tyrone Garland transferred from southern colleges. Galloway, a family hardship transfer, led a gritty core at La Salle that ran to the Sweet 16 in 2013, with a big boost from Garland's "Southwest Philly Floater."

Price and Cleon Roberts, both big guards, transferred from Auburn and Georgia Southern and have helped the Explorers surge to 15-11 and 7-6 in the Atlantic 10, a dangerous team as the season ends. Price hit his first three threes and Roberts hit two of three as La Salle sprinted out and beat Duquesne last night, 87-72.

Price led all scorers, with 19 points. In his last six games Price is averaging 23.7 points and 7.2 rebounds, including a 34-point outburst in an upset win at No. 20 Virginia Commonwealth last week. He won the last two Big 5 Player of the Week awards.

At 6-5 and 220 pounds, with a smooth stroke and a fine handle, by the time he finishes at La Salle he should win plenty more. He entered last night averaging 17.5 points, second in the Atlantic 10 and the Big 5.

Neither Price nor Roberts set off seismic waves when they decided to head north in 2013 . . . but then, La Salle coach Dr. John Giannini is more chemist than talent scout when he courts transfers. It seems like La Salle has had a ton of them lately.

No more than most programs, Giannini said. Sort of loudly.

"I don't react well to the 'Transfer Train' thing, because it makes it sound like it's 'Transfer U.' I just think we get the right ones. We've gotten guys who can really have an impact. And we've gotten good kids," said Giannini, who has passed on a few hyper-talented, high-maintenance players in the past few seasons. "We've done a great job of not getting transfers."

They've done well retaining their better players, too. Giannini admits La Salle was a poor fit for talented, troubled big man Aaric Murray, who lasted two seasons before transferring to West Virginia and then Texas Southern, but the Explorers learned their lesson: Chemistry often trumps talent, and bad chemistry one place can mean an excellent fit on Olney Avenue.

"People are losing good players. We don't lose good players," said Giannini, who marvels at the hundreds of players who transfer each year. "Since Murray was pushed out the door [in 2011], we haven't had a kid leave who we haven't wanted to leave."

To make sure Price wanted to come, the Explorers did plenty to discourage him. They stressed the rigors of La Salle's academics; the harshness of Philadelphia winters; Giannini's egalitarian coaching style; and, most emphatically, La Salle's emphasis on effort over entitlement.

"We de-recruited this kid," Giannini said. "We haven't had success with really talented guys who weren't motivated. Jordan is extremely talented. He was a phenom coming up. I promised Jordan I wouldn't play him, at all, if he didn't fit in with our guys. If he wasn't going to work hard, don't come here. The reason we ran to the Sweet 16 is because we had good kids who worked hard and liked each other."

Giannini's discouragement failed.

Price craved everything Giannini offered: reward based on merit; stability; discipline. And while Price might not have been the most dedicated player at his three high schools and at Auburn, he quickly turned that leaf at La Salle.

"That's exactly what I was looking for," Price said. "I wanted someone to push me. I wanted to get better. And the coaches here, they're straightforward."

Price wanted from basketball what he got at home.

His family is basketball crazy, a rarity in Georgia, a football state. In any other family Price, with his size, might be playing tight end at UGA. But his mother, Felisha, is a basketball fan, and his father, Reaman, and his two older brothers, Timothy, 26, and Christopher, 24, were high school hoopsters. It's in Jordan's blood.

They toughened Jordan, now 20, and they made him a hot commodity. He played as a freshman at Columbia High, a basketball powerhouse in his hometown of Decatur, but left as a sophomore to board at the McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn., an academic proving ground 2 hours from home. He was named the state's Mr. Basketball for the 2009-10 season, but he was unhappy.

"I was homesick," he explained.

He returned to Decatur to seek normalcy. He declined another shot at Columbia, opting instead for Southwest DeKalb High, where he could play with his middle school pals.

There, Price met former SWD star Jarek Swain, who played at Georgia Southern. Swain was teaching math at his alma mater. He could relate to the pressures of being the Big Man on Campus.

"He helped a lot of young black kids like myself," Price said. "He understood the ups and downs of college basketball."

His grandfather, Bobby Hurd, understood the ups and downs of life.

To Price, Hurd was the grandfather who danced to James Brown in his living room and took his grandkids to Red Lobster and Waffle House.

To the rest of the region Hurd was a deacon who hosted a gospel talk show on community television in Atlanta and promoted gospel musicians. But, in 2011, Hurd was diagnosed with cancer.

Hurd began to lose his battle with the disease during Price's freshman season at Auburn, during which Price swelled to 225 pounds and suffered a stress fracture in his foot. He had played well before the injury, at one point hitting 11 three-pointers during a stretch in December of 2012 , but the team lost 16 of its last 17 games, the third of what would be four losing seasons for coach Tony Barbee, fired last year.

La Salle assistant Will Bailey, who has southern roots as a college player and coach, heard through the AAU grapevine that Price might want to move. Price committed to La Salle in June.

He was a teammate immediately.

"The most important guys on our teams," said senior Jerrell Wright, "is the new guys."

The inclusion helped him survive an awful summer.

Swain was in a car accident that June, while Price was visiting La Salle.

"It was a couple of days before I could get back and we realized how bad it was. They said he fell asleep at the wheel. I visited him in the hospital, when he was in the coma," Price said, softly, twirling his beard.

Hurd died in July of 2013, at 66.

Swain died in late August. He was 28.

Price was already at La Salle. "I wasn't able to make it to the funeral," he explained, saddened by the memory.

He ditched his No. 1 jersey and claimed Swain's No. 21. As a transfer, Price faced a year in Philadelphia of basketball idleness and personal mourning.

"That might have been the best year for Jordan so far," Reaman said. "He was able to focus, and settle in. Get his body together. Mentally, get together. Find peace. Get that passion and that hunger back.

"I knew that basketball community would just rally around him, and I actually felt good he was there, being taken care of."

After all those schools and all that tragedy, Jordan Price could have just . . . checked out.

Instead, he bought in.

That's what happens with transfers at La Salle.

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