Tom Crean’s first basketball commitment at Georgia is now his most experienced player. Junior Tye Fagan is eager for the opportunity that awaits him.
Thanks to graduation and attrition, when the Bulldogs begin play this November, no member of Crean’s squad will have logged more game-time wearing the red and black than the native of Logtown in South Georgia.
For Fagan, with experience come expectations. Not necessarily from the standpoint of production, but in this case, what the former Upson-Lee standout feels he needs to bring as a leader, both on and off the court, for a team that that will feature eight new players who were not a part of last year’s squad.
“I’ve always had leadership qualities. I’ve been behind the scenes more than people would probably know,” Fagan said in a telephone interview with UGASports. “I’ve always been a leader behind the scenes, even to the older guys. I’ve learned a lot from them, but I’ve also taken knowledge from them as well, so it was a mutual relationship and respect between me and a lot of guys like Jordan Harris, Turtle Jackson, guys like that.
“I’ve even learned from the young guys, so for me, it’s just making sure that every day, even at home, I’m keeping everyone accountable, making sure they’re working and growing individually. So when we come together as a team, we’ll be stronger. I’m just trying to be the glue man, trying to keep everyone together.”
Right now, that’s obviously being done a little bit different than it ordinarily would.
With players still not on campus due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the telephone has been Fagan’s best friend, as he’s used it to keep in touch with teammates, making sure everyone’s minding their respective Ps and Qs.
“I’m just making sure we’re checking each other, making sure we’re doing workouts, competing and just trying to get better,” he said. “But we talk every single day. Personally, I try to reach out to two or three different guys, or maybe four or five, even to see how they’re doing. The next day, I’ll check on another four or five to see how they’re doing.”
Reports, Fagan said, have been positive.
“Everybody is doing good. Everybody is staying healthy—that’s the best part. Everybody is staying healthy, staying safe, staying out of trouble,” Fagan said. “The other good part is they’re working. They tell me what they’re doing, I tell them what I’m doing; we exchange workouts we do, so we all can do the same.”
Fagan said the fact he’s taking it upon himself to assert himself more as one of the team’s leaders is not by accident. He and Crean talked about the likelihood of him doing just that, back when he was first recruiting him to become a Bulldog.
“That’s one of the first things we talked about—that I could come in with a new coach, a new system, and I’d have a chance to take a leadership role from the start,” Fagan said. “I always had leadership responsibilities in high school, so when I came up, I was learning so much at once; it wasn’t that I slacked, but I had to take the learning part first before I could gain experience and start to lead.
“He (Crean) always made sure I was being a leader. He never let me slack, and always kept pushing me to embrace it more, so to speak.”
Fagan, who has worked out in Atlanta with former teammate Anthony Edwards, said he’s got a plan on how to do just that.
“I want to lead by example every day. I want to come to practice every day, work hard. I don’t want to be the leader who does all the talking; I want to work hard every day, hold them accountable to work hard every day. I want to push other guys,” he said. “I want positivity. I want to keep negativity and everything that comes with it out of the way. I want us to stay with a one-track mind. I want us to be focused and stay focused toward our goal, and not settle for anything short of that. For that to happen we’ve got to stay together. That’s my job. To keep us together."
