Hampton keeps a sideline seat for captain who died

The chair between Hampton basketball coach Ed Joyner Jr. and assistant coach Keith Coutreyer will sit empty tonight when the Pirates play host to Virginia Commonwealth.

They will leave that chair open -- except for the No. 12 jersey draped on it -- for the rest of the season.

Theo Smalling remains very much on the minds of his coaches and teammates almost a month after his death. Hampton's captain was accidentally shot in the abdomen, according to police, outside a nightclub in the early morning hours of Oct. 24. He died two days later. His 22nd birthday was on the 23rd.

While the Pirates are doing plenty of things to remember the senior forward -- affixing a No. 12 patch on their jerseys, writing on their shoes, wearing T-shirts with his picture, leaving his locker untouched, dedicating their first home game to him -- they are trying to get back to as normal a routine as possible.

"Things have been tough," Joyner said. "We're just getting back to being able to play basketball on a daily basis. That's probably the best way to handle it, put your mind into that. We're kind of getting a late start."

Smalling died less than three weeks before the Pirates' opener. Joyner said his team missed almost 10 days of practice after a memorial service to Smalling and then a storm and heavy rain that knocked out power.

Hampton lost close games in its first two outings, 83-80 at La Salle and 68-63 to Iona at home.

"The one or two times we tried to practice, nobody's mind was there," Joyner said. "We had to give them time to grieve, tell them to let it out.

"The first game at home kind of brought a lot of closure to them. That was the last true memorial thing we are going to do probably until senior night. Hopefully, good or bad now, we can talk about basketball."

Smalling, a 6-7 forward from Tampa, averaged 3.3 points and 5.2 rebounds during his career. Joyner called him "a backbone-type of kid."

"He wanted the responsibility of holding the team together," he said. "He was a tough kid when he needed to be tough on himself and his teammates, but he also was the one they were able to talk to as a big brother. He was a fun-loving kid, always joking, always had something funny to say."

Joyner, who spent the past three seasons as a Hampton assistant, became the interim head coach in April when Kevin Nickelberry resigned. He's the son of Saint Paul's coach Ed Joyner Sr. and the nephew of Johnson C. Smith coach Steve Joyner.

Neither of them, or any other coaches from whom he's sought advice, knew what to tell him.

"I haven't read any coaching books yet to tell me what to do to get through this," Joyner said. "The only thing I know to do is to continue to work, continue to do the things we're doing and try to get back in the swing of it.

"I think we all understand now how much basketball means to us, how much of an outlet it is. And we understand that sometimes it's not the most important thing in the world."