Team Pittman goes 43-5 in summer basketball

Published 10:49 am Tuesday, August 5, 2025

By Brian Pitts
Enterprise Record

The 2025-26 Davie boys basketball team will look quite a bit different without Bryson Mickey, Jackson Powers and Elliott Erlandsson, but there’s lots of reasons to be excited about next season and beyond.
In Josh Pittman’s three years as coach, the War Eagles have finished 17-9, 22-5 and 18-9, advancing in the playoffs the past two seasons, and all the pieces are in place for continued success.
“If it’s in God’s plans, we will surprise a lot of people, especially with the style and the way we play,” Pittman said. “We’ve got a lot of upside in this group, and I think this will be a close-knit group that supports each other.”
Three Davie players were members of Team Pittman 2028 this spring/summer, and their season simply couldn’t have gone any better. Team Pittman 2028 went 43-5 – to repeat, it won 43 of 48 games – across 12 tournaments. Besides competing in local tournaments, the seven-man team traveled to Richmond, Va., Rock Hill, S.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Raleigh. For Davie, James Nance is Pittman’s assistant coach. The roles were reversed for Team Pittman 2028 as Pittman assisted Nance.
Brothers Noah Dulin and Draeton Nance and Billy Martin were the three Davie guys who played on Team Pittman. Justin Haggler was also on the team. Haggler played for Davie’s JV last season, but he’s transferring to Winston-Salem Christian.
The 6-2 Dulin is about to have a varsity career for the ages, perhaps in two sports. The rising sophomore is also one of the football team’s stalwarts at receiver.
“He won multiple MVPs and he developed into a Swiss Army knife,” Pittman said. “I pushed him to be more assertive and not defer because he can affect a game in so many ways. In preparation for what I would like to see from him in high school, I wanted him to be more aggressive on the offensive end, and that means attacking the basket and making plays. He picked that up a little bit and I think the sky is the limit for him. He played really well all summer. He didn’t have many hiccups at all.”
Rising sophomore Dre Nance is also firmly on a path to stardom in two sports – point guard in basketball and quarterback in football.
“I saw him become more aggressive,” Pittman said. “He always plays hard, but he started understanding angles and sitting down to play defense with more intensity. He shot the ball really well and he’s developing his mid-range game. Most importantly, from the end of his freshman season and over the course of the summer, I saw him mature and become more of a vocal leader. I pushed him to not get discouraged if his shot is not falling or put his head down if he makes a mistake. That’s a process, especially when you’re dealing with young players. He’s working through that and I feel like he’s in a much better spot now than he was when we started.”
How can you not love Martin? Even though the rising sophomore is often undersized in the paint – he’s 5-11 or 6-0 “on a good day,” Pittman said – he does the unnoticed chores and has the willingness to do anything to help inspire his team.
“Being undersized, he’s the type of kid that every coach not necessarily looks by, but won’t give the same attention to,” Pittman said. “Then they’ll realize that he’s one of those glue guys that makes everything work. I made the comment this summer: Due to parents or players, the role player no longer exists in basketball. Nobody wants to be a role player for some reason – whether it’s the parent or the player or who knows. But Billy made me reevaluate that statement because Billy plays hard every possession. He’s going to tell you ‘yes sir.’ If there’s a kid who is 6-5 or 6-6, Billy is going to do whatever he can to make up that difference in height, weight or whatever. He’s going to jump on the floor, he’s going to set screens, he’s going to do anything that you ask him to do. He’s a player that a coach absolutely falls in love with and loves to see succeed and loves to see having an important role on the team.”
Pittman couldn’t rave about this kid enough.
“Billy didn’t maybe play as much in some games, but he was still the first one standing up cheering and clapping and doing everything for the team. When I’d see teammates sitting beside him, pouting, upset, mad, not clapping, not cheering, it never affected his demeanor. He was always ready to go when you called his number. Now we keep working to develop his skills and I think he’s really gonna be important for us.”
A number of other War Eagles were busy playing tournament ball this summer for other teams. Rising senior Ethan Driver is a future college football receiver and a proven presence for Davie basketball. Then there’s rising seniors Isaac Swisher, Josiah Spillman and Noah Tysinger and rising juniors Aiden Horton and Jonathan Hanes, among others.
“Ethan is still Ethan,” Pittman said. “Aiden had a wonderful summer. He really came into his own. I saw and noticed that when we played back in June. He continues to work and develop his game.
“Isaac and Josiah will be battling it out for playing time as bigs, and not only just playing time but for a little bit of everything. They might even play together some.
“Tysinger got better. Jonathan’s coming to his own and getting healthy. He’s a big, strong kid. He was the manager last year. He ended up tearing his ACL before we got started, so he is working his way back. He’s an extremely hard worker and extremely strong kid. He’s a bigger version of Billy in some aspects.”
Notes: Dulin’s stats for Team Pittman: 21.2 points per game, 8.6 rebounds, 6.3 assists, 3.9 steals, 3.7 blocks. Nance’s stats: 19.5 points, 8.7 assists, 4.1 rebounds, 3.5 steals. And Martin’s numbers were 10.2 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.5 steals, 1.6 assists.