It’ll be brother against brother when Class 2A Menard hosts Class 4A St. Thomas More in boys basketball Thursday night.
Briggs Carbo, 25, is in his first season as the boys head coach at Menard – it’s his first season coaching anywhere as a head coach – and he’s got a young, inexperienced team that has won just five of 21 games. His Eagles will be playing at home against a St. Thomas More team that is 13-3 and includes Briggs’ youngest brother, LG, a 16-year-old sophomore.
LG’s real first name is David, but he doesn’t answer to David, only ‘LG,’ which is a nickname is father, Michael, gave him at an early age.
“I was large as a baby, and my dad just started calling me LG, and it stuck, and people have been calling me that ever since,” said LG, who’s looking forward to the blood duel Thursday (beginning around 7:30 p.m. after the 6 p.m. girls game). “It’ll bring back all the memories of when we used to play on a court in our back yard. He would always beat me. I based my game after his.”
LG is 6-foot-2 and plays point guard, the same position Briggs played at Menard and for one year at LSUA. He ended his playing career when he transferred to LSU, but ultimately finished college at LSUA in ’21 with a business degree. Since then he has been working in his father’s fast-food restaurant business, with his work requiring travel to Kentucky, Missouri and Arkansas. This coaching gig is his second job.
Meanwhile, he and his wife, Tara, are expecting a son in March.
An assistant to Brian “Twig” Terwilliger for two playoff seasons at Menard, Briggs said one of the main reasons he took the Menard job was for the challenge. Of the 22 players on the roster, 13 are freshmen, and none are seniors.
“It reminds me of when I played here – same thing, we won four games, then four games, then 15 and then we won 22 in 2017 when I was a senior,” said Briggs. “I play all freshmen and spell them with a few juniors.” He scheduled Class 4A powerhouse Peabody, Alexandria Senior High (5A) and St. Thomas More this season “so we could see good basketball and have a grow-up year. I like to think we’re better than a 5-16 team. Even though the record doesn’t show it, I can see the improvement.”
Michael and Holly Carbo, Briggs’ and LG’s parents, are both Menard graduates, but they moved a few years ago to Lafayette. “They wanted a different scene,” said Briggs, noting the move led to LG’s playing for Hub City Hoops, a Lafayette travel team, during the summer before his freshman year.
“At first he didn’t want to leave Menard (Junior High),” said Briggs, “but after playing for that team in the summer, he made friends and was ready to play (for STM).”
LG said he remembers Briggs competing in one-on-one games against both him and their other brother, Ben, while wearing high heels to make the games more competitive.
“I smoked ’em both,” boasted Briggs, while acknowledging he had an age advantage. “I was tired of all their smack talk and told ’em I’d still whip ’em while wearing my mom’s high heels. We’re very, very close as brothers, but we’re very, very competitive in everything. There were many broken fence poles. All three of us, whatever we do, we’re in to win.”
Ben, 18, is at UL-Lafayette, and although he quit playing basketball at Menard after his junior year, he concentrated on soccer and helped the Eagles as center back advance to the state finals in ’23.
Briggs took over a Menard team that won just one game last year with only a handful of players on the roster by the end of the season.
“At first I was a little nervous,” he said about the job, “but I really enjoy it. It’s fun to see the progress.”
A businessman, he said he tries to run his team “like a business,” which means he demands discipline and teamwork and hustle and good grades. Each player must get all A’s and B’s, allowing one subject to fall to a C or D, or the student won’t play. The players have evidently bought in, turning in a 3.6 GPA at the end of the last nine-week session. Only “one or two” have been suspended for academic reasons, and those suspensions were brief, Briggs said.
“I wear them out for the first 30 minutes of practice,” he said, “and when you do that, they are so much better focused on listening.” He and his two assistants – David “Dae-Dae” Brevelle and current LSUA basketball player Jakemin Abney — also require the players to clean the gym and even the gym’s bathrooms.
With such a young team, Brooks sees a bright future. “Our freshmen are 2-0 against the ASH freshmen,” he said. “We won a tournament in Lafayette, beating St. Thomas More, Acadiana (5A), Northside (of Lafayette) (5A) and ASH, with ASH in the finals,’ he said, adding they’ll be playing in a Class 2A state freshman tournament in New Orleans this weekend.
Meanwhile, as for Thursday night’s family feud game, you can figure all those involved, especially Briggs and LG, will have a high-heeled time.