Ernie Zeigler never needed to say anything to let his son, Trey, know he was upset with the way he was playing during his high school basketball games.

Ernie just walked out.

“You know you’ve really done something wrong when he does that,” Trey said.

Ernie won’t have that option this fall, when Trey takes the court at the new Events Center as the highest-ranked recruit ever to suit up for the CMU men’s basketball team. But Trey still will feel the heat from his old man, especially early on, when those freshman growing pains are likely to occur.

“That won’t be a problem for him,” Ernie said. “It might be more of a problem for some of our other incoming guys than him. But I think the one thing I won’t be able to do is walk out of a game on him.”

And bumping heads might even cause friction if Trey was not so accustomed to Ernie’s occasional constructive criticism sessions.

“He’s been doing that since sixth or seventh grade,” Trey said. “Usually, it’s very quiet. If he walks out of the gym, that’s about as mad as he can get. He tries to not talk for like a day and, then, he’ll come the next day and we’ll talk about it. It brings us closer because he comes at me as a father, not just screaming and yelling at me. I think that’s the best part about it.”

It is what will make this commitment flourish. It’s a symbiotic relationship that is rare in today’s ‘me-first’ society.

Trey could have gone anywhere, but did not want to tell dad his program was not good enough. Instead, he wants to prove people wrong by taking CMU to the level of other mid-majors who reached national prominence in the NCAA Tournament, while also boosting his dad’s career and allowing his high school community to stay involved in his life as well.

“We were certainly in support of him wherever he went,” said MPHS Athletic Director Jim Conway. “But now, instead of trying to search on ESPN, we can drive across the street and watch him play. That’s wonderful for our basketball program and even our entire town.”

Ernie wants to take a hands-on approach to Trey’s continual personal and basketball development, as he always has no matter where his coaching career took the family.

“It’s been really special,” Ernie said. “We’ve lived to Saudi Arabia — he and I were over there alone and I was a single dad for about six months ... We’ve done so many things together, and Trey’s always been with me even as I started as a high school coach. He was 2 or 3 years old and he was running around practice and we had to try to keep him off the floor.”

At the same time, it helps Ernie’s program take a giant leap forward and continue what players such as Giordan Watson, Jordan Bitzer and Robbie Harman started.

“You’re talking about one of the top recruits in the nation,” said Sam Taylor, Trey’s coach at Mount Pleasant High School. “If you’re not familiar with him, I think he’s the type of kid who can come in and make an impact right away.”

Under pressure

Before we anoint Trey as the “Dan LeFevour of basketball,” it is worth pointing out the different expectations each possessed when they committed to CMU.

LeFevour largely was unheralded. Although sparsely recruited by several Big Ten teams, most of his offers came from MAC schools.

Zeigler has been recruited by major programs such as Michigan State since his freshman year of high school, when he was the sixth man on the MPHS varsity team.

Whether Trey lives up to these expectations depends on a lot of factors — injury, his supporting cast and confidence. LeFevour, a late bloomer, built his high expectations on the collegiate level. Trey already built them in high school.

Still, Ernie insists, “All the pressure is going to be on me as the head coach, not our players.”

The timing was impeccable for this real-life drama, as Ernie likes to point out.

“Now, we’re about to see all of this come to fruition,” he said. “It’s great that all those lines could intersect and come together right here at Broomfield and Mission.”