Catching Up With Our Basketball Mustangs………

After making the trip to Canada fishing the first week in June, I finally caught up with our Mustangs Thursday who have been busy guys in the past couple of weeks and were scrimmaging Highlands.  Over the past two weeks they have traveled to Northwest High School in Cincinnati, taken on Campbell County in the Middle School, worked out with Dixie Heights this past Wednesday and played Highlands at home on Thursday.

My first look at our guys left the following impressions on me:   

1. Our numbers are good with a goodly number of young players returning.
2. All of the many combinations of players used, played hard.
3. In typical early June style, no shot clock was required. We pushed the ball, attacked the rim, looked good in transition, and scored on numerous inside-out shots.
4. Perhaps even unbeknownst to our players, we showed a propensity to employ run-jump tactics on defense. This is a carryover from the defense primarily employed last season, and with experience and some training in learning how to rotate up, can become very effective for us going forward.  We still need a lot of work on stopping dribble penetration.
5. Our corps of last year’s sophomores are now veterans and play together extremely well.  Mix in the athleticism and speed of Brady Boruske, who will make the players around him better as well as score, and shooting prowess of Bauer Glass and Drew Steffen (did not play vs Highlands), makes this a very formidable group.
6. We will have to overcome the presence of a true post-player, which could be an issue versus bigger, stronger inside teams.
7. With the depth that this team possesses we have the potential to execute the run-shoot offense that Coach Ben Franzen has sought since his arrival here.

Stand By!

We have one scrimmage remaining prior to the Dead Period, and that will occur following camp on this coming Tuesday, when the Holmes Bulldogs will come to call for a 12Noon bout.