Sports
Bottineau looks for young help in '11- 12
Tyler Ohmann
11/22/2011
There is no mystery for the Bottineau Braves basketball team of the ability of their core players, but the uncertainty that could make or break their season lies in the hands of the role players.
“I know what to expect from the core guys that are back. They all have a lot of experience and have contributed a lot, last year especially,” said Braves Head Coach Nate Simpson. “But you can’t play with four guys, so what we’re trying to do know is find three or four guys that can move up.”
The returning starters for the Braves are seniors Justin McCloud, Mark LaCroix, Devin Grenier and Matt Bowers.
LaCroix was the team’s leading scorer and rebounder with 17 points and 11 rebounds per game. McCloud was second in scoring in 2010-11, averaging 16 points per game during his junior season. Grenier averaged 11 points per game, and Bowers was a stout defender for the Braves last season.
Grenier knows that the Braves will need help from some new faces if they want to advance past last season’s second place finish in the Region 6 tournament.
“We want to get some other kids some experience, but at the same time we need to get our main players ready to play,” Grenier said. “We need to go hard, with no slacking, because at tournament time you have to go hard all the time.”
Potential players vying for varsity time will be senior Seth Bartholomay; juniors Jeremiah Aberle and Trevor Wettlaufer.
Simpson hopes Bartholomay will be the answer to help free LaCroix more often.
“We have Seth Bartholomay inside to help take the burden off of Mark (LaCroix), and maybe a kid like Ian Snodgrass can come in and help with that too,” Simpson said. “If we can alleviate some of that pressure off of Mark down low, it is going to open a lot of different things, because he is just as good an outside player as he is an inside player.”
Snodgrass is a transfer from Westhope, and also transferring this year is freshman Brock Hiltner, who also appears to be in the mix for playing time.
“I just want to get a look at some kids that can possibly help us at the varsity level,” Simpson said. “I want to see if some of those kids can step up and compete in a more formal setting.”
The Braves will again battle with what hampered them some last season in their lack of size, but Simpson doesn’t think that will be a factor on the boards.
“We don’t have a lot of size, but we have bigger guards that can rebound, so rebounding isn’t going to be a problem,” Simpson said. “Rebounding is all hard work, and I have hard workers.”
Grenier thinks the Braves speed, especially in transition will help them this season, especially against opponents like Rugby.
“We hope to use our speed to outwork the other teams,” Grenier said. “I know Rugby is a fast team, and if we can keep up with them, we can take care of them.”
Simpson agrees that pushing the ball will be a game plan that he will not deviate from.
“Our number one play is always to push the ball and try and get to the basket or get to the free throw line,” Simpson said. “The second option is that we have so many play makers that we have offense set up to get the ball in our play maker’s hands.”
The Braves have plethora of depth with more than 25 kids out for basketball this year. Grenier thinks the depth will be an added bonus.
“I think we are deeper this year, and we have some young kids with experience coming up,” Grenier said. “And we have most of our lineup coming back, but we need to get some people to play when we get tired.”
The Braves finished 19-5 overall last season under Simpson’s second season as head coach.
The third season of Simpson’s reign will begin Tuesday, Nov. 29 as the Braves open up at home against Rolla.
“The first games are always kind of ugly, so to open up at home is nice,” Simpson said. “We have to kind of treasure those home game, because we only have six of them this year.”
The Braves hope to have their lineup set, and their bench plentiful by that time.
“If we want to have the same success, we are going to have to do it with more than two, three or four guys,” Simpson said.