Everett CC men’s basketball built to win in postseason

Published 1:30 am Monday, March 2, 2020

A year ago Mike Trautman and his staff sat dejectedly in the coaches’ room at the Walt Price Student Fitness Center on the campus of Everett Community College.

His Everett men’s basketball team was the back-to-back Northwest Athletic Conference North Region champion, but 10 minutes earlier the Trojans were upset in overtime by Lower Columbia in the first round of the NWAC tournament.

“We were upset with the loss because it was a weird loss,” Trautman recalled. “We felt like we should have won the game, but we got physically abused. We got manhandled.”

So the program that dominated the North Region for two years pulled a 180, discarding a formula that produced so many regular-season wins and replacing it with its antithesis. While the style may be different, the results have been the same, and the Trojans believe this is the team that can translate regular-season strength into postseason success.

For the third straight year Everett heads into the NWAC Basketball Championships as one of the favorites — the women tip off Thursday and the men begin Saturday, all at the Walt Price Student Fitness Center. But this time the Trojans are playing the type of basketball they hope will finally bulldoze Everett into the second weekend of the tournament.

Everett has been the class of the North Region in recent years, going 27-1 in region play from 2017-19. The Trojans did it with a frenetic guard-oriented style that relied on dribble penetration and kicking out to open shooters at the 3-point line. The style produced high-scoring games, as well as North Region MVPs each of the past two seasons in guards Gio Jackson and Markieth Brown Jr.

But in the end all Everett had to show for it was one NWAC tournament victory and no trips to the second weekend.

Therefore, Trautman decided to shelve the playbook and start from scratch.

“I told the other coaches, ‘Listen, when we recruit this year, I want length and strength and size,’” Trautman said during his fateful post-loss meeting with his assistants. “I want to build this thing where we can make a deep run in the playoffs next year, I don’t want to rely just on making shots.’”

So the Trojans brought in the beef. The previous two years Everett had just one rotation player taller than 6-foot-4, and even that player, Magnus Jesperson, was a guard who just kept growing. But this year the Trojans brought in the likes of 6-foot-7 Devin Smith, 6-foot-6 Tyler Walker and 6-foot-7 Cameron Underwood. All three are starters who are physically mature and willing to bang down low.

The result is Everett went from being one of the best offensive teams in the league the past two seasons, finishing third in NWAC in scoring with more than 90 points per game each season, to being one of the best defensive teams in the league, leading NWAC in defensive field goal percentage (36.4) and ranking second in points allowed (68.3). The Trojans are allowing 18.3 fewer points per contest than last season. Everett also leads NWAC in rebounding margin (16.6 more per game) after being near even the past two seasons.

”It’s definitely messed with my head,” Trautman said about completely changing Everett’s style. “I’ve had to get used to calling more sets to get us a layup or a ball inside. If we haven’t scored in five or six possessions I find myself wanting to call a set for a three-point play, because my natural tendency is to try and get it all back in one shot. But I try to focus on figuring out the best shot for the combination of players on the floor, and that may be a layup or a post-up. We believe we’re going to get the next stop, so we can try to beat people by scoring two at a time instead of three. In the past we’d shoot 30 and sometimes 40 3s, and now there are times when we’ll have 15.”

While the style change has suited the newcomers, it has required an adjustment for the handful of returning rotation players from last season.

“Yeah, there are (times when I miss playing fast),” sophomore point guard Piol Makuei said. “But at the same time you have to realize the smart play and slow it down. When it’s not there we can slow down the tempo and run in the halfcourt.”

The change in style hasn’t changed the results. Everett finished the season 12-2 in region play and 25-4 overall, winning its third straight region title. The Trojans, who face West Region No. 4 Grays Harbor (15-14) in the first round at 6 p.m. Saturday, are ranked No. 2 in the NWAC coaches poll. With powerhouse North Idaho banned from the tournament for player benefit violations, the path is clear for Everett to make a run at the first NWAC championship in school history.

“We felt like we had enough talent to go at least deep in the playoffs last year, so getting upset like that in overtime hurt a lot,” sophomore sixth man Elijah Seybold said. “But we feel like there’s a lot more potential this year. Our defense is off the charts, so even if we have a low-scoring game where we’re not putting it in the hoop, we feel we’re not going to get scored on at the defensive end. If we have an off night shooting, we can still come out with a W.”

And the Trojans hope that new formula is the one that finally works in the postseason.

If you have an idea for a community sports story, email Nick Patterson at npatterson@heraldnet.com.