Randy Redwine, head coach of the Everett Explosion, needed just one word to describe everything he knows about his International Basketball League team’s latest opponent.
“Nothing,” Redwine said Monday as his team geared up for a home date with the Eugene Chargers.
Not that Redwine hasn’t tried. He’s looked over the Chargers’ roster, pored over their statistics, and even put in a call to a friend who has seen Eugene play in person.
But without game tape, scouting reports, or available employees to sneak peaks at upcoming opponents, IBL teams are often in the dark about each new team they face.
“You have to prepare for whatever,” Redwine said. “My thing is that I like to make sure we’re as solid as possible defensively.”
Even that can be easier said than done, thanks to a limited practice schedule. Most players have day jobs, so the Explosion can’t ask them to go through the grind of daily practices. And Everett Community College, which has allowed the team to work out on its basketball court, doesn’t always have available space.
So Redwine has had to settle for twice-a-week practices, each of which last about 21/2 hours.
“It’s not enough,” he said. “You have to try to get in so many things. I just try to get in as much as I can in a 21/2-hour practice.”
The strategy has been working, with Everett running out to a 6-2 record in its inaugural year. But Redwine would prefer to know a little bit more about each opponent.
What is known about the Eugene Chargers is that they have a 4-2 record and three guards who all average 20 points per game or more. Eugene also has a 6-foot-2, 220-pound power forward who was a playground legend while growing up in New York City. Charles “The Beast” Easterling can create matchup problems because of his quickness and girth.
Redwine looks at Easterling’s measurables and figures that the Explosion can try to wear him down by pushing the tempo. But it’s hard to devise a strict game plan without ever seeing a player, or his team, in live action.
Redwine recalls a similar situation in the season opener against the Lewis County Raptors. Lewis County’s roster told Redwine that the Raptors were a small team, and yet his strategy of pushing the ball into the paint didn’t work.
“I saw that their biggest player was 6-5, and I was going in with a 6-11 guy (in center David White), so I just thought we’d pound them to death. But those guys were pretty scrappy,” said Redwine, whose team ditched the inside game and eventually pulled away for a season-opening win.
The thing Redwine understands the best is his own team. The perfectionist still wants better defensive play, and he’s been especially frustrated by a recent trend of losing momentum.
“That’s our weakness,” he said of team’s inability to put opponents away.
Everett saw a 19-point lead whittled down to three in its last game, a 121-105 win over the Seattle Mountaineers. A few days earlier, the Mountaineers cut a 28-point deficit to 11 on the Explosion.
In both games of a two-game series with Colorado, Everett lost leads of 20 points. They finished 1-1 in that series, needing a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to win the second game.
One final obstacle the Explosion might face is the antithesis of other IBL teams’ problems. Redwine said that, because of his team’s record and easy-to-find game stories, IBL opponents know too much about the Explosion heading into games.
“That’s where the GM (Nathan Mumm) and I differ,” Redwine said. “I like to say: ‘Let sleeping dogs lie.’ I like to go in under the radar.”
That’s not hard to do in the IBL.
Notes: Shooting guard Donald Watts will continue to come off the bench for now. Watts, who scored a team-high 26 points off the bench in last Tuesday’s win over Seattle, was not among the five starters announced for tonight’s game. Darrell Walker, Chris Weakley, Rashaad Powell, Justin Murray and Marco Morgan are expected to start. … Redwine said he had a talk with Walker about being less aggressive when attacking the basket. Walker limped off the court after last Tuesday’s win over Seattle but is not expected to be limited by injuries. “I told him that in this league, they don’t call a lot of fouls,” Redwine said. “The little guys aren’t supposed to go in and embarrass the big guys, and he likes to do that. … He’s not hurt hurt, but he’s pretty sore.”
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