Mavs relying on key returners

  • David Pan<br>Enterprise sports editor
  • Monday, March 3, 2008 11:42am

LYNNWOOD

Meadowdale has all the pieces in place to make a strong run for the playoffs.

But the Mavericks are going to need to be patient as the younger players get used to the rigors of varsity action.

Only three players with any significant varsity experience — senior guards Milan Moncrief, Nero Threet III and Caleb Law — are back for Meadowdale. The rest of the roster is filled mostly with players moving up from the junior varsity team.

Meadowdale head coach Chad McGuire likes the skills the younger players are bringing to the team, even as they are trying to figure out their roles on the team.

“We have a nice group of kids,” McGuire said. “We have some experience coming back, but we’re still trying to figure out who we are as a team. I think with our team you’re going to see us getting better and better every week.

“The idea is to play your best basketball at the end of the year. Hopefully, we’ll be doing that.”

Moncrief and Threet are returning starters, while Law came off the bench last season.

The three likely are going to be the focus on offense, but other players are going to need to contribute, Moncrief said.

“We could do the majority of scoring, but we need role players to do their job, rebound and play hard,” Moncrief added.

The Mavericks opened league play with a hard-fought 44-34 loss to arch rival Edmonds-Woodway Dec. 8 at Meadowdale High School. The 10-point margin of defeat was misleading as the Warriors’ lead was in the single digits for most of the second half.

McGuire was especially pleased with the Mavericks’ defense.

“We forced them to take tough shots and any time you hold a team in the 40s you give yourself a chance to win the game,” he said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t make enough plays, but I thought our strength was our defense. Defensively, we want to try and shut teams down. We want to try and hold teams in the 40s.”

Edmonds-Woodway’s defense made life difficult for Meadowdale. The Mavericks also had problems running their offense, Law said.

“We didn’t execute as well as we should have,” he said.

All but one player on the roster are 6-foot-3 or smaller, which means that Meadowdale likely will be outsized by many teams.

“We’re going to have to take advantage of our quickness because we’re a lot quicker than a lot of the other posts in Wesco,” said Threat, who added that the Mavericks also need to have strong fundamentals and box out on rebounds.

The lack of size, however, doesn’t mean Meadowdale plans to abandon the half-court offense. The Mavericks want to run a balanced offense.

“The type of team we have we’re ready to play any kind of game,” Law said. “We can go out and run on people and score lots of points or we can slow it down and keep it in the 30s and 40s…. We can win games either way.”

Meadowdale had some difficulties defending Edmonds-Woodway’s big people, especially in the second half. In addition, the younger players weren’t used to the highly charged atmosphere of playing Edmonds-Woodway.

“We need to get mentally tougher,” Threet said. “We’ve got to be ready to play Wesco teams. Some of the younger guys need to understand that we’ve got to play physical and be ready for Wesco basketball.”

A newcomer who is starting to stand out is 6-2 junior guard Matt Gorman, Moncrief said.

“He’s really tough down low for his size and he can score and rebound,” Moncrief said. “He’s just a tough guy.”

Law has confidence in his younger teammates and said that all they need is more playing time.

“We expect them to do what they do best,” Law said. “They’re young guys, but they all do different things very well and if they come in and do what they do well, then we’ll be fine. Come down toward the end of the season, we’ll improve just like we did last year. You can expect a pretty good run out of us come the end of the season.”

McGuire also expects the team’s eight juniors to support his three seniors.

“Once we get going we’ll have a pretty balanced scoring attack eventually,” McGuire said. “We’ve got a lot of skill guys. … I think we have really good team chemistry. The players all like each other. Now it’s just a matter of getting experience.”

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