Boys basketball hopes to bounce back after slow start, relying on youth, new coach for better results in future

With a squad that is young in experience, and lacking in size, it hasn’t been an easy road so far for the boy’s basketball team.

But the team insists that the best is yet to come as they strive to improve their performance on a game-by-game basis.

The team dropped their first five games in tournament play to some of the county’s best teams.

Their road losses came against Mission Hills, Lincoln, and Grossmont. Their home losses came against La Jolla and Carlsbad.

Senior Saba Golshan states that the early losses will turn out to benefit the team in the long run.

“I really don’t think we’ve been struggling that much because we’ve been playing all these Division I schools that are top 10 in the county,” Golshan said. “This is good for us right now because we’re learning a lot from the losses and we’re building on each game as we go by.”

Despite the losses, the team has seen some spectacular play from their starters. Junior Mike Nelson leads the team in scoring with an average of 13.8 points per game. Sophomore J.C. Buford has racked up an impressive 10.3 points per game.

Nelson believes that the team still needs to work on building cohesion and their overall consistency.

“Right now our chemistry is okay,” Nelson said. “It could be a lot better, but it’s really early in the season. We’re working on it through each game and we’ll see how it comes.”

The team has had to face a lot of adjustments this year, adapting to the philosophy of the new head coach, Conrad Sun.

“He [the coach] is a great man,” Nelson said. “He teaches us a lot about basketball. But he mixes basketball into real life and he teaches you how to be a young man.”

Junior Max Shulman considers the new scheme on offense among the many adjustments that the players have to make.

“It’s more passing-oriented,” Shulman said. “We have a certain passing system that we go by and once we have to master the offense, we’ll be winning more games.”

The players say they can definitely find some high points in certain phases of their game.

“We’re pretty good defensively,” Golshan said. “We have good defense and good hustle. We can pressure the ball.”

Shulman says that what the team lacks in size, they make up in other aspects of their performance.

“I think out greatest strength is our speed,” Shulman said. “We’re not a big team but we’re a really quick team.”

The team prepares to enter their inaugural season in the Valley League in January, moving out of the Palomar League.

The difference between those leagues, according to many players, is like night and day.

“In the Palomar League, everybody was good,” Nelson said. “In that league, from week to week, you would have to come with you’re ‘A’ game.”

Golshan compares the physical aspects between the two leagues.

“Palomar [League] is more of North County basketball so it’s more made up of tall, fundamental players,” Golshan said. “This new league is going to be a little scrappier with guards.”

The team remains confident that they will reach their ultimate goal by the end of the season.

“We also expect to get to the playoffs,” Nelson said. “We’ll see how it goes if we can get there.”

One thing is for certain: No one will be “throwing in the towel” any time soon.

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