The Scott County Record • Page 21 • Thursday, December 1, 2016
200th is ugly, but helps KSU bowl status Last Saturday Bill Snyder racked up his 200th win as head coach at K-State and his eighth straight against traditional rival Kansas (3419). by Rather Mac than feeling Stevenson celebratory, Snyder said, “You know, I probably don’t sound in a pretty good mood, but I’m responsive to how we played and we played rather ugly today. I don’t feel good about that, I assure you.” Regardless, the Wildcats are all alone in fourth place in the Big 12 at 5-3. K-State finishes the regular season at TCU this Saturday (Dec. 3). It’s a perfect time to remind fans that all the experts predicted K-State would finish toward the bottom of the Big 12. Wrong again! Kansas State is all set for another bowl game and Snyder returns the nucleus of another fine ball club for 2017. Time marches on, but Coach Snyder and his Wildcats have managed to maintain excellence over many seasons. Questions With KU The question isn’t how formidable the Kansas basketball team is now, but what they will be come by tournament time in three months. It’s a hard call. Coach Bill Self has a terrific group of perimeter players, which includes guards and small forwards. Perusing the perimeter players as a group, the Jayhawks have four highly skilled ball handlers and passers: Frank Mason, Devontʹe Graham, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Josh Jackson. All four are exceptional passers and will only get better. These same four players - with the exception of Jackson - are stellar outside shooters and Lagerald Vick can be added to the mix. Vick will become a fine passer and ball handler, but he isn’t there yet. Mason, Jackson, and Graham are unique drivers of the ball to the basket to either shoot or pass off. Vick is coming on in this area and Mykhailiuk can become a proficient driver. As for rebounding, Mason and Jackson are big(See UGLY on page 23)
Big 2nd half lifts SCMS over GB The game wasn’t pretty, but the Scott City Middle School seventh graders were able to overcome some sloppy play in a convincing 43-14 win against Great Bend on the home floor Tuesday. The Lady Bluejays jumped out to a 9-0 first quarter lead, but numerous fouls and turnovers prevented them from getting into the flow of their offense. They stretched their lead to 28-12 after three quarters before closing out the game on a 15-2 scoring blitz. Amber Latta and Brynn McCormick led the team with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Ella Rumford added five points. ‘B’ Team Cruises Like the “A” team, Scott City’s “B” team also jumped out to an early 9-0 lead and had no trouble rolling to a 27-13 win. Ashleigh Hickert led the Lady Bluejays with 12 points and Sadie Hermosillo added nine. ‘A’ Drops First Game The “A” team girls dropped their first game of the season, 35-27, at Liberal West on Nov. 22. Liberal took advantage of a 12-3 scoring run in the second quarter and they were 18-of-23 at the charity stripe. McCormick scored eight points and Kennedy Holstein added seven.
Injuries “He’s been practicing with a hard splint. He wants to play, but he hasn’t been cleared to play,” says Parks. “We don’t want to risk having something happen until he’s 100 percent. We’d hate to lose him for an entire season.” The WCHS bench will also be a little light during the early part of the season with the added loss of Kolton Sheppard who won’t return to the lineup until after Christmas because of a broken bone in his foot. Until the Indians are back to full strength, Parks admits that offensive production will be a concern. A lot of the burden will fall upon senior point guard Jorge Gallegos (7.5 ppg, 2 apg) to run the show and create scoring opportunities for his teammates.
SCMS seventh grader Ella Rumford reaches for a pass in the paint during Tuesday’s win over Great Bend. (Record Photo)
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To start the season, he will be joined on the floor by guards Brad Huber (jr., 1 ppg) and Ron Michel (so., 0.9 ppg). The starting forward will be 6-foot-3 junior John Bierman (0.3 ppg, 1 rpg) and in the post will be senior Michael Tucke (6-0, 1.3 ppg, 2.7 rpg). “Even though Michael’s our smallest post player, he’s physical and our most athletic post player,” says Parks. Despite the lack of depth to start the season, Parks still wants to be aggressive with their press. “It’s important for us, offensively, to create turnovers and score in transition,” Parks says. Giving the Indians some help off the bench early in the season will be senior Matthew Schumacher (6-3, forward, 0.5
ppg) and 6-foot-2 freshman forward Sonnie Altman. “For a younger player, Sonnie is pretty skilled, but he lacks the physical maturity of upperclassmen he’ll be playing against,” Parks says. “But, he’s played a lot of basketball and we look for some good minutes from him.” Alvarado’s Return When Alvarado (5-foot-11) does return to the lineup, which Parks hopes may happen during the Sagebrush Shootout, it will definitely give the Indians a big offensive jolt. “There’s no doubt that he’s a focal point of our offense and we want to get him touches,” says Parks. “While he has to be aggressive, he also has to be smart about taking what the defense gives him without
forcing too much. “When he didn’t try to force things last year he got better shot selection and that’s when he had his best games.” A year ago, Alvarado had six games in which he scored 20 or more points with a season high of 27. Alvarado was the team’s leading three-point shooter last season (29-of-94, 31%) while Gallegos was 10-of-44. From two-point range, Alvarado was 107-of-184. “Last year, he got a lot of his points from the three or driving to the rim,” Parks notes. “We’ve moved him to the guard where he can take advantage of his size. He was pretty effective on the wing last year. He’s got the skill to play there, but he needs to work on staying under control.”