The 2016-2017 boy’s basketball season at Cinnaminson High School begins Friday against Bordentown in the new gymnasium.
Tipoff is slated for 5:30pm. Tonight we take a look at the season with our preview.
The program will rely on an influx of youth this year as only one senior, Conor Bresnahan, will be in the starting lineup.
“From the first day of tryouts to now, I’ve seen so much improvement,” Bresnahan said. “I think we’ve found ourselves and are coming together as a team.”
Bresnahan was the lone non-senior who started last year for a senior-heavy program.
“We had a pretty even scoring team last year and it worked really well for us,” Bresnahan said. “We need to play team basketball again this year with everyone scoring and everyone getting touches.”
Head coach Mike Fries is excited to see what the season will bring and hopes his team flies under the radar.
“We’re going to surprise a lot of people. That’s what I’m excited about. We have three sophomores, a junior and a senior starting. The first two guys off the bench are juniors and the third guy’s a sophomore.”
“We’re very athletic, we have a high IQ and they leave everything out there on the floor. People are going to let their guard down and we’re going to exploit it.”
Fries and the coaching staff have focused primarily on the players learning how to trust each other on other on the court this preseason.
“Our main focus has been preaching trust each other. We are a young, inexperienced team. Were trying to figure each other out, where we’re going to be on the floor.”
Fries is happy to see returning players carry their work ethic over into this season.
“What I have seen is how hard those guys worked at practice last year has carried over into this year. Most guys stay after to work on their shots.”
“On the floor, they’re learning within the scrimmages to make the extra pass and find the open man. They are learning to do the little things.”
“They’ve picked up what we run in the system and their basketball IQ. They’re very intelligent. They can find the open spots. That’s going to help out big time.”
Bresnahan also spoke about the team’s basketball IQ.
“Basketball IQ-wise, it’s been improving a lot. A lot of these guys never played a varsity minute before, but I’m confident once we get going they are going to be fine.”
Defense was key to quite a few wins last season. Fries knows it will be even more important this year.
“Defense has to be key this year. It’s a challenge for us because we’re so small. We’re not as strong as last year’s team.”
“That’s going to come back to bite us in some games. We have to do a great job on offense taking care of the ball. On defense, we have to make sure we don’t give them second chance shots.”
Bresnahan knows confidence will be a major factor to the team’s success this season.
“If shots aren’t falling, don’t just stop shooting. Obviously that won’t be good for the team. Take your shots when open and stay confident.”
Boy’s basketball moves to the Patriot Division from the Freedom this season, where they went 6-2 and finished second.
Bordentown is with them in the Patriot, making the season opener a key division contest to start.
The rest of the division includes Northern Burlington, Pemberton, Willingboro, Burlington Township and Delran.
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