“We believe in each other,” senior leader Max Niebrugge said Friday night after T-Town posted a convincing 56-35 win over Mt. Carmel in the championship game of the Flora Sectional. “We love hanging out together and doing things together. Plus, we work awfully hard and our coach believes in us, too.”
Despite the terrific record and a berth in the super sectional, it hasn’t always been easy and it certainly hasn’t been pretty at times – especially on the offensive end.
While the defense has been stellar the entire year – and absolutely stifling at times – the offense has been inconsistent at best. The Shoes have averaged 53 points a game, which is rather low considering the up-tempo pace most teams play with today.
Yes, the Shoes can be patient and deliberate. But too many turnovers and the inability to put the ball in the hoop on a consistent basis, has been problematic at times. Yes, T-Town poured in 91 points against Wayne City, but scored just 22 at Centralia and 29 against Breese Central early in the season. Their second highest point production in a game was 70 against a Shelbyville team that isn’t very good.
As they say, “defense travels,” and that’s certainly been the case this season for the Shoes. It’s their calling card. It’s what they hang their hat on. It is THE reason they have chalked up so many wins and are just one of eight teams remaining.
Opponents average only 43 points a game against them. That defense has held 10 opponents to less than 40 points, including three of the four postseason games so far. They have allowed only one team to score more than 60 points – and that was Warrensburg-Latham, who had 66. That’s exceptional. With today’s style of play, almost unheard of.
Despite the inconsistencies on offense and the growing number of nay-sayers as the season progressed, this coach and this team never lost the faith in themselves.
Even after a couple difficult defeats and ugly wins, or the stretch when the Shoes dropped three of four games; even after losing senior starter Kayden Althoff to a season-ending injury, Coach Reeder’s belief in his team never wavered. He saw the effort every day in practice. He saw the willingness of this team to work tirelessly and accept hard coaching at times.
Even when very few truly believed in this squad, this group was never deterred. And now they’ll be making a trip to Carbondale to face Nashville in the Super Sectional at 7:30 p.m. Monday.
“At the beginning of the season, coach told us nobody expected our team to go very far,” Brendan Niebrugge recalled. “So that’s been a chip on our shoulder all year.
“We believe in each other,” Brendan added. “Every day in practice, the JV team pushes us to be better. That translates onto the floor during games. We’ve got a great coaching staff and everybody is together on this team.”
Nashville will be yet another tough challenge. Doing some score comparisons, it figures to be a tight game. The only two common opponents are Breese Central and Breese Mater Dei. T-Town lost to both, dropping a 32-29 decision to Central in the fourth game of the year at the St. Anthony Thanksgiving Tournament; and then lost 46-43 at Mater Dei. That was on January 28 and the Shoes haven’t lost since.
Nashville has split with both teams. The Hornets beat Mater Dei 33-23 early in the season and then dropped a 37-36 decision later. Breese Central beat Nashville in its first meeting, 51-40, but then lost 47-45 in overtime in the championship of the Carterville Sectional Friday night.
So Monday night is another opportunity for the Shoes to prove the so-called experts wrong again. But based on the huge following of T-Town fans during the postseason, it appears this team is winning some of those folks over. The fan support has been outstanding.
“We know there wasn’t much expected out of us,” junior center Caleb Siemer acknowledged. “We’ve had that chip on our shoulder the entire season. We just want to prove people wrong. And in order to do that, we just need to keep winning.”
And, according to Coach Reeder, “enjoy every moment of it. This is who we are. We’re just going to play our game and see what happens. I am so proud of these kids.”
Honestly, this is an easy team to root for. No team plays harder. Hard to believe any team would have better chemistry or camaraderie. They never embarrass their school or community by the way they act. And they’re just good kids.
This team no longer deserves a “low expectations” tag of any kind. They’re in the Elite Eight. They no longer have anything to prove.
Win or lose Monday night, these kids are winners.
