It’s high school basketball time all across Oklahoma. And, according to the weather, it’s just in time to send sports inside for a season.
The Tecumseh Savages are looking to improve over a 13-13 record last year and Head Coach Bryant Edwards believes he has the team to make a move this season with two returning starters, a parttime starter and other players coming back with meaningful minutes on the floor.
The Savage have 29 out from freshman to senior, including three seniors Brady Overstreet, Garrett Chaffin and Kenny Hatcher. Tecumseh has six juniors, eight sophomores and 12 freshmen in the gym. It’s a fairly young squad with 20 of the 29 being in the ninth and 10th grade.
The Savages started full practices a little late with five players coming from football and the starting five is not yet set but Coach Edwards has a pretty good idea of the first five players on the floor on opening night. The coach said that there’ll probably be 15 jerseys handed out for the varsity squad.
Tecumseh has had a scrimmage early against Bishop McGuiness without the players from football. “It was a little rough without the football kids,” said Coach Edwards, “but it was good to see the other kids.” The Savages have gotten in a couple of other scrimmages with a full squad, including a super scrimmage last Saturday at McAlester.
“I had a lot of scrimmages on the road since all of our games except one is on the road before the Christmas break,” according to Coach Edwards. “I want them to get used to playing on away from home early.”
The schedule won’t be easy for a team trying to improve on their record and a deeper run into the playoffs. “Everybody we played last year, except two teams, had a winning record last year,” said Edwards, “and this year it’ll be a tougher schedule. We want to play a tough schedule, we want to play anyone, anywhere to make us a better team overall.”
The Savages will still play in the North Canadian River Conference along with Mt. St. Mary, Harrah, Bethel, Jones, North Rock Creek, Little Axe and McLoud. Instead of playing every conference team twice, some will be faced only once to seek more games outside the conference.
When asked about the Savages style of play, Coach Edwards had this to say. “We went significantly dribble drive the second half of the year and it worked for us and we’ll continue to do that. We’ll try to move the ball up the floor and try to get our big guys some easy buckets.”
“Defensively, we’re still going to get after everyone man to man and have more pressure. We’re a little longer this year and more athletic all the way around than we’ve been, and we’ll apply more pressure.”
Even though the coach isn’t ready to name a starting five, he had three solid starters set for the squad, including senior Overstreet, junior Jase Edwards and junior Marquan Krush. “With Brady and Jase together, we’ll have an excellent back court,” stated the coach. “Jase and Brady have over 60 games combined and one of the more experienced backcourts since I’ve been here. I don’t think they take a backseat to any guards around.”
“Brady is coming off surgery over the summer and is getting back into shape and looking forward to getting back to 100-percent,” according to Coach Edwards. “He’ll make us better.” Jase had a really good summer and grew to 6’2”. He had a really good shooting season last year and now he’s a little more athletic and has received his first college offer from Seminole State with a couple of Division 2 schools looking at him.”
The third set starter, Krush was a part time starter last year and has continued to improve. “He’s looking forward to the season,” said Edwards. “It’ll be his first year as a full time starter and he had a great year in football and is very competitive.”
Coach Edwards named a couple of other players to look out for this year, junior Keegan Plumley and sophomore Jason Baldwin. “Plumley has a good chance to really help us this year. He’s 6’4” or 6’5” and will really help us inside. Jason led the JV and the freshmen teams last year in scoring and got some valuable experience.”
When asked about the outlook for this season, Coach Edwards is guardedly optimistic. “Depending on how fast those underclassmen develop under fire. It’ll kind of be the key to how good we are this season. We open up at Tuttle and they have an opportunity to experience fast. With Brady and Jase in the backcourt, we’ll be competitive in every game, and if the young guys develop, we could be pretty good. We’re looking forward to the start and ready to get going.”
Another positive for Edwards and the Savages is a consistent coaching staff as assistants Alan Brewer and Tim Lisenbee return for Tecumseh.
The season opener is on the road this coming Tuesday night at Tuttle.
Timberlake’s Merric Judd pats Maud’s Braxton Street on the back after tackling him in the fourth quarter of the Class C OSSAA Quarterfinal game at Maud on Nov. 18. After winning 11 games straight, the Maud Tigers lost to the Timberlake Tigers, 24-64.
