Sunday, November 1, 2009 10:45 PM CST
Remodeled group gives Lakers a chance to bounce back
By RICK DAWSON, Staff Writer
rdawson@jg-tc.com
MATTOON — Three seasons ago Lake Land’s men’s basketball program was floundering, winning fewer than 10 games for the third time in four years and in need of a serious makeover.
In came Cedric Brown with a fresh bundle of energy and a clean slate. Two years have passed, the last one beginning with much hype and finishing on a sour note, and now we’re . . . well . . . not so sure where we’re at.
The Lakers struggled on the road, where they didn’t win a single game in the GRAC, lost eight of their last nine and limped home with a 16-14 record, albeit their first with a better than .500 mark since 2004-05. All with a group of experienced sophomores.
This year, the circumstances are different. Only one player who played in the team’s Region 24 loss to John A. Logan, Scottie Brown, returns. Yet the hype is still there: the Lakers think they can compete for a Great Rivers conference title and make a run at the nationals during this postseason.
What are the chances of it happening? It’s hard to tell, although much could hinge on how quickly the team surrounding Moussa Gueye, the 7-footer from Senegal, develops. Gueye is surprisingly lithe and skilled for someone his size, and size is the one thing Lake Land has lacked in the past.
Not anymore. Four players who figure to get plenty of minutes up front, not including Gueye, are listed at 6-7 or taller.
“I think we have all the pieces and all the tools to compete at the highest level,” said Brown, whose record since coming to Mattoon is 30-32. “We talk about it every day. At what level do we need to be at to compete for championships? We talk about each one doing his own job, several pieces to one puzzle and what are you bringing to the completion of that puzzle. We really do believe that we are in the top tier of our conference.”
That is one reason why Lake Land starts its season with a tougher opponent than usual. Unrated Highland is one of the top JUCO programs in the Midwest. The Cougars have been to the NJCAA tournament five times in the past six years, finishing seventh a year ago.
Brown saw them twice at jamborees this fall.
“They’re very athletic, very long,” he said. “The guard play is extremely good.
“They are a quality ball club. I look for them to come in and play very hard and physical.”
Building the type of experience his team needs to compete against teams in the Great Rivers was one of Cedric Brown’s priorities. Paris Carter, Layton Seeber (Spoon River), Stefon Perry, Daniel Armah and Mitch Stahl are all transfers, yet none has had a chance to compete against GRAC competition yet. And with Southwestern Illinois ranked sixth and John A. Logan 27th in the preseason, it’s a league that’s still expected to be strong at the top.
“The schedule I’ve tried to make as tough as possible to prepare for GRAC play,” Brown said. “I think we definitely need to play harder for longer periods of time. But they did a really good job of trying to give effort. As long as you’re going to give 100-percent effort good things tend to happen.”
HIGHLAND vs. LAKE LAND
Game time: Today, 7 p.m.
Site: Laker Fieldhouse
On the air: WLKL 89.9 FM
Probable Lake Land starters: PG - Alanzo Bass, 6-0, fr.; SG – Layton Seeber, 6-5, so.; C – Moussa Gueye, 7-0, fr.; PF – Daniel Armah, 6-7, so.; SF – Stefon Perry, 6-5, so.
Outlook: The top player returning from Highland’s 31-6 team is 6-foot-7, 230-pound power forward Eric Frederick, who averaged 19.5 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season. He has committed to Florida International in 2010-11. Tim Steed, a 6-4 wing, added 9.5 ppg.
The Cougars could benefit from the transfers of 6-11 Terrance Williams from SIU-Edwardsville and 6-7 Abel Tillman from Central Florida. They also have 6-2 freshman D’Mitri Riggs, who excelled at Bloomington High School last season.
They are coached by Ronnie Dean, a former assistant of Scott Edgar’s at Southeast Missouri State, a program that was hit with NCAA sanctions recently. He is in his first year at the college.
Contact Rick Dawson at rdawson@jg-tc.com or 238-6855.
Here’s a glimpse of a few of the players expected to make an early impact for the Lakers:
Moussa Gueye
The Valparaiso recruit was expected to see a trainer Sunday after injuring his elbow a week ago at Lake Land’s jamboree. He hasn’t practiced much lately, though he did get back into action on Saturday morning and seems to be recovering nicely.
The Lakers have been much better with him on the floor. Without Gueye or Stefon Perry in action last weekend, they lost to Parkland 48-44.
Alanzo Bass
Bass may be the antithesis of former Laker point guard Huzie Hambrite, a score-first, pass-second type of player who often wanted the ball in his hands. Bass probably won’t score like Hambrite did, but he does have a similar ability to direct the fast break.
Brown also calls him one of, if not the best, “on-the-ball defenders” the team has.
Layton Seeber
The hearing-impaired Seeber essentially gives the Lakers a two-point guard setup in the backcourt, although he’s a better long-range shooter than Bass. His court vision is a strength.
Stefon Perry
A transfer from Jackson State Community College in Tennessee and one of the best athletes on the team, Perry is a big, rugged guard who can rebound and defend. Extending his shooting range has been one of the projects the coaching staff has worked on.
Paris Carter
The most physically imposing presence on the team, Carter, who averaged 10 ppg for Pensacola (Fla.) last season, would have started today had he not failed to return an academic progress report on time. At 6-7, 240, he’s most effective around the basket.
Since he’s good at getting to the foul line, Brown has worked with his free-throw shooting, a sore spot for Lake Land’s team a year ago, when it shot roughly 67 percent from the stripe.
Daniel Armah
The second Laker from the African continent — Armah is from Ghana — he’s been near the top of Brown’s list because of his intensity in practice. He’s the team’s top rebounder after Gueye and Carter and a good shot blocker with an array of post moves. Since he only weighs 177 pounds on a 6-7 frame, he’ll need to get stronger.
Armah averaged 5 ppg for Casper College in Wyoming last season.
Travis Scott
He’s another athletic wing whom Brown expects to bring “high energy” off the bench. Like many of his teammates, he’s still growing into his game offensively.
Brock Von Nordeck
As a high school senior at Decatur Eisenhower, Von Nordeck had the ability to score from both inside and out, something Brown would like him to replicate at Lake Land. He’s not quite as tall as he’s listed (6-9), but he seems to have added about 10 to 12 pounds to his frame since arriving on campus.
Mitch Stahl
Brown thinks that the former redshirt at Indiana University-Southeast could be in line to receive Division I offers. He missed one jamboree because of plantar fasciitis, an inflammation of the heel.
As a second shooting guard, he may be relied upon to keep defenses from sagging too deep in the post.
Ben Giertz
During a redshirt season, Giertz worked hard to improve his ballhandling and outside shot. As the backup to Bass, his ability to handle defensive pressure should be a key.
Scottie Brown
The only returnee, Brown is battling for minutes on a front line that has gotten much deeper than it was a year ago. He averaged around three points and two rebounds per game last season.
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