Last season was a landmark one for James Monroe.
The Mavericks, an unknown before the season, burst onto the scene in the classification’s top region, ranking at high as No. 2 in the AP poll.
Unfortunately the region got the better of them.
A heartbreaking overtime loss in the regional championship ended their season just shy of the state tournament.
“Last year, for many reasons, it didn’t end the way we wanted,” James Monroe coach Matt Sauvage said. “It kind of ended on a rough note there. The boys almost feel like its – I don’t want to say revenge tour – but they want to come out and prove a point. And so they feel like they need to prove something to everyone. That last year wasn’t just a fluke. The offseason was good and I’ll be honest, there’s not too many years we’ve had the targets on our backs and that’s a good feeling to have in some ways. In other ways you’re going to get the other team’s best every time you come out to play but that’s what you want. I think the boys are enjoying it, but not too much. I think the way last year ended is going to push them through this season. They know not to let up and settle for where they’re at.”
The loss didn’t mentally shatter them, something Sauvage was concerned about. Instead they used it as motivation.
“They used it for drive, they used it for the weight room,” Sauvage said. “Being favored to win the region and not pulling it out hurt them. They’ve got the drive. We were worried what was going to happen – what’s going to be the mindset? We can set the tone as coaches only so far but eventually it’s got to be in their heads. The first practice we came in and the pedal was to the metal. We played a scrimmage against Summers and once you get on the court against somebody else you can see it’s a different year. We saw we’re ready to go.”
The stars for the teams will of course be returning first-team all-staters Shad Sauvage and Eli Allen but it takes a solid supporting cast to make a championship contender. Sauvage knows that from personal experience.
“I tell the guys, it’s kind of like my junior year in high school,” Sauvage said. “Kelly Mann was a senior that year and he averaged almost a triple-double. He was the leading scorer in the state that year and we went to the state semis. You can’t get to the state semis on one player though. That’s what we’ve tried to tell our kids. Shad and Eli, I don’t have to talk too much about them because they’re great players, but the supporting cast is what’s going to take us. Some of those kids have a chance to step up and be really good players themselves.
While Sauvage knows the names, he’s still tinkering with how he’s going to deploy his lineups. He feels as though his bench is deep, the challenge is finding somewhere to put everybody.
“Cameron Thomas is a senior that’s about 6-foot-4,” Sauvage said. “He started as a sophomore for us and last year as a junior Judd came out so he was back on the bench but still played a bunch of minutes, but came off the bench. This year he’s back in the starting role. He’s going to have to play a lot of minutes for us because we’re guard heavy. We’ve got Josh Burks and he’s a junior. He’s played for us on varsity since he was a freshman and last year was sort of his coming out year. He’s a good spot-up shooter and probably our best lockdown defender. Whoever the best player is, we tell him to go at it. He can guard one through four pretty hard and frustrates them and that’s what he loves.
“The next is Collin Fox, who has been on varsity since he was a freshman. He’s come off the bench the last few years but this year we’re going to throw him into the starting role. He plays the four and plays bigger than what he is. He’ll get in and bang and understands north-south offense so he can get to the rim. He’ll probably pick up some of the point load for us. That’s basically the starting five. You can have those guys but you need a bench too. We have A.J. Walker, Haiden Huffman. Cooper Ridgeway, Dylan Hunnicutt, Layton Dowdy, Ethan Ganoe and Jakobey Meadows.”
With an experienced group, naturally the goal would be to make it to the state tournament and win the championship. Sauvage has pumped the brakes a little on that. He wants that to be the goal but doesn’t want his team looking too far ahead.
“The boys kept saying the goal is states, and it is,” Sauvage said. “I told the older ones their focus has to be on this practice, or this next game. We need to let one game at a time take care of itself. If you focus on the end goal you forget about the journey and whether people like it or not, if somebody just hands you a state championship it doesn’t mean anything. The journey is what gets you there and what the meaning comes from. Since we’ve had the conversation the focus has changed and obviously we still have goals – you want to win the sectional, regional and make it to states but the short-term goal is what you need to focus on. You don’t want to miss what’s in front of you.”
