Young Cats looking for quick progress

Staff writer

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There’s no telling where the Clovis High boys basketball program will end up this season, but they hope to get there fast.

link Staff photo: Kevin Wilson

Clovis junior Luke Bussen looks for a teammate while senior Logan Cole provides pressure defense during Wildcats basketball practice on Wednesday morning at The Rock. Clovis opens the 2014-15 season on Saturday at Rio Rancho.

New coach and longtime assistant Scott Robinson said a relatively inexperienced squad is getting clear instructions to pick up the pace.

“We want to get back to the fast-paced, uptempo style, with a lot of focus on pushing the ball up the floor and pressure defense,” said Robinson, an assistant with the boys program before his elevation last spring when Matt King left for a job in Arizona. “I think we’ve got the guys that can be good at that.”

They’ll get their first chance Saturday night, as they visit Rio Rancho to open a challenging 26-game schedule that also includes Roswell, Cleveland and Hope Christian before District 4-6A play opens with a Jan. 27 home date against Hobbs.

The expectations aren’t sky-high for the Wildcats, who lost 10 of their final 12 games last season and failed to make the Class 5A playoffs for the first time since the New Mexico Activities Association created the 16-team format. Only four players are back from that squad, none of them starters.

Robinson expects an adjustment period for a season where the immediate goal is to get back into the playoffs.

“We’ve got to get our football guys in condition, and then get some rhythm offensively,” Robinson said. “Defensively, I think we’ll be fine. Defense will have to carry us early while our offense gains rhythm.”

The Wildcats are already dealing with injuries suffered during the football season, in senior guard Kaine Bender and sophomore guard Micah Gray. Robinson said Gray (collarbone) is expected to miss three weeks, while Bender is getting a doctor’s opinion as to whether he’ll sit out a few weeks or the entire season.

When and if Bender comes back, he’ll be one of five seniors on the roster — post Tomas Acuna and guard Tristen Pautler played sparingly as juniors, while Logan Cole and Jaquan Franklin were mostly on the junior varsity last year.

Robinson said he has liked what he saw over the summer from junior guard Eli Rodriguez and noted the 6-foot-3 Cole has developed his outside shot, but noted that the team weight will largely fall on junior Roland Chavez.

District 4-6A play against Hobbs, Carlsbad and Alamogordo means Clovis will face teams that each carry at least one 6-foot-8 post, while their tallest players are the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Chavez, the 6-foot-4 Acuna, and 6-foot-5 juniors Cory Knight and Devin Roberts. Chavez admitted that the Wildcats will be undersized in but said the plan is to make up for it in toughness.

“We’ve got to reach the point where we are a family, like we were on the football team,” Chavez said. “If we didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have had that five-game winning streak. We had a family, it wasn’t a team. Hopefully we can get that same thing going.”

While Clovis is undersized in the post, Robinson said Clovis will actually be able to outsize most teams on the perimeter.

“Defensively, I think we’ll rebound better,” Robinson said. “I think our guys shoot better overall as a group. Last year we had better slashers going to the rim, but we’re better shooters.

“If we can get to the 70-point mark most nights, that will put us in a good position to win games.”

The Wildcats aren’t home until they face Amarillo Tascosa Dec. 9, but will be pretty close when they face Borger in a neutral-site game at Greyhound Arena in Portales.

CHS BOYS ROSTER, SCHEDULE

Roster

No. Name Yr. Ht.

3 Micah Gray So. 6-0

4 Tristen Pautler Sr. 5-10

10 Eli Rodgriuez Jr. 6-2

12 Tucker Dobbs Jr. 6-1

14 Luke Bussen Jr. 5-10

22 Kaine Bender Sr. 6-1

24 Jaquan Franklin Sr. 6-0

30 Sebastian Roanhaus So. 6-1

32 Logan Cole Sr. 6-3

33 Roland Chavez Jr. 6-4

34 Cory Knight Jr. 6-5

40 Tomas Acuna Sr. 6-4

44 Devin Roberts Jr. 6-5

Schedule

November

29 — at Rio Rancho, 7 p.m.

December

6 — vs. Borger at Portales (ENMU Kickoff Classic), 5 p.m.; 9 — Tascosa, 6 p.m.; 11-13 —at Albuquerque Academy Tournament; 19 — Portales, 7 p.m.; 20 — at Moriarty, 7 p.m.; 29-31 — Big XII Holiday Tournament.

January

2 — Centennial, 7 p.m.; 3 — Las Cruces High, 5 p.m.; 6 — at Canyon, 7 p.m.; 10 — at Roswell High, 7 p.m.; 13 — Roswell Goddard, 7 p.m.; 16 — at Rio Rancho Cleveland, 7 p.m.; 17 — at Atrisco Heritage, 5 p.m.; 20 — at Lovington, 7 p.m.; 23 — Hope Christian, 7 p.m.; 27 — Hobbs, 7 p.m.-x; 30 — at Alamogordo, 7 p.m.-x.

February

3 — Carlsbad, 7 p.m.-x; 10 — at Hobbs, 7 p.m.-x; 13 — Alamogordo, 7 p.m.-x; 19 — at Carlsbad, 7 p.m.-x.

x—Denotes District 4-6A games.