Wildcats optimistic but cautious

CLOVIS — As he sat in his office at Rock Staubus Gymnasium Monday afternoon, Clovis boys basketball coach Jaden Isler peered into the near future and saw a team with great potential.

Understandable. Last winter Isler’s Wildcats posted a 20-win season that included a District 4-5A championship and a berth in the state tournament. And that team lost just four players to graduation. Now with eight seniors returning, plus two juniors who logged quality varsity playing time last year, Isler has reason for legitimate optimism about this season being a special one.

Legitimate and cautious optimism.

“Last year was big for us for a lot of reasons,” Isler said. “Number one, just gaining some confidence and having a good season; getting 20 wins was a big deal. The district tournament championship was good. … We feel like we can build off last season’s successes. But with our schedule we open up with some of the best teams in the state in our first five games, so we’re really trying to win each night and take it game by game. That’s something you’ve got to do later if you’re in the state tournament. So we’ll try to focus on the next team at hand and try to get as many wins in this non-district schedule as possible. Your record’s a big deal going into the seedings for the state tournament, so we’ve got to try to beat the teams we can, try to protect our home court, which we did a good job of last year. … And then we’ve got to try to go steal some on the road against some really good teams early.”

“I feel like these first couple games will determine our season,” Wildcats senior guard Malik Phillips said at Monday’s practice. “They’ll determine how our season goes, how we’ll play, because we play a bunch of the top teams in the state.”

Clovis’ season opens at the Rock Friday night against Cleveland (7 p.m.) before a visit to La Cueva on Saturday, then a trip to Albuquerque next Thursday for the Joe Armijo Classic, which will begin with powerhouse Volcano Vista.

After the tournament, Portales and El Paso juggernaut Americas await the Wildcats.

Good thing they have all those experienced players. Joining Phillips in the returning senior class are Kris Byrd, Bryce Cabeldue, Dewayne Dawson, Mason Figueroa, Ethan Gershon, Josiah Lombrana and Ro Morgan.

“You’ve got to feel good about having this many returners,” Isler said. “We feel like it’s an opportunity to have a more veteran team and some (players) that had some good success last year. So I think we have the team to make a good run into the playoffs this year, but you’ve got to take care of the early games or you get yourself behind the eight-ball.”

Aside from experience, Clovis has versatility. The Wildcats have players with size who can shoot and shooters who can play inside. The 6’3” Morgan for example is mainly a post but will play guard when Isler uses bigger lineups. Then there’s Gershon, who had a breakout season last winter as mostly a shooter, but is 6’1” and creates matchup problems for opponents. He suffered a torn meniscus over a month ago but Monday morning was cleared to play. Gershon has to get in five practices first, so he’s expected to miss Friday’s opener against Cleveland.

The 5’10” point guard Lombrana is intriguing because he was limited to five games last year by a season-ending shoulder injury. He is expected to be an integral part of this season’s team.

Juniors Jaden Phillips and Blake Muscato will add even more experience to the mix. Their big-time varsity minutes last season should help them blend right in with the seniors. Isler said Muscato is one of the team’s best shooters, and calls Jaden Phillips a “do-it-all player.”

With that depth, that versatility, Isler will tinker with the starting lineups early on.

“We have one in mind for opening night, but last year our starting lineup changed quite a bit throughout the first half of the season,” Isler said. “Some of the guys that played bigger minutes came off the bench for us last year. So with our depth we were a team even last year that didn’t have to rely on one guy to score for us; we scored kind of by committee all year. We’ve got a lot of talented guys that can score, we were pretty spread out scoring-wise last year. So guys that are kind of feeling it, that are hot, they’ll end up playing more minutes. With eight seniors we’ve got the ability to play a lot of kids and keep people fresh. So our starting lineup will probably change throughout the year like it did last year. … Some time just after Christmas we want to have a set rotation that we feel pretty comfortable with.”

Whatever their lineup looks like, the Wildcats’ first task at hand will be trying to open 1-0 against Cleveland.

“I feel like we can beat them,” Malik Phillips said.

“They’re going to be tough,” Isler said. “They’re well-coached; Coach (Sean) Jimenez does a really good job up there. They’re going to play fast. They usually have really good athletes, and I don’t expect that to change this year. … So they’ll be a great test early for us and (provide) a good opportunity to try to knock somebody off early in our schedule that can get us a résumé win when it comes to seeding time.”

A victory could be the start of a memorable winter for Clovis boys basketball. The journey begins Friday at 7.