Basketball season preview

Basketball season is back with skilled players both new and old. With strong teams, the boys and girls  hope to go far.

“Even in the past few days we’ve improved a lot, we still have a lot of improvement to go before like we feel really confident about it but … every practice we get better,” said senior Maddie Brown.

Although the team lost some skilled players, Brown believes the younger players will fill in the gaps.

“I think I look forward most to seeing some of the younger players improve a lot because last year a lot of them didn’t get a lot of like playing time … seeing them rise up and take those roles will be exciting.”

The girls team has new Varsity Coach Jeffery Bruer and new JV coach Alexis Burns.

“The biggest thing that I’m looking forward to probably is seeing how much the team progresses, seeing how much we can grow,” said Coach Bruer. “I’m really looking to see how, again, we can come together as a team and hopefully be more successful than we were last year, that’s our biggest goal and the thing that I’m looking forward to the most.”

Girls basketball kicked off their season at the Tri-County Turkey Tournament on November 20 in Oakwood.

In terms of boys basketball, the season also looks bright.

“Looking at the team now that practice has actually started, we are looking pretty strong we’re all fundamentally there,” said senior Jacob Rajlich.

The boys team also has new coaches: Varsity coach Darin O’Connell and JV coach Marshall.

“We’ve all adapted to our new coach Darin O’Connell’s offensive and defensive schemes fairly well. We’re picking up on plays faster than we did in the past. We are playing at a level that I’ve never seen in a Uni team at the start of a season,” said Rajlich on his new coach.

Coach O’Connell coached Centennial Girls Basketball for five years before coming to Uni.

“I’m just anxious to see how we come out and respond, and play together as a team,” said Coach O’Connell. “We’ve got a good group of core veterans, we got nine seniors, so that helps out, and we also have some good younger talent too … Our team model this year is ‘rise as one,’ so I preach playing together, staying together.”

Coach O’Connell’s message to the school as a whole, “I wanna see a lot of people in the stands… my goal is to get more people excited about basketball.”

The boys had their first game Nov. 21 versus Westville High School.

First home game (girls):

December 1st versus Tri-State County

Key events (girls):

January 30th, February 4th, ECIC Tournament at home (Kenney Gym)

February 8th, IHSA Regionals

First home game (boys):

December 12th versus Martinsville High School

Key events (boys):

February 13th, 16th, and 19th ECIC Tournament at Judah Christian

February 22nd, IHSA Regionals