By Rob Patrick
The Bryant Hornets make their unofficial debut under the direction of head coach Mike Abrahamson (see http://bryantdaily.com/post/Hornets-have-a-new-head-basketball-coach.aspx) tonight when they travel to West Memphis to take on the defending Class 6A State runner-up Blue Devils in a pre-season game to benefit the Arkansas Activities Association catastrophic insurance fund.
Abrahamson is the program’s third head coach in three years following Mark Smith, now at Bauxite, and interim head coach Ron Marvel, a member of the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame who came out of retirement to help out last year.
Abrahamson inherits a team with just two seniors and very little varsity experience.
The Hornets officially start the season on Thursday, Nov. 18, when they meet Fort Smith Southside at Hendrix College in Conway.
“We’re trying to fight through a situation where we’re almost getting stagnate,” Abrahamson related. “It’s almost hard to get better because we know each other so well and we know each other’s tendencies and we know all the plays. We’re trying to fight through that but certainly this is an opportunity to play against someone else and really see where we are. And, as it turns out, we’re going against possibly the best team in the entire state from what people are telling me about West Memphis.[more]
“But it gives us a chance to play on the road, play somewhere else,” he noted. “And it’s going to be difficult but I look forward to that and I want us to grow from it no matter what happens. I just want us to get better, learn from the experience. Because we’re not going to travel any further — Van Buren, but — we’re not going to play against anybody any better, according to some people, from a talent standpoint and from an aggression standpoint and from a size and athleticism standpoint. I just want to see right off the bat where we stand because that’s what our schedule is. Our conference and some of our non-conference schedule is that.
“People think I’m crazy for trying to play them,” the coach quipped. “I was just looking for a game where the girls could play the same opponent, and they’re going to come here next year so that’s who we’re going to play.”
The Hornets’ returning seniors are Kyle Nossaman and Houston Garner. A senior transfer, Elie Curry, will be available next semester. The team’s juniors are 6-7 Quinton Motto, Eric Moore, Logan Trudell, Brantley Cozart and, a move-in from Benton, Jordan Griffin. A large group of sophomores includes Zach Cambron, Riley Hall, Leon Neale, Luke Rayburn, Marcus Wilson, Skylar McKissock, Strodney Davis and Jalen Hewitt. After football season, Abrahamson expects junior Travis Royal and sophomore Aaron Bell to join the team as well.
Asked what he found when he got to Bryant, the coach said, “Great kids, great school, great community. I feel like I’m going to have support from our superintendent to our athletic director to our principal. I know I’ve got their support. What I found is a team that I think has more potential than they believe themselves. And that’s my struggle to get it out of them.
“There’s no question that we’re young, we’re inexperienced as far as varsity basketball goes and we’re under-sized,” he assessed. “And maybe I’m this romantic, I don’t know. But I really believe in these kids and I’m just trying to get them to see what I see in them. And it’s a struggle. It’s every day, tugging at them, pulling at them, poking them, prodding them — just trying to get them to reach their potential.
“And I think we can be competitive with everybody on our schedule if we can do the things that we can control,” Abrahamson asserted. “We can’t control those other things that I mentioned — size and experience. But we can control how hard we play, how much we communicate, how well we screen and cut, how well we pass, if we dive on balls, if we take charges.
“We see it in spurts,” he mentioned. “It’s difficult for 15-, 16-year-olds to bring that mentality every day for every minute of every practice. I understand that. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let it go.
“More than anything, if we can rebound, then I think we’ve got a chance to compete. Now, that’s a lot easier said than done. It’s like, well, just block out or whatever but it’s not that simple.
“I just hope we don’t have to get beat real bad before they can wake up and see, ‘Well, he’s right, we’ve got to play harder, we’ve got to cut harder, we’ve got to screen better, we’ve got to communicate more,’” said the new coach. “I thought we’d made a lot of progress but now we’re at that point where we’re really having to fight through it. And I’ve really had to adjust my coaching to try to get through it because I don’t want to be stagnant."
Regarding the personnel, Abrahamson said, “We’re going to rely heavily on Brantley Cozart. He can do everything I’m asking him to do but it’s one of those situations where he doesn’t believe it like I see it. It’s in there, we’ve just got to get it out. “Jordan Griffin is a junior transfer. He’s one of our best players,” he continued. “We’re going to rely heavily on our seniors Kyle Nossaman and Houston Garner. Elie Curry is a transfer from North Little Rock. He’s probably our best athlete, our best defender. Then, big time, big time, big time, we’re going to rely on Quinton Motto to get rebounds, to be a force down low, and Leon Neale and Eric Moore. Leon’s only a sophomore and he’s really coming into himself but we need a lot from him now, to perform. And Eric Moore is 5-10 post player but we’re going to rely on him to get rebounds.
“That’s what we’ve got, that’s who we’re going to rely on and we’re not going to make any excuses about it,” he stated. “That’s whose got to get the job done.
“That group has separated itself I think but we’ve got two kids ineligible, Elie and Jalen Hewitt, who’s a sophomore. Riley Hall’s about to have elbow surgery. He’ll be out six weeks so we’ll get him back after Christmas, which will just add depth in practice and JV games and thus varsity games. It’s just kind of trickle up. I thought that depth was going to be a strength, and it might be, but maybe not until conference.”
BRYANT HORNETS
2010-11 basketball schedule
Nov. 9 — at West Memphis#
Nov. 18 — Fort Smith Southside%
Nov. 23 — Benton
Dec. 2 — Benton&
Dec. 3 — Searcy&
Dec. 4 — Wynne&
Dec. 9-11 — at Russellville Tournament
Dec. 13 — Lake Hamilton
Dec. 17 — at Benton
Dec. 28-30 — at Spa City Shooutout, Hot Springs
Jan. 7 — at LR Catholic*
Jan. 11 — Van Buren*
Jan. 14 — at Russellville*
Jan. 18 — Conway*
Jan. 21 — at Cabot*
Jan. 25 — North Little Rock*
Jan. 28 — at LR Central*
Feb. 4 — LR Catholic*
Feb. 8 — at Van Buren*
Feb. 11 — Russellville*
Feb. 15 — at Conway*
Feb. 18 — Cabot*
Feb. 22 — at North Little Rock*
Feb. 25 — LR Central*
March 1-5 — Class 7A State Tournament, TBA
#pre-season game
%At Hendrix College, Conway
&Searcy Bank Invitational Tournament
*7A/6A-Central Conference game
