High school basketball season is still several months away, but the Adair County Indians have been working hard this summer in preparation.
Summer ball ended last week, and the Adair teams all boasted winning records. The varsity squad went 9-6, while the JV and freshmen teams finished 4-3 and 2-1, respectively.
“We only had one really bad day—at Metcalfe County—where we just didn’t play well, to be honest,” Indians’ head coach Deron Breeze says. “Other than that, I thought we did really well.”
The Tribe competed in contests at home, against region stalwarts Elizabethtown and LaRue County, and followed with games at Southwestern Pulaski, Lindsey Wilson College, and a tournament in Shelbyville.
“E-town is probably the preseason region favorite, and then LaRue is top two or three right up there with them,” Breeze explains. “We had E-town down 10 with four minutes to go, but I didn’t ever slow it down. We just kept playing and ended up getting beat by three. We struggled rebounding and boxing out.”
While Adair figures to be strong in the backcourt next season, with plenty of scoring options and a wealth of long-range shooters, Breeze says the more physical side of the game will determine the team’s future success.
“Some of our guys will have to move up this year,” he says. “All of them got a little bit of [varsity] time last year, but they’ll have a more expanded role this year. I think the biggest thing is seeing the strength, the bodyweight and size difference from JV to varsity. That’s the biggest thing they saw from these summer games.*
“By then end of [summer ball], our rebounding still wasn’t great, but at least you could see the kids were putting a whole lot more effort into it. Every time we practiced this summer, we worked on defensive rebounding. That’s just the biggest thing for us—if we can rebound off the defensive glass, we should be pretty good.”
While the games are over, summer basketball is not quite over. Breeze and his players will host a camp at John Burr Memorial Gym next month. Boys grades K through 8 and girls grades K through 5 are eligible to attend.
Parents and guardians wishing to register their children for the camp may do so here, and more information is available on the graphic at the bottom of this page.
“Most of the high school players will be there working, so the kids will get to intermingle with them,” Breeze says. “We really focus a lot on fundamentals and try to introduce them to the basic offensive and defensive concepts we use at the high school level. There’s competitions and games throughout the camp as well.”
*The varsity squad’s game-by-game results are printed on the graphic at the top of this page.
