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By Paul Lecker
MarshfieldAreaSports.com
MARSHFIELD – Outside expectations aren’t very high for a Marshfield boys basketball team this season and the team hopes to prove those doubters wrong.
The Tigers, who return only three players who saw major playing time last season, open their 2011-12 campaign Tuesday at La Crosse Central and begin their Wisconsin Valley Conference schedule Friday at Merrill.
Seniors Elliot Ashbeck and Brandon Brown were starters for the majority of last season and sophomore Luke Zuiker saw major playing time on the varsity late in the year, but other than that, the Tigers will have a new look, and possibly a new style of play.
Gone are the mammoth front line of 7-foot Jon Bauer, 6-9 Cale Zuiker and 6-5 Dustin Thumann. Seniors Ben Satter and Alex Arendt, both 6-5, will provide the bulk underneath this season.
“For the most part, we are a different team,” Marshfield coach Craig Michaelis said. “The size we had the last two years is gone. The leadership and the experience from those guys are gone. We’re a different team and we’re going to approach it that way. We are going to have to play differently than we have in previous years. Our defense has to be adjusted a little bit. We don’t have the size and the athletes that a lot of teams do.”
Ashbeck averaged 11.5 points and 3.1 assists a game last year, while making 81 percent of his free throw attempts in conference play. Luke Zuiker played the final two conference games and started during the Tigers’ run to the sectional semifinals, averaging 8 points a game. Brown, a starter for most of the season, was asked to handle the ball and play solid defense at point guard and averaged just 1 point and 1.6 assists a game.
The rest of the playing rotation will have to play itself out. Juniors Luke Olson, Mack Scheppler and Isaac Accola played key roles on the JV team last season and could be in the mix, along with seniors Sean Koran and Adam Voss, who both played limited varsity minutes a year ago.
Juniors Kole Oppman and Tanner Dennis-Brown, and sophomore Matt Oestreich round out the roster.
“A lot of us have played together for a long time,” Ashbeck said. “There’s not a lot of guys coming back but we’re a close-knit group. We work really hard. I think we’re a little undersized compared to last year, but we make up for that in quickness and work ethic. We’re really getting after it and I think it’s going to pay off.”
That chemistry will be put to the test as Marshfield adjusts to a more guard-oriented lineup that will stress hard-nosed defense.
“We’re not going to be big. What we lack in size we’re going to have to make for in intensity and aggressiveness and smart play,” Michaelis said.
“I think we can go pretty deep. The experience we have back, those are the guys that are going to have to be on the floor, but in the same respect, I don’t think we have a team that they don’t have to be on the floor all the time. You can move guys in and out and look at a half a dozen guys that can get 12-14 minutes and if they play at a maximum level, we can be pretty tough. “
Michaelis praised the improvement of Satter, who played on the JV as a junior last year and bulked up during the offseason.
Satter said the Tigers are a work in progress and could be a force as the season moves on.
“I think when we get some experience, we can be a pretty good team,” Satter said. “Obviously, we’d love to win the conference. Knocking off Everest – they are going to be our biggest competition – is a goal.”
Michaelis said D.C. Everest is “without a doubt” the team to beat in the Wisconsin Valley Conference this season. The rest of the conference, he said, is up for grabs. He expects the Tigers to be in the mix.
“This is a high energy group,” Michaelis said. “They’ve really bought into the chemistry amongst them. I really like what we have and I’m excited. I don’t think we have the ‘X’ on our backs like we maybe have had the past two years and I think the guys are taking that as a little chip in terms of thinking that their games are undervalued.
“Everest is without a doubt the team to beat. They come back with all of their guys. Beyond that, I think it will be competitive.”