Free State High's boys basketball team was trying to figure out the best way to simulate top-seeded Leavenworth's size and speed during Wednesday afternoon's practice in preparation for tonight's Class 6A sub-state game.
The solution? The No. 8-seeded Firebirds ended up scrimmaging against six players.
When: 7:30 p.m.
Where: Lawrence High.
Radio: KLWN 1320 AM.
Previous meeting: Leavenworth won 70-40 Jan. 5 at Leavenworth.
Records: Leavenwoth 17-3. Free State 9-11.
Now while it might seem to opponents that the defending state champion Pioneers are playing more than five players at a time, the biggest question tonight will be if one player in particular will be playing.
"I hope so," Pioneer coach Larry Hogan said of senior standout Wayne Simien.
"I think they cleared him to play. He's probable."
Simien, a Kansas University signee and McDonald's All-American selection, has missed the Pioneers' past five games because of a slight ligament tear in his right shoulder. The 6-foot-9, 245-pound center was averaging 19 points a game before going down against Shawnee Mission East on Feb. 3.
Tipoff for tonight's sub-state game is 7:30 p.m. at Lawrence High, with a live radio broadcast on KLWN 1320.
The road to repeating has been anything but rosy for the Pioneers (17-3). Not only did they lose Simien for a stretch, but also last Friday they saw 6-7 senior forward Nick Sanders go down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.
"We've already had a lot of adversity this year with Wayne's injury and Nick's ACL," Hogan said. "We've had some stuff that's happened to us that's been pretty tough. Anything that happens at this point will be good. What worse can happen than losing one of your players to an ACL?"
The Pioneers haven't steamrolled teams like they did last season, when they posted a 23-2 record en route the state championship. In fact, three of their past five wins have been by three points or less, including Saturday's 53-50 Senior Day victory over Manhattan.
"(Free State guard) Neil Dougherty brought up the analogy that they seem to be playing in their last couple games like we've played in our last couple of games where they're just kind of waiting for somebody else to do it and not everybody's getting involved," Free State coach Jack Schreiner said. "I guess we'll see which team comes out of their funk first."
Free State's funk has consisted of back-to-back losses to Olathe North (57-51) and SM East (48-40) that dropped the Firebirds to the bottom seed and wiped out any chance they had of being a host for sub-state. Prior to last week, Free State (9-11) had won three straight games and four of five.
The Firebirds remain upbeat, though, despite their recent downturn and the unenviable task of taking on the defending state champions.
"I don't know if the kids look at that at all," Schreiner said. "I think that's something that the coach looks at more than I think the kids do. To the kids it's a game. The kids think they can beat anybody. You could bring Indiana (University) down here and they'd think they had a chance."
The Firebirds also like the fact that although they aren't playing at home, they've got the next best thing.
"We think that's an advantage to us," Schreiner said of playing at Lawrence High. "We've been there. It's across town from us. We don't have very far to travel. As I've said 15,000 times, I love that gym.
"I would think the Lawrence High fans would be rooting for us. At this point in time they're thinking about advancing to state and I would think they would guess they have a better chance against us than Leavenworth. Don't you think most teams would say that? The team in the other bracket that wins will be rooting for us, I would think, just because they don't want to play the McDonald's All-American."
The winners of Leavenworth-Free State and Olathe South-LHS will meet in the sub-state championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.