Lowell Red Devils Basketball future may be looking up in 2008

A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith
03-15-2007

LOWELL (3-15-2007) - Some seasons blend into each other.  Some are so much more of the same thing.  I don't think that will be the case next year for Lowell boys basketball.  I don't think it can be.  Aside from the junior boys they have returning off a 10-10 team, including twins Ted and Eli Macis, guards Robert Cusic and Nate Miller plus forwards Jake Bennett and Jake Kerwin, Red Devil basketball will be confronted with several changes leading up to the 2008 playoffs.

1.)  Lowell is moving into a new league and will be picking up some new conference opponents.
2.)  Lowell is either moving into a new sectional or they will face an expanded sectional in 2008.
3.)  Coming off their first non-losing season in 14 years, Lowell can either go up to the suite or down to the street.

There are more questions here than there usual.

How will the new league, the Northwest Crossroads Conference (NWCC) affect Lowell?

Lowell vs. Kankakee Valley games become league games.  Other than that, conference play will not change as the Devils already face new league rivals Munster, Highland, Andrean, Griffith and KV now.  There are no plans for a NWCC tournament that I know of so Lowell has 14 nonconference games.  I would love to see Lowell host their own holiday tournament or co-host with Hanover Central.

Don't you want to play all of your sectional rivals?

Lowell already plays nonconference games against Gary West Side and Lake Central.  Rivals Highland and Munster are in the league.  It would be easy to pick up East Chicago if you want to.

Why wouldn't Lowell want to play sectional rival East Chicago?

Because East Chicago might not be a sectional rival next year.  Lowell might be leaving 4A Sectional one.

What?  I didn't hear about that!

Blame it on Morton.  Or thank them, one of the two.  The new IHSAA listing of schools and enrollments has Morton moving from Class 3A to Class 4A.  Morton will have to be in 4A sectional one with Munster, Highland, Gary West Side, EC, LC and Lowell.  That's seven teams.  Lowell may be given its walking papers.

Where would they go?

To sectional two with Merrillville, Crown Point, Valparaiso, Portage, Chesterton and Hobart.  Here's the deal.  Class 4A, Sectional 5 only has five teams:  East Noble, Warsaw, Carroll, Columbia City and DeKalb.  Columbia City drops to 3A this fall and you aren't going to have any four team sectionals.  Somebody has to move in.

Why isn't anybody talking about this?

The state tournament has taken away everybody's attention.  But there will certainly be changes.  Major ones.  If sectional one has seven teams and sectional five has four, you slide teams east until you balance it out.  For example, the sectional one team that is furthest east (by a little) and furthest south (by a lot) is Lowell.  So Lowell probably goes to sectional two.  The eastern-most team of the six already in sectional two, Chesterton, goes to sectional three.  The easternmost team in sectional three, Adams, goes to sectional four and the easternmost Sectional four team, Goshen, slides over as the new fifth team in sectional five.  That leaves sectionals one through four all with six teams and the sun will shine.

Is this sectional change a sure thing?

Morton moving up to 4A is a certainty.  The rest has be figured out in a smoke-filled room in Indianapolis.  Lowell could be left in a seven team sectional and you could slide Goshen from sectional four to five, but Lowell in the East Chicago Sectional has never, ever made sense.  The new lineup will be on the street before the end of March.

Is a move to Sectional two good for Lowell boys basketball?

I think it is.  I could not foresee Lowell ever beating East Chicago and Gary West Side in the same sectional.  EC mysteriously acquires players from other places like David Bell (2006) and Angel Garcia (2007) while West Side, a magnet school, is like a Gary city all-star team.  Crown Point and Valparaiso are powerhouses, but they usually do it with kids who grew up there.  Lowell can beat Hobart in most years and if Lowell moves to sectional two, Chesterton will be bumped to sectional three.

Also, Lowell could host the sectional in Sectional two and they were never going to be allowed to do that in sectional one.  That 'satellite' sectional format is in place in sectional one partly because EC and West Side don't want to go to Lowell three times.  Some day in sectional two, Lowell could be playing Crown Point in Lowell for the sectional title.

You don't really think Lowell could win either sectional two or sectional one in 2008, do you?  You're not that crazy.

No, not in 2008.  I think the Devils have a better chance in sectional two with Hobart there than they do in sectional one.  But I do think Lowell can win the title in their new league.  Munster graduates all five starters.  Andrean (5-17) graduates four.  KV loses their leading scorer and Hobart (10-11) lost to KV.  Griffith (4-17) started three freshman this season and Highland was 2-18.  Don't say you never even thought of it.  I think its Lowell's turn to win a league championship.

Aren't you being  overly optimistic?

You've got to have experience and depth at guard and Lowell has that.  With four returning varsity guards, Lowell can spread the floor and control the pace of games.  Robert Cusic has been on the varsity four years, both Macis boys can score and nobody else but Griffith returns their lead guard.  Junior Jacob Bennett is a wing player with a good distance shot.

Yeah, but the Devils can't replace center Aaron Corns and forward Mike Weiand?

I don't know about that.  I like 6-foot-2 JV forward David Weiand to help replace his brother and I liked what little I saw of 6-foot-6 Keith Greer.  Trevor Kersey is going to play somewhere.  I think coach Mike Magley could have 10 players he can use.

Okay, but Lowell football is primed for a big year.  So some basketball players will be outdoors until mid-November, right?

Not this time.  None of the six ˜Class of 2008" seniors are football players.  Nobody likes to say it out loud, but at schools like Hobart, Griffith and Lowell, that makes a difference.  High school boys basketball teams, from small schools, rarely have very good seasons after that school's football team has done extremely well.

What would it take for Lowell to get to the upper echelon of teams?

Offensive skills.  Basketball is an offensive game.  The last great scorer from Lowell is on their bench right now, but he's the assistant coach Chris Justevich, who averaged over 21 points a game for three years in the late 80s.  Nobody has averaged 20 points a game at Lowell in 20 years.  Somebody like that would galvanize the team and ignite the student body as well.

Can you create a player of that caliber?

Probably not.  Great offensive players are born, not made.  But they can be self-made.  The best baseball hitter in NW Indiana in the last 20 years was a Lowell player, Ryan Basham.
E'Twaun Moore is from East Chicago.  All-staters Rob Hummel and Scott Martin are from Valpo.  But, without knowing for sure, I would guess that they watched winning basketball by the home team through much of their childhood.

If the program is consistent and has some quality success, another big scorer will come down Route 2 again with the desire to be what Lowell needs.

Copyright © 2006 USA-365.com and Meyer Multimedia Services, a division of Meyer Broadcasting Corp.  All rights reserved.
Revised: March 17, 2007 .