2008-2009 Renegade Girls Basketball  Season Final Poll A USA-365.com Special Report by Mark Smith (03-14-2009)

MICHIGAN CITY, IN (03-10-2009) All Northwest Indiana teams were eliminated at the regional level, something we're getting used to.  No one was the victim of a stunning upset and the future does not look much brighter.  If it's a cycle, it's a long one.

If you do not count 1A Oregon-Davis, I think we have to go back to the 2002 Hebron Hawks to find the last girls basketball team from Northwest Indiana to reach the state finals.  And the four class system increases the opportunity for a team to advance, certainly by 400%.  What's wrong?  I only have symptoms.

Symptoms?  Here's what I mean.  Sarah Palin isn't what's wrong with the national Republican Party.  She's a symptom.  She's a simple-minded, contradictory, superficial, judgmental, secretly corrupt politician.  But I have no idea how she got that way, or more importantly, how she got elected being that way.  I know what.  I just don't know why.  The same is true of girls basketball in this area, and probably state wide.

With the graduation of four Division 1 players out of the Duneland Conference, it's hard to see the 2010 playoffs being a showcase for that league.  Other than Griffith and Boone Grove, who return all of their starters for 2010, we need some help here.  Somebody's got to get a lot better.  Somebody's got to transfer in.  I don't know why we don't have a lot of strong girls teams but we don't.

How can I be so sure?

The low quality of girls basketball is directly attributable to the inability of girls to dribble and pass.  To handle the basketball.  It's something I have mentioned here many times and it is glaring.  Watching someone like TaKenya Nixon (19 ppg.) handle the basketball for three-time DAC champ Michigan City the last four years makes you realize how important that failure is.

Hanover Central fielded one of the smallest teams in the state the last two seasons and they had winning records and won two sectionals largely because of point guard Jordan Kramer, who, while she was only about 5-foot-3, directed their offense in games where everybody knew she was the key player.  How?  She could dribble and pass the ball.

Oregon-Davis is in the middle of nowhere but they are 60 games over .500 the last three years because of a girl named Gabrielle Minix, who averages a modest 14 points a game.  Why  She can dribble the ball.

I'd like to say that if I was a coach, I would have a player on MY team that couldn't dribble the ball well.  I'd like to say that, but the truth is, if I made that stipulation, I wouldn't be a coach very long.  Or I'd be a coach with three players on my team.

There are many factors in basketball, in my opinion.  Passing.  Footwork.  Defensive positioning.  Conditioning.  And the most overrated one:  Shooting.

But none of them matters if you can't dribble the ball.  Almost any coach is a genius if all five players can dribble against defensive pressure.  That's Heritage Christian, which won four state titles.  Realistically, you're lucky to be .500 with one dribbler and four rebounders and defenders.

Most teams do not have a point guard so they have to stress defense and offensive rebounding.  And effort wins until you run up against superior skill.  And then you get eliminated by 20 or 30 points like Hanover, Michigan City, Gary Roosevelt and others did this season.

The answer must be at the lower levels where lead guards are bred and nurtured like rare flowers.  I don't have an answer as to how to create the ball handlers that other areas (and top Illinois teams) seem to have.  Short of that, you put your best athlete on the point, stress defense and hope to survive 20 turnovers a game.  Short of having dribbling camps, where that's all you do and all you discuss.  Daily off-season drills on dribbling and passing.  Dribbling contests instead of shooting contests.  Take-home dribbling drills so kids just won't shoot when they practice by themselves.

Beyond that, I just don't know.  Watching the state finals, there are girls flying up the floor with the basketball under control.  Those are winning teams.  If you want to win (if you want to play), go out and work on your ball-handling skills.  How or why (or even if) this isn't being done, I can't tell you.  But when you watch the state finals, you appreciate that you can't stop good offensive teams with your defense.  You have to BE a good offensive team.

Who has the lead guard to go to the semi state next year?  Maybe Griffith.  Oregon-Davis.   Merrillville?  Boone Grove?  If they're out practicing right now.  By process of elimination, NW Indiana will always annually have a half dozen teams in the regional and we'll all herald them like the 'second coming'.  But when you watch the state's best, our dribbling and passing skills up here are sub-par.  I wish I could be more optimistic, but until I can get some word on some new lead guards with skills, I can't.

A look ahead to 2010 isn't promising.  Many are saying that the top part of the state is open to new 4A hopefuls now that all-stater Skylar Diggins (30 ppg.) is moving on to college.  But Elkhart Memorial (20-4) will return a very formidable team with 6-foot junior Jada Buggs (13.9 ppg.), 5-foot-11 sophomore Akyah Taylor (18 ppg.) and 5-foot-6 freshman Brionna Barnett (11.9 ppg.).  No one else in the top half of the state has anything like that returning next season.

In 2A, Oak Hill (26-2) returns its key players and four-time champ Heritage Christian returns three starters.

The openings for NW Indiana squads may be in 1A where Oregon-Davis will have size problems (no one taller than 5-foot-8) and in 3A where Plymouth (42-8 the last 2 years) is rebuilding.

1.  (4A) Michigan City (21-4)
2008 (20-6), 2007 (22-2), 2006 (14-11), 2005 (6-15), 2004 (6-16)

MICHIGAN CITY:  Michigan City was the last Northwest Indiana team still playing and they were the best team most of the year, thanks to Seniors TaKenya Nixon (19.2 ppg.) and Bianca McGee (12.4 ppg.).  MC will be good next year with 5-foot-9 Essence Robinson (9.7 ppg.) and 6-foot-1 junior Jocelyn Edwards (9.5 ppg.).  Freshman Ashley Ellenwood (2.5 ppg.) has three more years to take over at lead guard.  The Wolves will win more than they'll lose next year, but they won't win the DAC in 2010.

2.  (4A) Gary West Side (17-7)
2008 (18-5), 2007 (16-6) 2006 (16-7), 2005 (23-5), 2004 (20-4)

CHESTERTON:  The Trojans are going to have to rebound. Senior forwards Abbe Skube (11.6 ppg.) and Morgan Palombizio (12.5 ppg.) both graduate and Chesterton still has the 14 league games they have to play.  I get the impression this past senior class was a little tough to coach and up-and-comers 5-foot-8 freshmen Lindsey Gorman (3.2 ppg.) and 6-foot-1 soph Clare Holba (7.1 ppg.) might lead a squad that will surprise.  Chesterton has to decide what style they want to play.  There was an effort to push the ball up the floor and run more in 2009 and that seemed premature with the talent they had as seniors.  2010 might be the time to speed things up.

2A Boone Grove (16-7)
2008 (16-7), 2007 (18-5), 2006 (14-11), 2005 (21-6)