By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – If Google maps could chart the future direction of Bedford North Lawrence basketball, complete with the Siri voice to follow the step-by-step instructions to the destination, it would sound like a lost traveler who made a wrong turn:
”Recalculating, recalculating, recalculating . . .”
Where are the Stars headed, where do they go from here? That’s the toughest final Jeopardy question yet.
Coaches hate to utter the dreaded “rebuilding” word, so there are other terms in the vocabulary to use. Redefining works. Restructuring fits. Remodeling is acceptable. After graduating seven seniors, including four starters, who accounted for 82 percent of the scoring and 74 percent of the rebounds, just about any re- word will accurately suffice.
There’s safety and comfort with such a huge chunk of seniors on the roster. And then there’s a price to pay. The future is a complete unknown, the Stars will be like rolling stones. Will BNL be scrounging for wins? There are great challenges ahead.
“This is the largest task I’ve ever faced,” BNL coach Kurt Godlevske said. “There will be things to figure out. There will be kids stepping into big roles who have to figure things out in a hurry.
“This might be one of the largest 180-degree differences that I’ve ever seen.”
Start with what BNL loses, and it’s considerable. Patric Matson, the leading scorer the last two seasons, averaged 19.7 points while earning Academic All-State honors, and he finished with 883 career points. He was a terrific perimeter shooter (46 percent from 3-point range).
Then add in Logan Miracle (8.9 points, 6.0 boards), Quincy Pickett (8.9 points, with 52 treys) and Isaiah Sasser (3.9) from the starting lineup, and the void is immense.
The Stars went 9-13, only the ninth losing season in the 51-year history of the program, and there were issues with a lack of a true point guard, with defensive struggles (allowing 56.8 points per game, the most since the 2016-17 team gave up over 62). BNL started respectably at 8-5 before faltering during the second half of the season.
“I’m disappointed because we had a higher level of expectations,” Godlevske said. “With this group, being with me for two years, we had more expectations. Our schedule ended up being more difficult than we anticipated.
“If I was a better coach, I would have figured that out. We got into a stretch of games where, on the defensive end – basketball is a matchup situation – it was a tough struggle for us. Style of play was another factor that led to that long stretch. And we had so many weird things happen that didn’t allow us to get into a rhythm in the middle of the year.
“Defense was our biggest concern coming into the season. We thought being able to contain the basketball was going to be a struggle. So we altered things a little bit, changed some of our philosophy to offset that. It might not have worked out as well.”
Where does the reconstruction start? BNL will likely have only three upperclassmen, with Dax Short (6.6) and Parker Kern (2.2) with the most on-court experience, with Ben Conner and Gibson Crane finishing off the senior class. The rest of the holes will be filled by those who will be promoted from a junior varsity that scuffled through a 7-13 campaign.
“Every year you have a different feel, and good high school coaches adapt to that,” Godlevske said. “The strengths we’ve had the last two years, with the ability to shoot the ball, is going to change. This spring and summer will be so important, figuring out what we’re comfortable with, with new faces coming in to play significant minutes.
“One of the things I challenged our staff to do was to come back with two things we’re good at on offense and two things on defense, because we have to build on those. We might have to play a completely different style. I’m more concerned about our ability to score than anything. We have to figure that out.”
BNL has been one-and-done in the postseason nine times in the last 10 seasons, and it’s still chasing the first sectional title since 2001.
