{"id":7822,"date":"2012-08-28T12:40:20","date_gmt":"2012-08-28T17:40:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=7822"},"modified":"2014-05-20T13:12:05","modified_gmt":"2014-05-20T18:12:05","slug":"2012-13-tartan-pride-basketball-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2012\/08\/28\/2012-13-tartan-pride-basketball-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2012-13 Tartan Pride basketball preview"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Coach Price during practice last season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Sinclair Tartan Pride men\u2019s basketball team finished last season with an 18-13 record, two games under the 20-win benchmark that Jeff Price and his coaching staff have hit for the previous four seasons.
\n\u201cLast season, we had some guys that weren\u2019t buying into the system,\u201d Price said. \u201c[This year] we\u2019ll have a whole lot better team chemistry. We\u2019ll have a lot better continuity with what we\u2019re trying to do. We\u2019ll have more guys buying into the system.\u201d
\nThe system Price is referring to is the fast-paced, quick-transition basketball. As a team, the Pride averaged 86 points per contest, according to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) statistics.
\n\u201cIf you want to watch a game in the 50s, you watch Wright State,\u201d Price said. \u201cIf you want to watch a game in the 70s, you watch UD. And if you want to watch a game in the 90s, you watch us.\u201d
\nAlthough the team is known for scoring in bunches, Price is stressing the importance of defense to his players.
\n\u201cThat is the meat and potatoes of most successful basketball programs,\u201d Price said.
\nEven though defense isn\u2019t sexy, Price knows it’s what will win him games.
\nHe said that his players are maturing tremendously from last year and he can see his players are buying into the concept of team.
\n\u201cWhat we\u2019re trying to show them is that the personal success doesn\u2019t outweigh the team success,\u201d Price said. \u201cMaybe if you take less shots, we\u2019ll win more games and you might get more scholarship offers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The players<\/strong>
\nThe Pride lost one of their top three scorers from last season as forward JaBriel Coaston is ineligible. But they are returning a player who was red-shirted last season, Mark Allen, who was named team captain for this season.
\n\u201cMark Allen is a good strong leader,\u201d Price said.
\nThe 6-foot-3-inch guard from Cincinnati was named captain because of his hard work ethic, Price said. In his freshman season he averaged 10 points per game for Sinclair on 52 percent shooting from the field, according to NJCAA statistics.
\nThe top two scorers on the team from last season are point guard Charlie Byers (32) and shooting guard Gavin Schumann\u2014each player averaged 18.2 and 15.7 points per game respectively, according to NJCAA stats.
\n\u201cCharlie goes hard on the court,\u201d Price said. \u201c[And] Gavin is playing well. He has hit that realization of how far he can go with a little hard work. He\u2019s starting to make a name for himself this summer. These are guys that really know the system and understand it.\u201d
\nSchumann said he has been working on his three point jump shot and has been hitting the weights this summer to get stronger for the upcoming season. He also said that this year\u2019s team should have better chemistry and should play better as a team.
\n\u201cI think we have a really good chance of winning the conference this year,\u201d Schumann said in a phone interview.
\nAs for Byers, he said that although he led the team in scoring, last year was a wake-up call for him and now he is ready to take his game to the next level.
\n\u201cI feel pretty good,\u201d Byers said in a phone interview. \u201cI\u2019m excited. I\u2019m ready to lead the team again and I just want to lead our team to the most wins we can get.\u201d
\nPrice said that Byers could be what he described as a \u201cshow piece\u201d player for Sinclair. But Byers said there still is work to be done on the court.
\n\u201cI\u2019m glad he (Price) gives me the opportunity to be successful by putting the ball in my hands,\u201d Byers said. \u201cI just got to go out and play basketball like I know how.\u201d
\nPrice said he is also intrigued by many of his new recruits\u2014but Drew Moore, from Tri Village High School in New Paris, Ohio\u2014 is someone who Price described as a microwave.
\n\u201cRight now\u2014he could be the best pure-three point shooter I\u2019ve had in 20 years,\u201d Price said. \u201cEverybody picks him up first when we\u2019re in open gym. He\u2019s gonna\u2019 be our Vinny Johnson. It\u2019s going to take him one trip down the floor and he\u2019s going to nail a three.\u201d
\nIn addition to his projected stellar backcourt, Price believes his taller recruits should address the rebounding and defending issues his team had as last season progressed.
\nTwo 6-foot-8-inch forwards, Shannon Walls and Floyd Lee should provide the Pride with the stability they will need in the frontcourt.<\/p>\n

The schedule<\/strong>
\nThe Pride will play a total of 31 games this season and of those games one sticks out the most when you look at the 2012-13 schedule\u2014a trip to Georgetown to play their \u201cclub team.\u201d
\nThe team will travel to Washington D.C. as part of what coach Price calls \u201cpreparing them for life after basketball.\u201d
\nThe trip will be funded in part by the \u201cPutts fore Pride\u201d golf fundraiser that took place on Aug. 20.
\nIn addition to the team playing the \u201cclub team\u201d at Georgetown, the Pride will be visiting various Washington memorials, including the Lincoln Memorial and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. They also will be taking a tour of the White House and the Capitol building.
\nSchumann said that he anticipates the trip to be a bonding experience for the team and should help the team grow.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s always good to get out and see new places outside of Ohio,\u201d Schumann said.<\/p>\n

Coach Price\u2019s goals<\/strong>
\nSinclair\u2019s coach said he is the most excited he has been in two or three years about the team he has put together this offseason. And every year he has a set list of goals for his team.
\nThis year, the list hasn\u2019t changed.
\n\u201cOur first goal is to not lose anyone academically,\u201d Price said. \u201cWe want to be an Academic All-American team. Secondly, we want to have all of our sophomores get scholarship offers. Last year we had all four of our sophomores get offers. Then, we want to win 20 ball games, win the conference championship, win the district and then\u2014win the National Championship.\u201d
\nPrice said that he sees his team winning the conference this year because he feels the team will accomplish what he believes it takes to return to successful basketball.
\n\u201cI want to get back to the point to where we walk in the gym and a coach says, \u2018we have to play our best to beat this team,\u2019\u201d Price said. \u201c[This year we\u2019re going to play] strong, hard defense and aggressive offense. This year I expect a whole different attitude.\u201d
\nThe season tips off at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 7 against Miami-Hamilton University on Sinclair\u2019s main campus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sinclair Tartan Pride men\u2019s basketball team finished last season with an 18-13 record, two games under the 20-win benchmark that Jeff Price and his coaching staff have hit for the previous four seasons. \u201cLast season, we had some guys that weren\u2019t buying into the system,\u201d Price said. \u201c[This year] we\u2019ll have a whole lot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/DSC_0152.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-22a","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7822"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9977,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7822\/revisions\/9977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}