Oran Boys Basketball Preview

Conference: Scott-Mississippi

Coach: Joe Shoemaker, 7th season

District: Class 1 District 2

Schedule:

Date Day of Week Opponent Location Time

December 1-5, 2014 Monday-Friday Oran Invitational Tournament Oran TBA

December 9, 2014 Tuesday Risco Away 6 p.m.

December 12, 2014 Friday Scott City Home 6 p.m.

December 16, 2014 Tuesday East Prairie Home 6 p.m.

December 19, 2014 Friday Delta Home 6 p.m.

December 26-30, 2014 Friday-Tuesday Southeast Missourian Christmas Tournament Show-Me Center TBA

January 2, 2015 Friday Woodland Home 6 p.m.

January 6, 2015 Tuesday Bernie Home 6 p.m.

January 9, 2015 Friday Saxony Lutheran Away 6 p.m.

January 14, 2015 Wednesday Kelly Away 6 p.m.

January 16, 2015 Friday St. Vincent Away 6 p.m.

January 19-23, 2015 Monday-Friday Scott-Mississippi Conference Tournament Oran TBA

January 27, 2015 Tuesday Oak Ridge Home 6 p.m.

January 30, 2015 Friday Leopold Away 6 p.m.

February 3, 2015 Tuesday Chaffee Away 6 p.m.

February 6, 2015 Friday Bell City Home 6 p.m.

February 10, 2015 Tuesday Bloomfield Away 6 p.m.

February 13, 2015 Friday Scott County Central Away 6 p.m.

February 17, 2015 Tuesday Advance Home 6 p.m.

Roster:

No. Player Year Height

10 Layne Johnson 9 5'11

11 Blake Overfield 11 5'10

12 Cole Priggel 9 5'9

21 Thomas Trankler 11 6'0

22 Max Priggel 10 5'11

23 Jacob Priggel 12 6'0

31 Preston Hahn 11 5'10

32 Eric Westrich 12 6'0

33 Hunter Schlosser 12 6'2

44 Garrison Mangels 11 6'0

45 Anthony Pobst 12 6'4

55 Blake Schlitt 11 6'0

Returning starters: Hunter Schlosser, Thomas Trankler, Jacob Priggel

Starters lost: Seth Ressel, Chance Tenkhoff

Last year's record: 21-8

Postseason result: Lost to Advance 88-79 in district championship

Last year's leaders:

Points: Seth Ressel (18.2 ppg)

Rebounds: Ressel (6.2 rpg)

Assists: Ressel (5.4 apg)

Team outlook

Oran boys basketball coach Joe Shoemaker said he's been hammering home the point that his players need to block out and rebound better in preseason practices.

"You can either block out or you can sit down," is a common message for Shoemaker, who deadpanned that the problem was a product of "poor coaching from last year's coach."

The seventh-year Oran coach has an undersized team that will also head into the season short-handed. Returning starter Thomas Trankler and junior classmate Blake Overfield has both been suspended until mid-January for a violation of team rules.

The will make the challenge of replacing Chance Tenkhoff, a standout on defense, and point guard Seth Ressel even more challenging.

"He led us in every statistical category that we had, every category there was -- rebounding, assists, free-throw shooting, points score, whatever -- he led us," Shoemaker said of Ressel. "We're going to have to fill it by committee. I can't expect one person to step up and do what they did. My seniors are going to have to be better leaders this year. Obviously Seth was with the varsity for a long time and was a good leader, so we've got to step up and develop some leadership."

Seniors Hunter Schlosser and Jacob Priggel, who are both entering their third season in the varsity rotation, will be counted on for that leadership as well as production on the court.

Shoemaker said time would tell if the Eagles will be able to play the type of suffocating pressure defense they were able to with Tenkhoff in the lineup last year, a defense that had to be mostly abandoned when he was injured.

"It'll kind of depend on who we're playing," Shoemaker said. "I don't know if we're a good enough team just to say 'This is what we're going to do,' and beat you with it. I think we're going to have to be able to adjust a little bit to who we're playing."

District breakdown

Oran dropped down from Class 2, where it was a final four team two years ago, to Class 1 this season. They avoided landing in a district with Scott County Central but couldn't escape rival Advance."

"I knew it was going to be close with the enrollments," Shoemaker said. "Obviously it was nice with Scott County getting bumped up to Class 2 because you see them in conference, and I wouldn't want to play them for the fifth time in a district championship. That would not necessarily be fun, but we've got some familiar faces. We're still with Advance. It is what it is. We've just got to work every day to get better."

After winning just two district titles in school history, the Eagles won three consecutive titles over Advance before being upended by the Hornets in last year's district title game.

"You know there's always going to be that feeling that they got us the last time we played," Shoemaker said. "They kind of get reminded of that in practice every now and then. I'm sure they're looking forward to that still."

There are plenty of other familiar teams in the district.

"Most teams we already know. It's some of our local teams," Shoemaker said. "We play the majority of them. We do play Risco [in the] regular season. We do not play the team from St. Louis [The Fulton School at St. Albans], but I think the rest of them we're kind of familiar with. But there will be some more scouting going on with those teams as the year goes on."

Looking back

The Eagles finished 21-8 a year ago after having to replace two stellar senior performers from the season before in Kody Moore and Alex Heuring. They'll have to pull off that feat again this year to replace Ressel and Tenkhoff.

"When you lose your best defensive player and the guy who led you in every statistical category, you've got a lot of spots to fill," Shoemaker said. "We're trying to do it by committee, do it as a team. They're buying into that philosophy right now, so that's good."