Indians look to go up tempo to begin new season
Nov. 20—With the pre-season wrapping up and the season starting the week after Thanksgiving, the Comanche Indians are looking to use an up tempo offense to begin the new basketball season.
Comanche Public Schools hired Coach Anthony Bowie to take over back in June and he has had several pre-season scrimmages and a whole summer to look at his team.
Bowie said the pre-season has been one of learning and is very pleased with the team's outlook.
"Well, what I'm liking most importantly out of the group that I have is the early buy in and they are showing up every single day," Bowie said. "We have some kids that are in the gym working extremely hard. We got kids here every day from freshman and even have some eighth graders that want to get in the gym and work out for us. If we can continue with that and have good behavior while having the kids at practice every day working hard we will see some good things happen."
Bowie said the athletes are learning the new system and doing well.
"We are trying to play a little bit faster this year. We are creating space, fast with easy opportunities including a lot of layups and getting to the rim to create some easy scoring opportunities," Bowie said. "We run a lot of man-to-man defenses and try to trap and press half court and hitting them with a bunch of new concepts and things they haven't done much in the past. They are small, athletic and fast so I feel like it is an offense and defense philosophy that suits their abilities."
Returning players Bowie said are using the trial and errors of the scrimmages and it has the athletes learning the process. He said the goal is to use a lot of players in a big rotation.
Some of the returners that Bowie is expecting big things from is Myles Ellis and Dillon Ellis who will be juniors this year.
Bowie also mentioned junior Corbin Bowen is going to be an option with his shooting abilities and is gaining confidence trying to get to the rim and some freedom to be aggressive for the season.
Hunter Lassley is another junior Bowie mentioned that will be a big part of the team, however they will rely on 9-11 players in the rotation.
Briar Blair is also coming back and will be a part of the rotation along with senior Blayden Cook who will be a utility player for the Indians.
Colby Shannon and Hunter King will contribute to the team as well.
"All of our guys are team first guys. I feel confident playing 9, 10 or 11 guys on the floor," Bowie said. "We just have a lot of contributions and we are going to spread this thing around. This year I have confidence in 9-11 guys to contribute on a night in and night out basis to spread that scoring out. We will have multiple guys who will score 15, 10, 8 or 11. That is the style that we want to play this year and that is the kind of team that we want to be."
The season begins after Thanksgiving and they will play a tough Amber-Pocasset team that made the Area Consolation Finals and were one game away from the State Tournament.
"I think it is a great test for us. We have watched them play a little bit. They are disciplined kids and they space the floor really well," Bowie said. "So for us, it is going to be staying engaged on the defensive end and being able to communicate, talk with our team. I'm excited and they are a great team that we are getting ready to go up against."
Tip-off for the 2022-2023 Comanche Indians season will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 29 on the road at Amber-Pocasset High School.
