It’s halfway through January, and Emporia High boys basketball coach Rick Bloomquist can’t get a handle on just how good his team is this season.
A big reason why might be that the Spartans have only played six games in a month and a half.
Emporia has wins over Bellevue (Neb.) East, Olathe East and Topeka West, while the Spartans have dropped three games to teams ranked in the top 10 of their respective classes in Blue Valley West, Topeka High and Highland Park.
“The three teams that have beaten us are three very good basketball teams ... and the three teams we’ve beaten are good teams too,” Bloomquist said. “I just want to know what level we’re at as far as the upper echelon of 3-3 or the lower echelon. We may be very good and not know it, or we may be very bad and not know it.”
In the next six days, the Spartans (3-3) will have four chances to see just how good — or bad — they really are, starting with tonig6:15 matchup against Olathe Northwest (1-6) in the first round of the Ralph Miller Classic in Chanute. Emporia will again play on Friday and Saturday in the tournament before traveling to Hayden next Tuesday to get back into Centennial League play.
If anything, the Spartans are used to this situation. EHS opened the season with three games in three days in the Paul Terry Classic, and turned around and played at Topeka High the following Tuesday.
“We’re pretty much ready for whatever comes our way now,” guard Seth Torres said. “I would say that practice has been more smooth in the last week and a half, and we’re ready for some games now.
“It’s been more practice than games, obviously, but I think we’ll be all right.”
In Olathe Northwest, the Spartans will face a team that will be quite different from when the season started.
Jarard Milo, a 6-foot-3 transfer from Olathe North and the Sunflower League Sophomore of the Year a season ago, is now fully eligible to compete for the Ravens, and already has an 11-point outing in Northwest’s 54-38 loss to Shawnee Mission Northwest on Jan. 11.
Bloomquist said Milo instantly made the Ravens much better than their record indicated.
“He’s supposed to be their best player,” Bloomquist said. “I hear he’s a nice, nice player. With the addition of the Milo kid, he’s going to make that 1-6 team play like a 3-4 or 4-3 team. We’re not playing a real 1-6 team in my opinion.”
The Spartans, who have not played a game since a 73-55 loss to Highland Park on Jan. 9, are led in scoring by junior Caydrick Bloomquist, who is averaging 14.8 points per game. Sophomore Taylor Euler enters tonight’s game averaging 13.3 points a contest, while junior Troy Pierce and senior Kyle deBlonk are averaging 9.7 and 9.5 points per game, respectively.
Should Emporia get past Olathe Northwest, the Spartans would play the winner of the Olathe North-Shawnee Heights matchup at 6:15 p.m. on Friday. If the Spartans fall to the Ravens, they will play the loser of the North-Heights game at 3 p.m. on Friday.