Practice starts today for the Emporia High basketball teams. On Friday, EHS boys coach Rick Bloomquist, beginning his 21st year at Emporia, talked with The Gazette about the upcoming season. The Spartans finished 12-10 last year.
Q This will be a team with a lot of new faces, with six seniors having moved on. Who are some of the newcomers and near-newcomers you’ll count on the most this year?
A Number one, we’ve got a deep junior class, some kids, with the exception we have returning starters Greg Canales, Bryce Childs and Brandon Gentz. People coming off the bench last year — Ryan Huth, who I would consider a newcomer, because he’s still just a sophomore. You have to look at people like Paul Naab, Tommy Robinson, Cody Lindquist, Brock Sheldon. All these kids had great JV years. Collin Thomsen, who’s turned into a pretty much all-around athlete in his own right, is going to be a factor of some sort.
The thing is, it’s going to be a deep team, and so I’m looking for about eight newcomers coming over from our JV team that’s going to be effective for us.
Q Greg is a guy who most people will expect to have a big year. Last season, you brought up the idea of him playing the three (small forward) this year. So where’s he going to play?
A He’s going to play everywhere except point guard; he will not be a point guard. We’re going to use him as an inside-outside situation. It’s going to depend upon the rotation. One, you have to look at, we’re going to be very deep, and there’s going to be times where we’ll seem like we’re not very tall on the floor, and there’s going to be times we’re going to be pretty big. And when we’re big, Greg will be on the outside, and when we’re short, Greg will be on the inside.
The biggest thing about Greg is the way he played the last five games of the year last year, and the summer that he had. He’s really evolved into an inside-outside threat, and in my opinion should be in that order. I’m not taking him out of the inside. I don’t want everybody to think the scheme is going to change completely, that Greg’s going to be standing around 15 feet away from the basket watching, because he’s not.
But he’s going to be hard to match up against, I think, especially with the size. We’ll be a big team — we’re going to be huge. I mean, not huge in terms of 6-10, 6-11 kids, but across the board, we’re not going to be a short team.
Q And Greg injured his ankle recently, correct?
A Yeah, he turned his ankle two weeks ago at the fall league in Topeka, but he’ll by fine by (today). It scared him more than anything. He’s never had an injury of that magnitude, and I think he thought he needed his leg amputated or something at the time. He’ll be fine.
Q Three-point shooting was an issue for your team last year; you guys only shot 28 percent from outside. Will we see improvement in that area?
A Well, we have to have improvement in that area. I think we’ll be more of an inside threat to help the outside, as far as getting good 3-point shots. I don’t know if we’ll have to rely on the 3-point shot as much as we had to rely on it the last couple of years. But I’ve never been an outside-inside coach. We fire first, and look inside second, (but this year) it’s going to be more of the same philosophy that I’ve always had, that we want to attack inside first. But we can’t shoot from the outside as bad as we did last year and expect to win games. And with the size I have, I don’t think there’s going to be any need to, number one.
Q What do you think this group will be capable of doing defensively?
A You’re going to see a little bit different defense. Because, I talked about being deep, and we’re not going to save anybody, and I’m not making any bones about it with my coaching staff. We’re going to use a lot of players, because they’re going to be tired. I want to use their physicalness, I want to use the depth, I want to use their athleticism, and I’m not going to sit back and try to outcoach people this year. I want my players to outplay the other team.
I think the last couple of years, we’ve had to do things to try to keep our team in games, because we didn’t have enough depth or something of this nature. This year, I’m going to make them more responsible and accountable on the defensive end, and when you have the depth that I have this year, it’s easier to do that.
So you’re not going to see as much of the amoeba defense as you saw, you won’t see a whole lot of the combination defenses we ran. What you’re going to see (is) a lot of your basic man-to-man, and you better take care of your job, or somebody else is going to take your place, just some good, old hard-nosed defense. So we want to pick it up, and that’s it. It’s going to be an accountability-type defense.
Q Top to bottom, how do you think the Centennial League looks this year?
A Oh, my gosh. Rico Richardson comes back to Highland Park, and the transfers that they got, you make them the favorite again. Washburn Rural, they’re just having a juggernaut full of kids coming through. This exemplifies the league this year: Topeka West, which was on the bottom of the league last year, basically could be one of the better teams in the league because of the talent they bring back.
There’s not a weak sister in the Centennial League as far as basketball goes. Now, as far as big-name kids, you have to throw Rico Richardson in there as a true big-name kid in the league. Other than that, it’s just very balanced again, and maybe tougher this year just because of the parity from top to bottom.
Q Lastly, give everyone an update on your son Caydrick and his recovery from his recent Crohn’s disease flareup.
A I appreciate you asking. He’s up to a whopping 150 pounds now. He’s really doing well. His reconnection surgery went great. He’s eating more than I’ve ever seen him eat in his life; he’s eating like a teenage boy now. Right now, he’s rehabbing as far as getting his physicalness back. He’s working with a physical trainer. He’s doing small things, little by little, to get back. He’s still got a long ways to go, but he’s getting his strength back, he’s getting his body back, he’s starting to get a little bit more muscle tone. His face looks great. He got caught up with school, which is important.
He’s almost gaining weight every day, and his body is almost like a nutritional sponge right now. It’s been starving so much that it’s just taking in everything he’s eating. He’s working out with the (Butler County Community College) team, but he’s not doing full-fledged practices. ... But he’s excited, and we’re all happy, and we’re all very appreciative of all the thoughts and prayers that we got, for sure.
4thetruth (anonymous) says...
Undefeated !
November 17, 2009 at 2:18 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
esu (anonymous) says...
right...
November 19, 2009 at 7:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
4thetruth (anonymous) says...
We have the best coach and the tallest team , We will not lose ! This will be Coach B first State Championship !
November 19, 2009 at 9:25 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
justaflushaway (anonymous) says...
good for you, now pay your own damn way, and that includes all the coaches and asst. coaches
November 19, 2009 at 10:22 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
4thetruth (anonymous) says...
What are you talking about ? Stop being jealous ! You guys are just haters .
November 19, 2009 at 10:43 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
neighbor (anonymous) says...
Ignore them 4thetruth, they're just the folks who couldn't make the team in school.
November 19, 2009 at 11:35 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
4thetruth (anonymous) says...
Thanks neighbor
We need to get another State Championship !
THIS IS THE YEAR !
November 19, 2009 at 11:52 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Back when E-High took 2nd in the mid 90's did they not have a couple of kids that left that could have easily made up the difference? That was the word anyways, good luck E-High, wish you well.
November 19, 2009 at 3 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
4thetruth (anonymous) says...
They left because they could not handle the heat ! Bloom keeps it HOT.....
November 19, 2009 at 5:29 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
goodoleboy (anonymous) says...
Perhaps he should have turned the heat down a notch or two then? From what I understand, there were 2 of them and both were All-State caliber players.
November 19, 2009 at 11:50 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
TOPCITY (anonymous) says...
ya'll will be a ok team this year
November 21, 2009 at 2:48 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )