Basketball Looks to Improve

By Kevin Eickman

Lamarr Shorts

Last season, the Milford boy’s basketball team finished a disappointing 8-12. When you look through the schedule you can see that it wasn’t that they were a bad basketball team, they just weren’t good enough to compete against some of the teams that were on the schedule. When you square off twice against Dover, who were previous State Champions, Cape Henlopen and Smyrna just to name a few, improvement is necessary because those teams rarely get worse.

“Delaware has quality basketball teams up and down the state and we want to become one of those. The way you get there is with players, attitude and execution. I think we have the players to take a step forward this season,” Coach Lamarr Shorts stated.

Over Thanksgiving weekend, Milford had a scrimmage against last year’s state title runner up Middletown. While it may have been in the middle of a long holiday weekend, you could not tell that from the level of play on the floor. While Milford would come up short, the effort was there and Shorts believe the execution will follow.

“Middletown is about to get some players back from football, so they didn’t have everyone today, but they are a very talented and dedicated squad,” Shorts said. “You can practice against yourself all you want, but when you go up against a live opponent you can really get a good look at where you need to improve.”

For Milford the effort was fantastic, with the young men battling all scrimmage long. However, there were some numbers that stood out that Milford will need to fix if they expect to compete with the better teams. They had difficulty working the ball inside, thereby not drawing fouls and establishing the physical type of ball Milford will need to have as the season goes on. The number of turnovers was high as well, giving Milford another item to fix

“I was very happy with the effort today and we can see where we need to improve. I look forward to getting better with the season just around the corner we have to improve pretty quickly.”

One of the strengths for this year’s squad are the seniors Matthew Adams, Daiymir Collins, Xevian Green and Tyjeen Laguerre, a group that Shorts is looking forward to showing the way.

“It’s not just how well they play together, it’s about how close they are as a group,” Shorts said. “They spend a lot of time together off the court and that is something that help builds teamwork. They provide a great deal of leadership”

Some other key players to keep an eye on are juniors Elijah Farrington and Jacob Dickerson.

“These guys are really starting to show their potential and I’m very excited about that,” Shorts said.

Milford also expects to receive contributions from underclassmen like sophomores Tyjere Perry and Gavin Wilkins. A freshman will be seeing minutes on the court this year in the person of Michael Mullen.

“I expect us to have a pretty deep rotation this year, which is very important,” Shorts concluded. “We should be able to go nine deep which gives us a great deal of flexibility.”