Scouting Elgin Maroons

Elgin Maroons

Coach Mike Sitter (3rd year, 32-27)

Conference Upstate Eight

Last year 11-17, 2-8 UEC

Top returners Seniors Jon Garcia (6-3, F), Tim Newcombe (6-2, F), Mike Richard (6-0, G), Nikil Satish (6-1, G), Alan Walker (5-7, PG)

Top newcomers juniors Brandon Baymon (6-0, G), Jordan Dean (5-11, G), sophomores Matt Andres (6-1, F), Kory Brown (6-2, F), Dennis Moore (5-11, PG),

Outlook That Maroon blur racing up and down the floor at Chesbrough Field House this season will be the Elgin boys basketball team, which plans to run, run and run some more. "We have a whole bunch of athleticism," coach Mike Sitter said. "If this was a track team, I think we'd win state. With three sophomores we're real young, but we're 10 deep and they all come to play. We rotate bodies in and play full-court pressure defense and we're looking to push the ball, kind of the complete opposite of last year." Newcombe is Elgin's tallest player at 6-foot-3, but opposing big men will have trouble defending him off the dribble. Walker will play the point and Richard is a long-ranger shooter. The athletic Dean is a consistent shooter and can guard man-to-man for the full length of the court. A player to watch is Brown, one of the three aforementioned sophomores on the roster. He could be the team's leading scorer by season's end and Sitter said "he will be the next in a long line of Division I players produced by EHS." He has a nose for the basketball, is always placed properly, finishes strong with either hand, can hit the outside shot and can already dunk. Moore saw time on the varsity last season as a freshman. A full 32 minutes of pressure defense by the 10-man rotation will keep opponents scrambling to find their offensive rhythm. "We'll have five guys out there just hounding the ball, getting in the passing lanes and getting after it," Sitter said. "You don't have to run a lot of offense if you're creating offense with your defense. Our practices are all out and guys are bleeding by the end of it because they are just getting after each other. I think we're pretty good now, but I can see them getting much better as the year goes on and they get used to varsity basketball."