Young ECC aiming for improvement
Ready or not, the kids will play for the Elgin Community College men's basketball team this season.
The Spartans return two players with legitimate experience at the junior college level Peoria wingman Marquis Lobdell (6-foot-5) and Milwaukee point guard Johnny Paden (6-1) but are otherwise inexperienced at most positions.
“We've got a young group that's still learning the difference between high school basketball and college basketball,” ECC coach Reid Nosbisch said Tuesday. “Our schedule is challenging enough early on that our freshmen are going to log a lot of minutes.”
Providing a bit of security until those freshmen get acclimated to the faster junior college pace are Lobdell and Paden.
Lobdell was a part-time starter last season who wound up leading the Spartans in scoring with 11.5 points per game to go with 5.8 rebounds.
Paden led the Spartans in scoring two seasons ago. He missed most of last season as a medical redshirt after undergoing shoulder surgery early in 2009-10 the season. As a freshman in 2008-09, Paden was the team's second-leading scorer (11.3 ppg.) and averaged 4.3 rebounds and 3 assists.
It could be a few more weeks until Paden regains his 2008-09 form.
“Johnny didn't get cleared until Aug. 23, so from November until August he wasn't allowed to do anything because of the medical redshirt and the shoulder surgery,” Nosbisch said. “He's had nine months off, so he's still trying to get back where he was.”
The roster of 18 includes three other sophomores: Mike Kozenczak (6-2), Terell John (6-4) and Jordan Teegarden (5-8). Kozenczak and John saw limited minutes. Teegarden returns to the program for his second year of eligibility after spending a year in Florida.
Freshmen contributing right away include guards Justin Bieber (6-4) and Shyler Ralphs (6-1) from Hampshire, Sean Meyer (6-2) from Jacobs, and Devin Powell (5-10) from Richards and forwards Lance Vesper (6-7) of Hoffman Estates and Shane Larkin (6-3) of Burlington Central.
Several summer commitments round out the roster, including Streamwood forwards Marcus Greene (6-3) and Luke Cwiok (6-3), Larkin guard Drew Simonini (5-11), Jacobs' Jakub Skora (6-0), David Tucholski from Geneva (6-5), Minooka's David Manning (6-1) and Rob Bock (6-3) from St. Charles North.
Through their first three games, the Spartans were averaging 76 points per game, led by Lobdell (17.0), Bieber (13.0), Powell (13.0), Vesper (10.0), John (8.0) and Paden (6.0).
“We've really been scoring very well,” Nosbisch said. “The last couple of years we've struggled and struggled to score, but through three games we're averaging 76 points. Unfortunately, we're giving up 81. We've just got to get better defensively.
“Our No. 1 thing right now is we just have to get better every day, whether it's practice or game situations. Early on, we just want to put ourselves in situations to win games and use that as a learning tool.”