Boys Basketball Preview: Despite upheaval, Cougars ready for deep run in the playoffs

Following the graduation of seven varsity players and the unexpected resignation of head coach Preston Hardy, there isn’t much resemblance between the Niwot team that exited the court after a playoff loss to Elizabeth last February and the one poised to take the court against Frederick on Wednesday night. But that’s just at a glance, according to new interim head coach Eric Hejl. Behind the new faces, most of the framework supporting last year’s memorable season is still intact.

“We had a lot of really good things going in terms of the culture of the program, and some of the more behind the scenes stuff,” said Hejl, who was promoted from varsity assistant in July after Hardy abruptly left the team to due to growing family commitments. Now in his third year with the program, Hejl was previously the head coach at Rangely High School from 2010-14. “Preston and I were on the same page as far as the direction we were headed with the program overall.”

Despite a few bumps here and there, that direction was generally upward. Led by forward Adam Barber, who led the Cougars in both scoring and rebounding, Niwot went from eight wins in 2015-16 to ten wins in 2016-17, and even beat crosstown rival Longmont for the first time in a decade. The Cougars also earned their second playoff berth in three years, thanks to a 34th-place finish in the last season’s final Class 4A RPI rankings.

Barber and six other seniors are now gone, but graduation didn’t leave Hejl’s cupboard completely bare. Leading the charge for Niwot this year will be returning starters Tommy Bounds, and senior Cameron Carlson, who is poised for a breakout season, according to Hejl.

“He played club basketball with the Colorado Titans over the summer, and he’s definitely made some strides as far as ball handling ability and being able to pass out of the post.” As a junior, the 6’6”center had 102 points and was the team’s second best rebounder, with 79 boards.

As for junior Bounds, Hejl said he and the rest of the coaching staff are looking forward to the precocious guard’s transition into a team leader.

“Tommy’s taking that step from being a sophomore and a role player,” Hejl said. “Obviously, we depended on him to score, but Coach Trowbridge (Coach CT) has been working with Tommy on some of the other parts of his game—his off-ball defense, his communication, his decision-making, his ball-handling. If he gets really good at those things, then he can be a really dangerous player.”

Those two will be joined by seniors Tyler Crall, Max Towlen, and Dominick Luthens, all of whom saw some varsity playing time last year. Junior Alex Erickson and sophomores Milo Ostwald and Cooper Sheldon are also on the varsity roster.

In all, more than 70 boys showed up for tryouts, which was pared down to 46 players on four teams. Most of the assistant coaches returned to the program this season, including Coach CT, who moved from junior varsity coach to varsity assistant; Jordan Lane-Miller, the new JV coach, and Joe Kear, who will once again helm the C-Team.

While Hejl is quick to emphasize the continuity between his and Hardy’s systems, he does acknowledge that fans might see a somewhat different product on the floor this season, but that’s due mostly to player turnover rather than coach turnover.

“On the court, the style will definitely be a little bit different,” he said. “We do have a fair amount of size … Offensively, we’ve been working getting it inside to the big guys and letting them make decisions. We do have a lot of smart kids, and if you show them the why and the how they’ll do a good job of putting it into place.

“I want to be known as a good, tough defensive team first,” he continued. “I feel like if you work together and work hard on defense, you tend to play a little bit looser and less selfishly on offense, for whatever reason. So we’re going to try to make sure we’re focusing on the defensive end first and then letting that flow into and create our offense for us.”

Hejl said his team is not only aiming for a return to the post-season, but they’d like to host a first round game as well. To pull that off, Niwot will have to finish among the top 24 teams in the RPI rankings, about 10 places higher than last season. That means the Cougars need three to four additional wins, which could be a tall order in the competitive Northern League.

“Silver Creek is going to be very good,” Hejl said. “Longmont will be solid. Thompson Valley will be solid. But I don’t think there’s anybody in the league that’s unbeatable. If we can play the type of defense that I want to play, I think we can compete with any of those teams.”

Hejl and the new look Cougars kick off the 2017-18 season with three straight road games: at Frederick on Nov. 29, at Erie on Dec. 1, and then at Holy Family on Dec. 5.