Historic basketball event possible. . .

By Tom Obert
Cub Reporter
It has been over 50 years since an Alex boys basketball team last participated in the state tournament. Despite all of the school's successes in every other sport, we've always come up a little bit short here. Now the Cards are one game away.

Our guys will be a distinct underdog against Elk River next week - but anything can happen and, as Abby Williams says, "Bring 'em on!" And it was because of Abby and her teammates that the blog hasn't highlighted what has been a pretty nice season by the boy roundballers. Probably because . . .

They are very similar to all of the other teams we've had since I moved back here 5 years ago, meaning - not a lot of size, good balance, decent depth, and good quickness - so the season kind of snuck by us. KXRA Broadcaster Dave Harris says they had their most conference wins in history this year as they tied Apollo for 2nd place with a 13-4 record (now 20-7 overall).

Watching the Cards for us is Don Nelson - who was a 6'4" (or 5") player for Wheaton in the late 50's when, as I recall, he said they used to kick Alex's butt - and his wife Gretchen, the REAL fan, because she is a substitute teacher and knows all the players. We sit with other retirees where we discuss such things as . . .

Why didn't Chris Conley get more playing time last year? Now a senior, Chris is a 6'6" center who is the most athletic big man we've had in my recent tenure as a fan. He has progressed nicely to the point where he is obviously THE rebounder, and he has quick post moves (both left and right), somewhat reminiscent of The Trailboss in his heyday. His shortcoming, as we've said about the entire team, is if he put on 30 pounds, he'd still be skinny. The team's biggest liability is that they can be pushed around.

The one position where we usually have a size advantage is at point guard with Eric Hartmann, a 6'2" junior. He is also the quarterback on the football team, so with that strength he is able to penetrate and pass off to the scorers. He has improved his shot a whole bunch over last year but still, to his credit, looks to pass before looking to shoot. And he passes to . . .

three other guards, making the Cards a lot like this year's Villanova team - a center and four guards. One of whom is the mystery man - none of us can remember Justin Larson from last year, but he is a 6'2" senior who is probably the best athlete I've seen here since Abby and the Strouth brothers. Like Blake Strouth before him, at the same size, he can do a little bit of everything, including the alley-oop. He's got great hops and is the leading scorer.

Another is Michael Hendricks, a 6'1" senior who is probably the best pure shooter, also has good hops, and is a good rebounder for his size. The 5th starter for most of the season was Ezra Hartsell, a 6'1" senior who always got stuck with the thankless task of guarding the other team's power forward, generally giving away several inches (and pounds) per game. Lately, Dave Lovrien, a 6'4" senior has been starting to provide more size. Tom Ronning, a 6' senior guard, provides instant offense off the bench, and 6'4" senior Derek Ludwig provides instant defense (the free safety on the football team as well as being the deep threat wide receiver).

All-in-all, they're really fun to watch if their shots are falling - then they can compete with anyone. If their shooting is off . . . well, it could be bad because we don't get many offense rebounds - and Elk River has a reputation as being a great shooting team.