Always hard to say good-bye
Comments (...)There’s two days of the basketball season Jesse Brandt dislikes the most — the day he has to make cuts at the beginning of the season and the final day he has to say good-bye to his senior players.
The Princeton Tiger coach said his good-byes to four seniors following Tuesday’s regional loss. He addressed them with a relatively lengthy postgame huddle in the locker room of R.M. Germano Gymnasium.
“It’s probably the worst day of the year, because you got to say good-bye (to the seniors),” he said. ”Last year it was nine and this year four, sure doesn’t make it any easier. They put a lot of time and effort in and represented the program well. I was very proud of them.”
Seniors Jacob Fisher, Lance Jensen and Kyle Arnett all put four years in the program while Cole Jilderda rejoined the program this year.
• The better team won: Brandt didn’t make any excuses about Tuesday’s loss, telling his team that the better team probably won. St. Bede’s depth, he said, makes them tough to beat.
“They’ve got seven, eight kids who are pretty good basketball players. I don’t know if we can go that deep with that quality,” he said. “We tried, we gave them a good effort, but I think they’re probably a better team overall. That’s why they got 22 wins We sure gave them all they wanted. I know they didn’t want to come out and play us in the first round.”
Brandt also said the Tigers made a good showing for themselves as the No. 7 seed in a field of seven.
“I told the guys I think we might be the best 7 seed in the state. You don’t see many 7 seeds playing as well as we have lately,” he said. “It’s unfortunate we had that bad stretch we got seeded seventh and had to play a quality team early on. As good as the teams are here, I don’t think it matters. If you weren’t the 1 seed getting a bye, I don’t think it really matters. I still think anybody can win it. It will be a fun rest of the week down here.”
• Bruin up some victories: St. Bede’s 22 wins this season are the most in 70 years at the Academy and the third most in school history. Only the 28 wins (28-4) in 1937-38 and 25 (25-3) in 1941-42, both under coach Bron Bacevich, are better. St. Bede put back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time, last year’s 20-8 mark coming under former coach Terry Nelson.
Tuesday’s win was also the 398th all-time for Bruins coach Mike Kilmartin, who returned to the Academy this year where he started out in 1973 as freshman coach. He would notch No. 400 if the Bruins win out at regional. He stands at 398-258 (.607), including one season as boys’ coach at AlWood and DePue (1978-79), two season as boys’ coach at Putnam County (1976-78), 15 seasons as boys’ coach and four seasons as girls’ coach at Mendota.
• Sale sign: Putnam County senior Jake Sale had been struggling since injuring his knee in the Feb. 10 Hall game and probably should have rested it a couple games, his coach Josh Nauman said. He averaged just 10 points per game over a three-game stretch after having put up 18 a night throughout the season.
But he had his sights set on joining the 1,000-point club at PC, a figure he reached exactly with a three-point shot Friday for his 16, 17 and 18 points of the night against DePue.
“Jake has been a lot of fun to coach the past two years. I know getting 1,000 meant a lot to him, so I was really glad to see it happen on his Senior Night,” Nauman said.
Sale added to his final career totals with a 34-point effort in Tuesday’s regional 62-51 loss to El-Paso Gridley on his homecourt.
• Diamond gem: PC senior Cody Bornemann verbally committed Wednesday morning to accept a scholarship to play baseball for Robert Morris University, a NAIA school in Chicago. He’s played baseball and basketball four years at PC. Sale, his teammate, previously committed to play baseball for Parkland College.
• Three-point shooters: Three St. Bede shooters advanced in the 3-Point Showdown Tuesday with Sam Lucas leading all scorers with 11 out of 15 attempts. He’ll be joined Thursday by teammates Michael Langham (9) and Grant Bosnich (7) and Princeton’s Kyle Arnett (6).
In 1A competition, LaMoille/Ohio’s Mitchell Barker advanced at Sterling Newman and DePue’s Isaac Reyes from Streator Woodland.
• Last second shots: Should his El Paso-Gridley Titans have the good fortune to meet up with his dad’s (Tim) Eureka Hornets for the regional championship, EPG coach Nathaniel Miess said he’d do the same thing his dad would be doing - try to win. ... Princeton’s John Keener will be calling his final games as the public address announcer at R.M. Germano Gymnasium this week. The longtime PC teacher is retiring at the end of the school year. He started out Monday’s game by declaring, “Let’s get this party started.” ... Logan Bima, a junior reserve from Princeton, mans the end of the receiving line for the St. Bede starters during player introductions each night. He even takes chest bumps from burly teammate Joe Pyszka.
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