The 2018-19 high school basketball season is nearly half a year away still, but local teams usually get together to practice, play and go to camps during June.
For Mingus Union High School’s boys team, this month could be particularly key in preparing for this upcoming season, given that it returns just three players with regular varsity experience. Cooping players up in the gym for hours on end for a month will help grow them as individuals and as a group.
“Absolutely. Any time you lose as many guys as we did, I think it’s important to build, A, some chemistry and then, B, just some familiarity with myself and some of the kids as well as with our system and our goals and things like that,” Mingus head coach Dave Beery said. “More time together in the summer, I think it’ll be really beneficial.”
The Marauders have already gone to two camps, one at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott on June 1 and 2, and another at Arizona Christian University this past weekend. On Wednesday, June 6, they hosted Camp Verde High School for a scrimmage.
In the game of two running-clock, 20-minute halves, both teams let their entire roster of players get up and down the court. The roster features a good number of upperclassmen who are inexperienced at the varsity level.
“What I like is I’ve got guys who are competing for minutes. We dressed 14 guys for [the scrimmage],” Beery said. “They’ve been real supportive of each other, positive with each other. It’s not, ‘I’m trying to make myself look better and the other guys look bad.’”
Mingus led 31-22 at halftime.
The lead swelled to 37-28 off the back of back-to-back three pointers by rising senior guard Chaz Taylor and rising senior forward Colt Sorensen, two of the experienced returners. The third experienced Marauder, rising senior guard Chase Saczalski, hit a triple with 14 minutes left to make it 43-31.
Camp Verde rising junior guard Abe Gonzalez responded with a three-point play to cut the deficit to 43-35.
Gonzalez also got up to record two blocks in the second half, and his transition layup with 9:10 left made it 43-40. The Cowboys hung around and tied it on rising junior guard Jason Collier’s and-1 with about 6:30 left. Mingus closed the game out down the stretch with a Taylor triple and free throws, eventually winning 59-48.
“I like playing Dan [Wall, Camp Verde head coach]’s teams because [he] does a great job and his teams always play exceptionally hard,” Beery said. “I was actually a lot happier today, even though the game was close, I thought our effort was better, I thought we made adjustments …. I thought we ran the court well, I thought we were unselfish with the basketball, but way too many fouls. Obviously we have a lot of stuff to work on.”
Wins and losses this time of year are second fiddle to getting players minutes and seeing what coaches have to work with, and what needs to worked on.
Mingus hosted more scrimmages on Monday, June 11, and will again on Wednesday, June 13. Its final camp of the month will be at Dixie State University in St. George, Utah, from June 18 to 22.
“To me it’s one of the more fun things to do as a coach, just to get to see them interact,” Beery said. “For better or worse they’re kind of stuck in a gym together all day. There’s some rough points; there’s guys that get sick of each other and stuff, but it’s important when you’re trying to be a family and get that idea in and guys work through some of those issues if they have them. So far these guys haven’t this summer but it’s only a matter of time. You watch guys grow and develop as players and kind of see how they interact with each other a little bit on and off the court and it helps you get a feel for the identity of the team.”
The Marauders will host Barry Goldwater High School on June 25 before rounding out the month at Scottsdale Christian Academy on June 27. Beery said their regular season schedule is tough this year.
They will play Peoria High School, which defeated them in last season’s Conference 4A state play-in game. They also will host Moon Valley High School and travel to Deer Valley High School, last year’s Conference 5A state runner-up.
