Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball preview: With limited experience, new coach Henson aims to instill confidence

Val T.
12 minutes ago
5 min read

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

The Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball team won 20 games last year with defense.

They ranked No. 10 in the state in defensive scoring average, grinding teams into the floor with its physicality.

But since then, there has been a coaching change. Joe Luce has left and now coaches Wawasee, and Eli Henson has arrived after a five-year run at Manchester.

Henson relies on a much faster tempo than Luce did, and the players are getting adjusted.

He talks about building relationships and building trust.

“Getting to know one another,” Henson said when asked what the most significant thing the team accomplished this summer was. “For them to be able to understand what I’m looking for offensively and defensively. When you’re under a new coach, it’s a lot of learning that takes place. And I think that was something we really valued, especially in June. It’s just putting all of our stuff in. That way, when we get to November, it’s not like all this stuff at them. Because we’ve got a lot of football players on our team. So in July, August, September and October even, they’re all focused on that, so when they come in November, they already know a lot of our stuff that we’ve already gone over.”

Valley has six seniors, but only William Mellott and Jude Kammerer were in the program last year. Hudson Shepherd, Wes Parker, Gage Overbey and Cale DeWees have played basketball at some point in the past, and all four have returned. Overbey is playing for the first time since his freshman year, and Parker, DeWees and Shepherd are playing for the first time since their sophomore years.

But the two most experienced players are the only two juniors – Owen Omondi and Grant Anthony.

Anthony is a move-in from Warsaw, where he played JV last year. A 5-10 guard, he is expected to man the point on the Valley varsity.

“He’s transitioned very well,” Henson said. “He’s put a lot of effort into improving his game. And he’s someone that we trust. It’s going to be a point guard by committee every now and again though.”

Of the six players who saw playing time in last year’s sectional final loss to Columbia City, the only one who is returning is Omondi. Henson said he is known for his versatility.

“Owen’s just a one who has many roles because he’s our best defender,” Henson said. “When he’s on the ball, he’s our best on-the-ball defender by far. He’s our best help-side defender by far. He does a very good job of posting up and sealing. He’s going to have a lot of guys that are going to be about his size, and if he gets on a guy that has his size and that’s it and it’s not 6-3, 6-4, he does a really good job finishing around the rim. So we got a lot of stuff in action just for him to get downhill and get to the rim, but he’s also someone that can knock down some outside shots. He’s just kind of a guy that can do a little bit of everything that you need. He can handle the ball a little bit, and like I said, he is our workhorse on defense.”

Mellott is known for his soft outside touch, and Henson sees him as a shooting guard.

“He can handle the ball, but I think that if he was our point guard, he’d be off position a little bit,” Henson said. “He’s our best shooter. We want to get him out in transition and allow him to get some good looks.”

Sophomores on the varsity include Ty Kiser and Liam Newcomer

Henson wants to force the action defensively.

“We’re going to play very aggressive,” Henson said. “And we’re going to play very aggressive defensively. … We struggle to shoot a little bit right now, and we’re hoping that our defense can help create some easy opportunities for us to get out in transition and push the basketball and attack. Because we do have good athletes, and we do have about nine guys that are in our rotation right now that are going to be wanting to get some minutes, so the best way to get that done is to push the other team to their limit and allow our guys to get fresh going to the bench for a couple minutes and getting them back in.”

When asked about fundamentals, Henson said it starts with instilling confidence in his players because confidence is fundamental to winning.

“Everybody on our team has minimal experience,” Henson said. “I think we have two guys that have stepped foot on a varsity floor, but for a couple minutes here and there, and they were used very sparingly.

“The biggest thing that I’ve tried to do in the last couple months is instill confidence in them because those are guys that are going to be out there playing in front of 1,000 to 2,000 people on a nightly basis. If you can’t have confidence in yourself, your ability to shoot or your ability to make a good pass, then we’re going to really struggle.”

Henson said Casey Lane will coach the JV, and Kyle Ritchey will coach the C-Team. Shaun Shepherd moves from JV coach to varsity assistant.

Tippecanoe Valley boys basketball schedule

Valley overhauled their schedule, adding DeKalb, NorthWood, Brownsburg, Elkhart, Goshen, Gary Lighthouse and West Central. Valley also added a home holiday tournament Jan. 2 that will also include Tipton, Fort Wayne South Side and Leo.

Games against Homestead, Indianapolis Herron, Western, North Miami, Kokomo and South Bend Washington were either dropped or contracts were not renewed. Valley also dropped the Switzerland County Holiday Tournament.

Nov. 26 – vs. DeKalb, 7:30 p.m.

Nov. 29 – at NorthWood, 7:45 p.m.

Dec. 9 – at Manchester, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 12 – vs. Brownsburg, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 13 – vs. Knox, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 16 – vs. Elkhart, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 19 – vs. Peru, 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 27 – vs. Rochester, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 2 – Valley tournament (field includes Leo, Tipton, Fort Wayne South Side)

Jan. 6 – vs. Plymouth, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 9 – at Bremen, 7:30 p.m.

Jan. 16 – at Jimtown, 7:30 p.m.