By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Last season’s Nevada boys basketball team was probably the most inexperienced group Shaun Gray has coached in his eight seasons at the school, and it showed in the win column.
After averaging 21 wins for the previous five seasons, the Tigers had just one returning player with varsity experience last season and finished with an 8-19 record.
“It was a rough start not winning a game before Christmas but the guys we had were team-first guys and the record probably didn’t reflect the type of energy, effort and attitude we were getting,” Gray said.
“The growth that last year’s group had, in my mind, made them one of the more successful groups we’ve had,” he said. “We’ve had groups win a lot of games that maybe didn’t see the improvement throughout the year like that group did.”
This year Nevada returns two starters and a third player who saw significant varsity minutes. All three are guards. The starters are senior Cade Beshore, an honorable mention Big 8 West selection who was also named to the conference All-Defensive team, and junior Brice Budd. The 5-foot-11 Beshore averaged nine points, 2.5 rebounds, two assists and two steals and the 5-10 Budd averaged eight points, two rebounds and better than an assist and a steal per game.
“Cade started all 27 games last year and saw a lot of growth,” Gray said. “He got a lot better and a lot more confident shooting the ball. Brice is another one that gained a lot of confidence and really started to get a better feel for the game in the second half. Having two guards that started every game for you the year before, that’s a big benefit, a big luxury.”
And 6-1 sophomore Jack Cheaney was a shooting threat off the bench who shot 29 percent from three-point range.
“As a freshman last year he was our sixth or seventh man depending on the game,” Gray said. “He’s got a lot of upside and he’s a really good athlete who can do a lot offensively so we look for him to take on a bigger role for us this year.”
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One relative newcomer to the team will be 6-6 senior Drew Beachler, a state medalist in track and a tight end in football, who played basketball as an underclassmen but not last season while he got his legs healthy for track season.
“I think with the returning guards we have combined with Drew’s size and athleticism we have a chance to maybe surprise some people a little bit and hopefully take another step up from where we were last year,” Gray said.
Other players in the mix are junior Riddick Shook, who Gray described as a good shooter who impressed during the summer; junior Drake Ketterman, who led the JV squad in three pointers; junior Ude Mba, a gifted athlete who’s strong attacking and in transition; and junior Kellan Ast, a really physical player with a high motor.
Additionally, 6-3 junior Talan Chandler will play after moving to Nevada from Lutheran St. Charles, where he was a Class 2 All-State offensive lineman as a sophomore.
“I think this is a really hard-nosed defensive group,” Gray said. “They guard the ball really well, they fly around on the defensive end of the floor. I think with Drew’s ability to block shots and alter shots at the rim and the guards’ ability to put pressure on the ball and guard it, I really think we’ll be a pretty stingy defensive group. We’ll really look to let our defense help create some offense for us, put us in position to get out and run and hopefully use turnovers and a lot of stops to get some good looks on the other end.”
Nevada will travel to Joplin for a four-team jamboree on Nov. 17 along with Lamar and East Newton. The Tigers open with a new game on the schedule, at Neosho, in what might be the schools’ first regular-season meeting since the old Southwest Conference. They’ve also replaced Joplin’s Kaminsky Classic with the Mustang Classic at McDonald County.
