By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Joplin’s boys basketball team has experienced significant turnover from a 17-10 campaign last winter, and that includes at head coach.
Nick Pfeifer, a Carthage graduate, is the new man in charge after the departure of Bronson Schaake, who went 36-18 in two seasons. Pfeifer played basketball for former Carthage head coach Steve Ray, then played college soccer at Newman University and returned to serve as an assistant under Ray for three years before getting his first head coaching job at Erie, Kansas in 2012.
“I spent the last 10 years there, had some good teams and a little bit of success,” Pfeifer said. “We had a couple trips to the state tournament, and I just really enjoyed my time over there.”
Pfeifer decided he wanted to return to the area last year and coached Joplin’s freshman team last winter. Now, as head coach for the Eagles, he inherits a program that returns two starters from last year’s team, which lost by two points or fewer in five of 10 losses.
“We had some success and I thought we had a nice year,” he said. “I thought coach Schaake did a good job. We were solid defensively. We’re going to be completely different this year. We’re going to have some challenges with new faces and younger faces and with All Wright and Terrance Gibson and some of those guys that won’t be around this year. It’ll definitely be a different look, so we’ll have to find our own path and figure out what we’re going to be good at.”
Wright and Gibson are key losses from last season. Wright, who’s playing his senior season for Link Year Gold, was a unanimous first team pick in the Central Ozark Conference as a junior and also earned All-District honors in Class 6 District 5. He averaged 25.7 points per game, 4.3 rebounds and 2.9 assists. Gibson, a second team pick in the COC, averaged 13.5 points as a senior along with 8.7 rebounds.
CLICK HERE FOR LINKS TO ALL OF THE WINTER PREVIEWS
The Eagles do return a pair of starters in junior Cooper Williams and senior Whit Hafer. Williams averaged 16 minutes per game along with 2.1 points, 1.8 rebounds, and Hafer, who’s committed to play tight end at Missouri next fall, offers a big presence in the paint – he averaged 6.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and nearly a block a game.
“Whit’s just a great athlete,” Pfeifer said. “He’s playing football at Missouri next year and he’s really a tremendous basketball player, a little underrated. He’s tremendous defensively and we’re really going to need him to step out and be a guy who’s not just a leader, which he has those qualities and he’ll do a great job with that, but we need him to be the focal point and get him more touches and touches inside. He can shoot the ball so we’re going to lean on him for a lot of different things. Cooper has done a great job in the offseason and brings great energy. He’s a guy you can count on for anything. I’m excited to see him take on a little more important role you might say. He started for us last year but this year we need him to take the next step and produce on the offensive and defensive ends.”
Fred Taylor figures to be another key contributor after logging 13 minutes a game as a freshman last season. He averaged 3.4 points, 1.5 rebounds and an assist. He impressed Pfeifer over the summer and the coach expects him to be a “really big, important part for us.”
“He’s willing to defend and we’re going to need the ball in his hand and him making good decisions and that will determine a lot of how we go,” Pfeifer said.
Juniors Trenton Gage and Aiden Scourten will also play bigger roles this year.
As a coach, Pfeifer will place a heavy emphasis on defense and said defending will be the foundation of the program.
“I think it’s a pretty old coaches’ adage but you don’t always bring your offensive game and your defensive game always has to be there,” he said. “We tell our guys if you want to play you’ve got to be able to guard. Everything else comes from that. Everybody wants to get up and play fast and we’d like to do that and push the basketball but in the half court we want to shoot with high efficiency and make sure we’re getting quality shots.”
Joplin’s schedule is pretty similar to last year, including the 77th Annual Carthage Basketball Invitation in early December and the Eagles’ own Kaminsky Classic in early January. Joplin will travel to the former Kemper Arena in Kansas City for the 12 Courts of Christmas in late December. Joplin will also head to the Pittsburg Invitational in January.
Joplin will host a jamboree on Nov. 16.
