By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Adam Thornhill describes the 2019-20 season as a “typical year one” for the Aurora boys basketball team.
Thornhill took over as head coach after spending time at Seymour, Conway and Lebanon and the Houn Dawgs went 3-21 for the second year in a row.
“Just learning and guys figuring me out and me figuring guys out,” Thornhill said. “But it was a good year, just kind of building a foundation of expectations and things that are important to us and it was a productive year.”
As the school seeks its first winning season in four years, there are plenty of reasons for optimism this winter. Aurora only lost two players to graduation in Ryan Cline and Drew Shoemaker and returns a deep and experienced roster that is still fairly young.
Junior guard Jaesik Friggle earned honorable mention Big 8 East honors and returns after what Thornhill described as an “unbelievable” second half of the season. He finished the year averaging 16.3 points per game, 5.5 rebounds, 2.3 assists and two steals but his second-half numbers were even better: nearly 21 points per game and 6.5 rebounds while shooting 72 percent from the floor and 43 percent from three-point range.
“He’s really, really explosive off the bounce, off the dribble,” Thornhill said of the 5-foot-10 Friggle. “Gets to the paint just about whenever he wanted to. This offseason he’s really improved his outside shot and has a chance of being a 1,000 point scorer this season.”
Junior Aaron Fisher, a 5-11 guard, also started in every game and averaged 7.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and better than one assist and one steal. He played quarterback for the football team this fall.
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“Just a tough guard, also really good at driving and getting into the paint,” Thornhill said.
The 5-11 sophomore Trandan Darnell started the second half of last season and appeared in 13 games. Thornhill described him as a “really skilled” guard who can shoot, drive and pass.
Juniors Cameron Savage and Sage Welch and senior Dominick Floyd also earned multiple starts last season. The 6-1 Savage appeared in 20 games and the 6-2 Welch played in 12 and averaged three points and 1.8 rebounds. Floyd, a 5-11 guard, appeared in 23 games and averaged 3.2 points and 1.7 rebounds.
A host of relative newcomers could also make an impact this year. That group includes 5-11 junior Gavin Youngblood, 6-5 sophomore Hayze Hoffman, 6-4 sophomore Daunte Floyd and 6-1 sophomore Kelton Brown.
Kohan Abramovitz, a 5-8 freshman, will also compete for varsity time.
“Depth is definitely a strength of ours,” Thornhill said. “Depth and experience. We’ve got guys with a year of varsity under their belt, they understand the system, and some newcomers as well that understand the system after playing a year for us. Depth will allow us to play an aggressive style on both ends and we’ll be able to utilize that depth.”
The Houn Dawgs will employ as many as 10 players in varsity games.
Aurora averaged 51.6 points per game last year and shot 46.9 percent from the floor. The team averaged 8.6 steals but had trouble with turnovers, committing an average of 18 per game.
Thornhill uses an acronym to set the team’s expectations – DMGB, or Doesn’t Matter Get Better.
“Be better than we were yesterday,” he said. “If we do that things will take care of themselves. We definitely are poised to show some improvement and that will happen from just being a year older really. Expectations are we’re going to continue to do what we did last year. The excitement is here, the expectations are here. We’ve got kids who love basketball and the other stuff will take care of itself.”
