2012 senior class photos
2012 West Carrollton graduation
Home of the Week
Home > Blogs > Springfield, Ohio High School Sports > Archives > 2009 > February > 03 > Entry
On this date in area sports history…
On this date in area history, Feb. 3, the News-Sun published a story on the Graham boys basketball team, who had gone 26-1 on the home court over three seasons.
The team included current Graham boys basketball coach Brook Cupps and Northwestern baseball coach Brent Parke.
Published in the Feb. 3, 1995 edition of the News-Sun:
FALCONS ARE BEST IN THEIR NEST; HOMECOURT EDGE BOOSTS GRAHAM
By Cindy Horner, Sports Writer
With its parquet floor and its Boston Garden mystique, Graham’s home court has become a haven for the Falcons.
The floor has become known as “Graham Gardens” mainly because the Falcons have made it hard for opponents to play there. The seniors are 26-1 over the past three years with three home dates remaining, including tonight’s game with Versailles.
“It’s a credit to the kids who have played in the program over the years,” said Coach Dave Zeller, whose team checks in at 12-2 and 3-0 in the Southwestern Rivers Conference.
“But I must say that this is the hardest working group from top to bottom. Most kids are sick of basketball practice at this point in the season. But, after our two-hour practice, kids are still shooting around. We have to run at least 10 of them off the floor. We basically have to demand that they leave. A lot of kids come out early in the morning and work out as well. I know that (starters) Brook Cupps and Keith Cunningham have been doing it religiously.”
The hard work has paid off and the Falcons are hoping that it continues to with four SRC contests remaining.
“We’re hoping to keep the intensity up and maybe a title will come to us,” senior Brent Parke said. “We’d really like to keep the winning going as well. The seniors on our team have been winning since junior high. We’ve gone something like 94-10 since junior high, and we take a little pride in it. We want to keep playing.”
Graham pulled off a big overtime win against Catholic Central last week at home. Central dealt the Falcons their last home loss two years ago.
“This league is so tough from top to bottom,” Zeller said. “We’re going to have to turn around and play another good game against Versailles after playing Central tough. Versailles is 11-3. We lost to them there in overtime last year. I felt like it was a game we gave away. We certainly haven’t forgotten about it. But Versailles is always tough to play, no matter what.”
Graham, which finished 19-4 last year, is doing things differently this season. With the graduation of 6-foot-8 center Steve Setty, now at Wittenberg, and Kevin Fritts, the Falcons have gone to a more uptempo game.
“We’ve changed our style from the half-court offense we used to run,” said point guard Cupps, who gets to school around 6:30 a.m. to do the Steve Alford workout every morning. Cupps took the workout, which takes about 45 minutes, from the former Indiana guard’s videotape.
“The big guys we have on the team can shoot the three as well as the smaller guys,” Cupps added. “We’re a quicker team and play mostly man-to-man using the whole court, and we’re doing a lot of traps. We’ve all been working hard on it.”
Zeller said that the offense had become too patterned.
“We wanted to run the ball up the court a little more,” he said. “But sometimes when teams do that, the intensity drops off. I told the kids that we’d go with the quicker paced offense during the preseason and if the intensity dropped off, then we would go back to the old offense. But it didn’t drop off, so we stuck with it.
“They like the uptempo game,” he added. “It’s more fun this way, and the kids have to be more aggressive, both offensively and defensively. They’re always attacking. We’re also shooting the three a lot more than in the past. We have two sophomores starting inside, and both are three-point shooters. We’ve just become more of a perimeter team.”
Four of Graham’s five starters are averaging double figures and most of the starters have a good shooting percentage. Sophomore Chris McGuire leads the team at 71 percent (55 of 78) from two-point range. Matt Middleton, one of six seniors, is shooting 67 percent from two-point range; Parke, the first player off the bench, is at 66 percent; sophomore Nick George is at 55 and Cupps at 49. McGuire also is at 43 percent from three-point land.
But don’t forget the bench. Zeller hasn’t.
“It’s like draw poker,” he said. “I have three seniors that come off the bench in Parke, Chad Wolfe and Kyle Wagner. One is a good three-point shooter, another is a good aggressive rebounder and the other is a defensive specialist. When the situation arises, I go to the deck and usually come up with what I’m looking for.
“Usually, seniors who do not start are a source of agitation and dissatisfaction,” Zeller added. “It’s not like that with these kids. These kids, with their attitude and senior leadership, they have been a big part of our success. They provide a great team atmosphere.”
Permalink | Comments (0) | Post your comment | Categories: On this date
Comments