Eagles will have to rely on quickness

By JIM BASTIAN

Journal Sports Writer

NEW ULM -- To say that this year's New Ulm Eagles boys basketball team is inexperienced may be an understatement.

Only one player with any kind of varsity experience is back in senior Matt Schmidt, who started last year. Other than that, many new players will be making their initial varsity basketball appearance tonight when the Eagles, who finished 10-13 last year, host Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton in a nonconference opener.

Seven of the Eagles on the roster will be underclassmen.

Pat Burmeister is back for his sixth season at the helm of the Eagles.

"We are not very experienced or very tall," said Burmeister. "So we will be looking to put a lot of full-court pressure on people to try and get some easy baskets from turnovers on the press. On offense, we will look to push the ball up the court to get some shots off before other teams can get their defenses set."

Burmeister said that he will probably start Schmidt and sophomore Eric Austvold at guards. Last year, Austvold played on the B-squad and is a good talent.

"Jared Schmidt, a junior, is also out, but he had cut off his thumb in an accident last year. He has to wear a hard cast and because of that (cast) I don't think that he will be allowed to play. As far as the rules read, you cannot have a hard cast on. If he could have played, he would have started."

If that is the case another sophomore, Bob Wellmann, will start. He also played B-squad last year.

A pair of seniors, Rob Geistfeld and Mark Newman, will man the inside for the purple and white.

Others expected to see playing time (New Ulm will be missing two players because of grades) will be Derik Johnson, junior Charles Ganske, seniors Craig Spelbrink and Colby Leighty, Mike Grossmann, Mark Grossmann and Sam Schaetzke.

"I think that we will be a quick team; this will probably be our quickest team in quite a while," commented Burmeister. "But it also makes us pretty short; the rebounding is suspect. We will have to be able to pressure the basketball with that quickness. We will also have to be fundamentally strong in that we need to box out on our rebounding because we do not have the height. Most teams will have us out-sized. We have to stop teams from getting the second and third shots."

In tonight's game against JWP, Burmeister said that the Bulldogs "have a good post player and a quality guard who shoots the ball well. They also have a fine guard who last year played on the B-squad who shoots well and can drive to the basket. They have a couple of kids who can play; we will try and pressure them and get some turnovers.

"On offense, we will push the ball. If we can't get a quick shot, we are going to try to run our offense and get a good shot."

In the South Central Burmeister looks to Blue Earth ... maybe. "I heard that their two points guards did not go out for basketball this year so if that is the case, then the conference is wide open. St. Peter, St. James and Blue Earth will be good with Waseca and Fairmont having decent teams. In the Section (2-3A) I look for Mankato East and Marshall to be the favorites."

On thing that Burmeister wants to improve on from now until March?

"We need to have good work ethic and pressure the ball. We need to out-hustle the opposition."