PREP HOOPS: Taking off the pads

Clovis High basketball coach J.D. Isler breathed a sigh of relief Saturday when the Wildcats came through the Class 5A state football championship game against Mayfield at Las Cruces with no significant injuries.

Then on Monday, with seven of his 11 varsity players practicing for the first time, two went down with sprained ankles — senior forward Jonathan Sweet and junior forward Michael Lewis.

Both are questionable for this weekend’s City of Champions Classic at Artesia. With sophomore Diondre Hunter, also a football player, scheduled to participate with the Cats’ junior varsity in a tournament at Amarillo, Isler could have no more than eight healthy bodies on hand.

In addition, he knows it’ll take time for players to make the transition from football.

“It’s just tough right now to go in thinking we’re going to be jelled,” the fifth-year coach said. “But I think we can go in and compete well.

“I’m sure we’re going to make a lot of mistakes and get fatigued. With our situation, we’re going to have to use our timeouts and rotate kids into the game.”

The Cats face Class 3A Lovington — also coming off a state football final on Saturday — in today’s 1 p.m. quarterfinal contest. Lovington lost its opener at Roswell Goddard, but doesn’t have as many players transitioning from football, Isler said.

Most of the teams in the meet are smaller schools, but have been competitive at the 3A or 4A level.

“We would feel like we should go in and win the tournament (under normal circumstances),” he said. “In the situation we’re in, we’re still looking for our kids to do well, but it may be a asking a lot for us to win it.”

The Cats, who have postponed three games due to the football playoffs, will play eight games in the next 15 days.

Only senior post Devin Sweet and sophomore guard Jaden Isler, the coach’s son, saw significant varsity time on last year’s 22-6 squad. Those two are expected to start today, along with senior guard Cody Thornsbury, sophomore guard Bryce Hill and junior post Rishard Matthews.

“I’m not sure how we’ll do,” said Thornsbury, who saw limited varsity time last season. “We haven’t been playing together that long, but I think we can do pretty good.

“I’m pretty nervous, but I’m kind of anxious to get the season going.”

The roster includes only three seniors and five sophomores.

“We’re very young, but we really are a good perimeter shooting team. The best shooting team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Isler said. “I think we’ll be pretty athletic, and we’ll be able to run the floor pretty well.

“This is a group that really has good chemistry, and that’s important.”

Chris Finch, a 6-foot-4, 250-pound senior post, will come off the bench today along with sophomores Jason Roberts and Layne Strebeck.

“I’d really like to see how we are,” Thornsbury said. “We had a good summer and we bonded pretty good. We have a lot of good shooting guards and some good post players.”

Several of the football players will need to play well, coach Isler said, including Matthews, Jaden Isler, Finch and Sweet.

“We need for Chris to be a presence in the middle,” Isler said. “Rishard is the type of player who can play a lot of positions; because of his athletic ability he can play inside, and because of his quickness he can play on the perimeter.

“We need Devin to be more of a scorer than he was last year, and we need him to be a leader. He did a good job of leading the football team (as a quarterback and free safety), and I think he can do the same thing for us.”

It’ll simply take some time for things to come together, he said.

“We hope by the Milk Cow Classic (Dec. 28-30 at Rock Staubus Gym) to have everybody in shape so we can play like we want to,” the coach said. “This group plays well together. I think opponents will have a tough time because they’re going to have to get on our shooters.”

In District 4-5A, the Cats and Hobbs figure to battle it out with Carlsbad hoping to challenge. But Isler said that because of the state’s 16-team seeding process for postseason, more emphasis has been placed on teams’ overall season performance.