MHS BOYS BASKETBALL
Last Year: The Cavs went 2-20 and missed the playoffs for the first time in several years.
Coaches: Jasen Maciey is Middletown’s new varsity head coach. He’s assisted by former Goldey-Beacom College teammate Derek Savage, who will guide the junior varsity. Craig Bilinski is the freshman coach.
Varsity returnees: Alex Buzby (6-1, sr.); Mecheal Greene (6-1, jr.); Jordan King (5-11, so.)
Rest of the Roster: Naamon Johnson (6-4, sr.); Bryan Bell (6-0, sr.); Tony Eaddy (5-11, jr.); Mike Pinkett (5-6, jr.); Ausum Watson (6-5, jr.); Nafis Hayward (6-1, jr.); Marquis Dendy (6-1, jr.); Kye Baylor (5-10, jr.); Jordan Griffin (5-10, so.); Curtis Mack (5-8, so.); Joshua Young (5-7, fr.)
Looking ahead: A new era begins with Maciey, who was a former high school assistant coach at Tatnall and at alma mater Goldey-Beacom. Maciey, a prolific 3-point marksman at Goldey, said the Cavaliers are trying to improving daily as a team. His goal is bigger than wins and losses trying to lay a strong foundation with defense and hard work.
“To be a contender, we have to [eliminate] a lot of bad habits [and] we are spending a lot of time correcting from changing our image off the court to simple basketball fundamentals,” Maciey said via email. “All I’m teaching is new to my players and we will take every game as a one-game season.
“Obviously the goal at the end of the day is to win a championship but we are going with the motto, ‘You have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run.’ ”
Maciey said his team is still buying into the system of working together on defense.
“We still struggle with the fact if the opponent scores we as a team gets scored on not just the indivdual’s man,” Maciey said. “I hear a lot ‘Coach my man had no points,’ but what they don’t realize is it’s a team defense.”
Offensively, Maciey said, “We are starting to learn to move the ball and make the defense work. I think a strength of ours is our fast break we have some kids that can finish.”
