A season of focus for T-Wolves
At the beginning of the season, when the Lake City High boys basketball players were handed drawings of horses wearing blinkers, and a drawing of a man with his hands cupped on the outsides of his eyes, the Timberwolves looked at each other, somewhat quizzically.
Eventually, the players got the message from T-Wolf head coach Jim Winger, an unabashed horse racing fan.
Focus only on what’s in front of you. Don’t worry about what’s behind you.
Wearing blinkers — also sometimes called blinders.
“It’s just one of his crazy analogies that he has, and we love it,” senior wing Deacon Kiesbuy said.
“He draws a lot of pictures — he's not a very good drawer — but we understand the message,” senior point guard Kolton Mitchell said with a laugh. “Winger likes horse racing, so he talks about keeping the blinders on and just looking forward, not thinking about the crowds, and a lot of talk on social media. He’s trying to make it so we don’t hear all that stuff and keep looking forward, having that tunnel vision, one game at a time, one practice at a time, not looking back.”
“We just take it one week, one practice, one drill … simple stuff like that,” senior wing/post Zach Johnson said. “Not worry too much, just about things we can control.”
“It’s mainly just us focusing on what we do,” senior wing Nathan Hocking said. “With how popular our team is, it’s easy to get distracted, and we can start to look ahead. It’s about us having the blinders on, and focusing on what’s next.”
Blinkers, blinders … whatever you want to call them — the message seems to have worked for Lake City this season.
After coming off a season that was going great until Lake City, as the top seed, was stunned by eighth-seeded Centennial in the first round of the state 5A tournament, eventually to come home trophy-less, the Timberwolves have romped through this season on the proverbial mission.
Lake City is 23-0, and winning by an average of 30.6 points. Twenty-two of those wins have been by 20 points are more, 12 of those by 30 points or more, six of those by 40 points or more, one by more than 50 points.
Their closest game was a 12-point victory at Curtis of University Place, Wash., last year’s Washington state 4A champions, in the finals of the Curtis Winter Classic in December.
Once again, Lake City is the top seed for state this year, and the Timberwolves open Thursday against eighth seed Highland (14-12) of Pocatello at 6 p.m. PST at the Ford Idaho Center in Nampa.
As for the message …
“I think they’ve bought into it,” said Winger, in his 24th season at Lake City coach. “When you put blinkers on a horse, they only see straight ahead, they don’t see the crowd, they don’t see a lot of the other horses. It makes them focus in, right straight down the track.
“I’ve used it as an example — block everything else out. Block other teams out, block crowds out. Focus on our agenda, our goals, how we want to play, and block everything out.”
SURE, AS you might expect, Mitchell and senior post Blake Buchanan are leading the statistical way.
Mitchell, who has signed with Idaho State, is averaging 18.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 5.4 assists and 3 steals per game, with a team-high 43 3-pointers. He’s the school’s all-time leading scorer, and tossed in a school-record 39 points in a victory over defending state champion Owyhee of Meridian in December.
Buchanan, who has signed with Virginia, is averaging 15.0 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.5 blocked shots per game.
But it’s what the other players have added that have kept opponents from focusing solely on Mitchell and Buchanan.
Hocking, who has signed with NAIA Ottawa University of Surprise, Ariz., is averaging 12.0 points per game, and is the team’s defensive stopper.
Kiesbuy is averaging 8.7 points per game, and is at 50% on 3-pointers (31 of 62).
Johnson, who has signed to play football at Idaho, averages 7.2 points and 5.6 rebounds, and adds a nice mix of muscle and athleticism.
Off the bench, sophomore Reese Strawn is scoring 8.0 points per game, and shooting 46 percent from 3 (36 of 79). Cason Miller, another sophomore, is another key player off the bench.
“I think the biggest thing about our team is, if me and Kolton aren’t scoring that much, Nathan’s stepping up, Deacon’s stepping up, Reese and Cason are coming off the bench and getting good minutes,” Buchanan said. “We’ve kinda learned, you can’t do it by yourselves. I think when we try to do it by ourselves, that’s when we fall apart. That’s been the big thing with our team — it’s WE, not ME. At the end of the day, I trust everyone with the ball in their hands.”
“We have really great chemistry, and especially in practice, we really get after it,” Kiesbuy said. “It really boosts our chemistry, and it translates to games a lot.
“A lot of teams are so focused on Kolton, and Blake, and even Zach and Nathan, it opens up a lot of opportunities for myself,” Kiesbuy added. “It’s being a role player; I just find my role and deal with it.”
“You know how insane Kolton and Blake are,” Hocking said. “They’re going to do amazing things. If they’re doing amazing things, and then we also have two, three, even four other guys doing amazing things … there’s not much another team can do about it. They can’t really stop it.”
“I wouldn’t say it’s being arrogant, but we know that if we do our thing, all five guys on the court at the same time, we’re going to win basketball games,” said Johnson, like Mitchell a four-year varsity starter. “So far, that’s what we’ve done every game of this season, and it’s proven true.”
And those numbers are even more impressive because players are logging less minutes this season due to running clocks in most of their games, triggered by a lead of at least 30 points in the fourth quarter.
Starters have rarely played in the fourth quarter of games this season.
“This team … when we get into trouble (is) when we try to do it ourselves,” Winger said. “And it’s not because they’re selfish, they’re amped up, they want to get it done and it’s that ‘I’ll show you what I’m all about’ mentality. And that’s not what we want. We want everybody playing together, and we look at our games, and Deacon’s been our leading scorer, Nathan’s been the leading scorer, I think Reese, in the Post Falls game, was the leading scorer. I just think with our depth, if you want to take something totally away, you have to give up a lot to other guys that are going to step it up.”
IN GAMES, the 6-6 Hocking guards the other team’s top shooter. Often in practice, he guards Mitchell — which is good for both of them.
Part of that defensive toughness could come from his bloodlines — his father, Justin Hocking, was a defenseman who played professional hockey for 12 seasons and made it as far as the NHL for one game, with the Los Angeles Kings in the 1993-94 season. In the 1991-92 season, he played 71 games with the Spokane Chiefs. He played another 16 games with the Chiefs the following season before being traded to Medicine Hat.
And Nathan’s father’s cousin, Shane Doan, recently retired after playing 21 NHL seasons, mostly with the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes. He started his professional career with the Kamloops Blazers.
“I’m honored that coach assigns me to their best player, and since they’re giving me that duty, I don’t want to let my coaches down,” said Hocking, who transferred from Ferris High in Spokane prior to his junior year. “And so if I can hold them to the lowest amount of points possible, that’s going to help our team out, and almost honor my coaches for giving me that duty. Whatever it takes to win, that’s what I’m for.”
“Nate does so much for us,” Mitchell said. “I think he does all the little things that no one sees. Sometimes he’ll come out and be our leading scorer, which he can do. Me and Blake get a lot more of the credit, but man, that dude, I think he’s super-underrated, super good for us, helps us in so many ways, and does all the dirty work. When he’s open, he knocks down the shot, and he’s improved so much from last year; he’s worked hard over the summer and offseason, and it’s starting to show.”
“Nathan did a magnificent job on Zoom (Diallo) over at the Curtis (tournament),” Winger said of the Curtis junior point guard, who lists Gonzaga and Arizona among his final six schools he’s choosing from. “Nathan gets the best shooter assignment — guard or forward, it doesn’t matter. And he’s long, he’s super athletic, he’s fast, and he has a quick first step. And what I like about him, it keeps him focused and challenged.
“He accepts the challenge. And he can run,” Winger adds. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can run the floor, but Nathan runs it as well as anybody I’ve seen.”
ALL THIS is well and good, but there’s still the little matter of winning a state title.
Mitchell and Johnson started as freshmen on the 2020 team that, at state for the first time since 2014, went two-and-out with three ninth graders starting.
The following season, with Buchanan transferring in from Moscow, Lake City reached the state title game before falling to Meridian.
And last year, the T-Wolves barreled into state with just one loss and the top seed in 5A before … well, you know what happened.
This year?
“There’s some unfinished business to get done,” said Winger, who has guided Lake City to two runner-up finishes at state in his time there. The T-Wolves are still seeking their first state title in program history.
“And I really truly believe the big test for us was when we went down to Section 7 (in April, in Glendale, Ariz., in the stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play), in that atmosphere, and all the D-I coaches there, sitting literally off the court, at all of our games. And playing tough, tough teams (four of them), and winning them all, winning the championship in our bracket. I thought that was a great first step forward.”
Seven of this year’s 10 varsity players are seniors.
“And the thing I keep harping on — I’ve known these kids since third grade, that’s the only bump in the road they’ve really ever had,” Winger said of last year at state. “And I’m throwing in AAU and all of that other stuff. They’re mentally tough kids, they’ve just got to go down and play … I think they’re ready to roll. In life you have setbacks, and this group has a chance to fix it. Not many people get that, and it’s a life lesson, and a chance to go down and show people who you are.”
