Audio Test

With us on Coach's Corner, KWBG, we're going to talk to Brian Stradhead, Madriba's basketball coach.

Tigers, man, I'll tell you what, you never want back-to-back games, I guess, unless maybe you're at the state tournament and unfortunately just due to circumstances, you had to do that, Brian, the last two days.

I know it's never easy to come back after that second one, especially because you had a pretty contested game against West Central Valley, but in the most part, you give up 48 points last night, you get the victory.

I guess in the grand scheme of things, you call it successful the last two days. Yeah, I mean, the ultimate goal is to end up getting a win. There's no style points for sure.

So, I mean, for us to be able to get it done, you know, please, if we play our best in these two games, no, we didn't. But late in the season and everybody's getting a little tired and this is where it's easy to get tripped up.

And so our kids are doing a good job of competing and finishing things. And hopefully we can kind of get refocused and finish out the season strong. Brian, I know you have a short bench anyway.

Was that concerning at any point last night thinking, okay, we had to go pretty hard, you know, the night before against West Central Valley? The Ogden game for the most part, I mean, this was still a six-point game at halftime.

So, I mean, it wasn't like you could just coast last night either. Was that a concern at all with minutes last night?

Yeah, I mean, it was, you know, like I said, we can't, if anybody really any breaks, it just goes to show you how important everybody is on your basketball team that you got to have more than just five guys to be able to consistently.

And yeah, it's going into it, you know, if foul trouble became an issue that was going to be worrisome or just the fact that you expended a bunch of energy on Monday night playing that game and finishing that thing out.

So, yeah, you know, I was concerned about it, but in the end, you know, we were able to do things and, you know, hopefully, you know, Zach will be okay here shortly and get everybody back healthy.

Well, Jevon Severson with a big night, one of them probably, and after the games I've seen you play this year, Brian, maybe one of his most dominating games, he had 35 points, 21 in the first half, 14 in the second.

I thought he got the basketball when he needed to, when, when Augen would make maybe a little bit of a run and it was like, okay, if they could get a stop here, maybe they get this thing down to six or seven, and then Jevon would get maybe an and one or do something down in the post.

He seemed a little bit more under control last night. Is that fair to say? Yeah, I think he was a little more under control. You know, last time we played them, they flocked several times. So we discussed that, you know, that they're going to go flying on any kind of contacts.

So you need to make sure that he did a good job playing off two feet and try to avoid contact as much as he could be honest with you. I had no idea he had 21 and a half until I looked up there in the third quarter, the third quarter.

And, you know, most guys, you would notice that with Jevon, it's like, I don't know, it's just normal for us, I guess, you know, for him to to score that way. It didn't feel like it was abundantly more than what he normally does. Yeah.

And so I thought he did a really nice job of, you know, leading our team and maybe should have tried to get him to the basketball a little bit more in the second half than we did. But, you know, he gets the call whenever we needed him to. And, you know, I'm proud of him for that.

Here's another kid you just mentioned about getting the ball to Jevon more, maybe a little bit.

I was thinking we got to get Emerson Bridgewater down on the block a little bit, but yet the kid hits two huge threes, one in the top corner over by your student section when Auden was making a little bit of a run in the third quarter. And then he had another one late as well.

The kind of, I don't want to say cement a game because you never know, but man, I thought it was a big shot at the time. It feels like he seems to be a little bit more confident than maybe even a couple of weeks ago when I saw him.

Are you, are you seeing that at all on the court? Yeah, Emerson has a little more pep in this stuff right now. You know, he had, had a bad ankle injury, and instead of sitting out in the six weeks, which they, they said he came back within a week or so.

And it played through that season and that led into the basketball season. His mobility just is not there, but, you know, we've noticed it too. And in the last about two weeks here that he's starting to move a lot better.

He's starting to participate in a lot more things in practice than he was before, because we were trying to limit, you know, the amount of use on that ankle and hopefully get it to heal up a little bit, which it, which it seems to be doing.

And so obviously you get a little more violence into you. That can affect a lot of things offensively and defensively. And, you know, it's, it's good because Emerson's really starting to come around at the time that we're going to need him.

I know you've got two more games, regular season wise, but the next time that we'll talk, we'll be, we already have brackets out and everything. Brian, this is the time of the year where I love coming to Madard or talking to you because we always get to go all around the state.

You always have about 19 different theories on where Madard can go. I don't know how you do it, but I'm about to give you credit for that sitting at 15 and four right now, ranked number 10. You have to feel pretty good about what postseason could look like. Yeah.

You know, we're excited. Our, you know, our goal is to, you know, give ourselves an opportunity to get one of the one-seeds, you know, which means you need to be in the top 16.

I, you know, I feel like it isn't going to matter so much if you're a number four or a number 12 this year, I think one through 12 at least, is very competitive. And any of those teams could go to state or beat a team on any given night.

So, you know, there's no real advantage to being a higher seed, especially now that you're getting that extra home game if you're the one of the one-seeds in the districts.

So that our main goal has really just been staying that top 16, give ourselves an opportunity to get three games at home, and then, you know, one game at a neutral site to give us a chance to go to state. And those those games, anything can go any way.

And so, you know, we've just been working towards that and we've done a good job of getting ourselves back into the rankings and giving ourselves an opportunity to, you know, be able to get that home, that home court advantage.

And, you know, no matter who we're going to play, it's going to be a tough basketball game. That's just the way it goes when you're talking about going to state.

Brian, I know you've been busy with your team, so we'll let you wrap up with one thing, but I'm always interested because you love hoops and I've known that since you started head coaching at Madrid. And I know you kind of look around the state. What about Class 1A this year?

Is it a little bit down from last year? Can you give me some comparisons, at least what you've seen and what you've heard? I don't think that 1A is down. I don't think that there's maybe a dominant team or two like there was last year between, you know, ourselves and Marquette.

I think, you know, we were probably head and shoulders above everybody else. This year, there's just a lot of really good teams. I think overall, Class 1A is a lot tougher this year than it maybe was last year. And that's not a slight to the teams that made it last year.

I just think there's more parity. In my opinion, there's, you know, at least 12 really good teams that could interchange in there, you know, no matter what. I think there are some teams that maybe are a little more experienced that, and that'll benefit them.

Definitely being down there and playing makes a big difference over not being there or going there for the first time. So yeah, I don't think that 1A is down.

I just don't think 1A has that dominant team that could play with, you know, everybody in every, in a lot of the other classes, maybe like we had last year. That's kind of exciting though, isn't it?

A little bit, Brian, I mean, to think that the state championship could be that up in the air. I mean, that's a lot of teams you just kind of mentioned. Yeah, I 100% agree. I think this season, if you can get down there, you're going to have an opportunity to win it.

Like I said, I don't think there's a clear cut. This is the team. I would have said maybe saying Ed's start the year, but they've had some of their own struggles too, figuring some things out. I still think they're probably the best basketball team that'll be there.

But I also think, you know, on any given night, you know, somebody can have a bad night, somebody can have a good night. And when you're not super dominant, that can make it tough to overcome. And so I think there's just a lot of parity.

And I think anybody that gets there is going to have a chance to be able to win it. Brian, as always, thank you so much for some time. Best of luck over the last two regular season. We'll talk to you again real soon. All right. Thanks, Ryan. You bet.

Brian Sratigan joining us, matter of boys, basketball here on Coaches Corner.