MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW - ROOM TO IMPROVE

MEDFORD BOYS BASKETBALL PREVIEW

A year ago, the Medford Raiders got out to a 1-7 start and turned themselves into a team that had a shot to win a share of the Great Northern Conference boys basketball title on the last night of the regular season.

No one knows if that exact scenario can happen again, but what the Raiders do hope their fans will see in 2024-25 is a similar significant in-season improvement.

Much like last year, Medford comes into the new season thin on varsity experience. The Raiders bring five letter winners back from last year’s 12-14 team but, in reality, only two –– seniors Hayden Koester and Charlie Gierl –– have logged significant minutes. And Gierl lost much of last year due to injury.

With the first week of practice and Friday’s scrimmage at Eau Claire North completed, head coach Ryan Brown said Monday there have been some pleasant surprises among the Raiders, who are working to mesh players from all four grade levels into a cohesive unit. And, there have been some areas the team knows must get better if it plans to compete in the GNC and against another very challenging 12-game nonconference slate. “In week one, practice was really good,” Brown said. “I think our young guys are so far ahead of where you would expect them to be on a typical year. And they learn so quickly. We’ve had others who have kind of been baptized by fire. But these guys you tell them once and they’re doing it. You see it on film.”

Medford opens its season Tuesday by hosting Chippewa Falls in a nonconference contest at new-look Raider Hall at 7:15 p.m. GNC play tips off three days later with a Friday, Dec. 6 trip to Lakeland. The rest of December will bring its share of challenges including a battle with defending GNC co-champion Mosinee on Dec. 13, non-conference games against three Wisconsin Valley Conference teams and a Dec. 30-31 event where the Raiders will face Big Rivers Conference contenders New Richmond and River Falls.

The Raiders were thrown some early curveballs too with illness hitting some of the veterans in the first week and injuries that are going to thin the rotation in the first half of the season.

Gierl and Koester figure to be the leaders in that varsity rotation.

Koester averaged 4.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 assists in a reserve role last year. A year further removed from a spring 2023 knee injury, he played confidently and was the one of the brightest spots in Friday’s scrimmage scoring 25 points and grabbing 11 rebounds.

Gierl averaged 12 points and 5.4 rebounds in his abbreviated junior season and was a valuable contributor to the 2022-23 sectional final team. He figures to be Medford’s most physical presence inside, but is also athletic enough to play outside.

“They’ve been really good, really good as leaders,” Brown said. “They’re working hard. It was really nice to see what Hayden did in the scrimmage and the confidence he was playing with.”

Juniors Will Daniels and Nick Krause and sophomore Peyton Ried are the other returning letter winners. Krause hit some big 3-point shots for Medford late last season. Daniels and Ried will certainly step into bigger roles as well, though Daniels broke his hand last week and will miss at least the first month. Daniels is one of Medford’s main ball handlers and can knock down shots as well.

“Those guys are going to have to make big steps,” Brown said. “Really in practice, we’ve seen it. Again, going into the scrimmage, it was that adjustment period. I think that’s going to be big for all of them. They’re going to get their opportunities and all of them have the ability to shoot it well. Being comfortable with game shooting in a varsity game, I think that will come with time.”

Seniors bumping up to the varsity roster include Jason Woller, Sam Hierlmeier and Tony Lorenz. Woller gives Medford another outside shooting threat. Hierlmeier, another guard, made good progress in the summer but his start to the season will be delayed as he recovers from a knee injury suffered in Medford’s last playoff football game. Lorenz has shown strong defensive ability in practice.

Brayden Carlson is another junior on the roster looking to earn some first-time varsity minutes and brings a physical element to his game. Three freshmen have been working with the varsity, Devin Dassow, Will Wojcik and Dylan Frey. Wojcik and Dassow could figure heavily into the rotation. Brown called Dassow a bit of a jack of all trades with his ability to handle the ball, rebound and score. That ball handling will be needed more with Daniels out.

Wojcik brings quickness, ball handling and shooting ability, though his start to the year has been delayed by a broken thumb suffered in his last football game of the fall. At 6-2, Frey adds some height and length.

“The energy in the gym was good,” Brown said of week one. “Guys want to listen. We transitioned through things quickly. We got through everything. A lot of times in week one you’re cutting stuff out because you’re stuck on something. Everything was really good that way.”

Along with Koester’s play, Brown said the upsides of the scrimmage included good stretches of half-court defenses, especially against some of the things North runs that can cause issues for Medford’s defensive scheme, and the halfcourt offense, which he felt created a lot of good looks. Shots just didn’t always fall.

The issue that needs to get better quickly is turnovers as Medford had 25 of them in the main two halves of play.

“We have to take care of the ball and can’t just throw it all over the place,” Brown said. “That was an issue with this group this summer too. When we limited our turnovers, we had a chance because we have guys out there who can make shots. We don’t have a “that guy,” guy like Tanner Hraby last year. Charlie maybe can be that. Koester played great at the scrimmage. And we have other guys around them that can make shots. But you have to take care of the ball because that leads to easy points for them and we don’t get a shot so we can’t score.

“Watching what we did offensively (in the scrimmage), I thought we got great shots,” Brown said. “We’re trying to run our five-out but add more freedom to it is the best way of saying it. Give kids more opportunities to make plays.”

Defensively Brown said Medford will focus on being the best half-court team it can be until some of its depth returns.

“Defensively I do really think, especially eventually when we get Will Daniels and Sam back from a physicality standpoint, we can be OK in the halfcourt,” he said. “I don’t know, especially being short-handed, if we’re going to be able to put as much pressure on in the full-court as we were hoping to where you can use Sam and use the speed of Will Wojcik and use Peyton Ried and try to really create some pressure and, at the very least, just slow down better teams. I think we can be solid it’s just going to take every single day working on it over and over and over again.”

Rebounding could be considered a question mark too, according to Brown, but the Raiders have the potential to shore that up as well with the athletes they have.

In this year’s GNC title chase, Rhinelander is emerging as this year’s favorite. With a young squad, the Hodags shared last year’s league title with Mosinee, who also remains a likely contender. Brown sees Antigo and Northland Pines as improving teams and Lakeland always plays with effort and won’t be easy to beat.

Medford may take some lumps in nonconference play, but Brown said playing good competition is the only way to get better.

“I think we’ll be a team that really, kind of like what last year was though last year was different because we had so many seniors, but a lot of them didn’t have varsity experience.” Brown said. “This year we’ll be young with some seniors and some injuries. We can’t afford any more. But I think what you’ll see is us get better as the season goes on, which is always our goal. It may not amount to wins and losses because our first 10 games are pretty dang tough.