Depleted Mustangs still have same lofty expectations

MONROE – It doesn’t matter who returns and it doesn’t matter who graduates.

Long-time Prairie City-Monroe boys’ basketball coach Fred Lorensen comes into every season with lofty expectations.

That won’t change this season even though the Mustangs graduated four starters for the third year in a row.

Junior Logan Gilman returns after leading PCM in scoring last year, but his running mates who helped him and the program finish 17-5 are gone. That includes Dillon Bruxvoort, who was second on the team in scoring (15 ppg) and first in rebounding (8 rpg).

Still, Lorensen feels like the Mustangs should always be in the mix for a Heart of Iowa Athletic Conference championship.

“We just think that is supposed to happen,” said Lorensen, who has been the Mustangs head coach for more than 30 years. “We won’t be the favorites I would guess. We only have three guys on this year’s team who played significant minutes last year. We got other guys who we think can play, but they just haven’t proven it on the varsity level yet.”

Gilman is the headliner in 2014-15 after averaging 19.5 points per game last season. That ranked second in the league a year ago and his 7.2 rebounds per tilt was the eighth-best average in the HOIAC.

“Logan is a good scorer. He can play inside and outside,” Lorensen said. “We had more of a two-some going last year with him and (Bruxvoort). We like Logan to be more of an outside guy, but we like him inside, too, because he is good on the boards.”

The only other two players who saw significant varsity court time a year ago were now seniors Trey Lindsay and Ricky Reeve.

Lindsay averaged 4.5 points and 1.7 assists per contest, while Reeve put in three points per game off the bench.

“Their roles will change,” said Lorensen about Reeve and Lindsay. “They’ll have to be more scoring threats than they are used to being. ”

The rest of the lineup features a plethora of seniors, a pair of juniors and a few talented sophomores who will look to make their mark on a program that is used to winning.

The other seniors include Luke Pendroy, Tyler Townsend, Chase Kuening and Joe DeReus. Maverick McAtee is another senior on the roster, but an arm injury has put his season in doubt.

The only other junior besides Gilman is Austin Brown, while the sophomore class is highlighted by Luke Greiner, Mark Bruxvoort, Sheldon Speers and James Snodgrass.

Lorensen thinks Greiner’s scoring ability will give him a strong chance at court time, while Mark Bruxvoort is like his older brothers before – Scott and Dillon – in that he is a really solid, all-around player.

The trick for Lorensen is trying to figure out where all the pieces fit and how to continue to fill voids left by graduation.

“It’s been Ok so far, but the guys must adjust each year to playing different roles,” Lorensen said. “Sometimes it goes well, and sometimes it doesn’t. You just never know how it’s going to go.”

Don’t worry, things are just fine.

Since the school district became PCM back in 1991-92, the boys basketball team has only finished worse than .500 one time and that was in 1999-2000. The Mustangs bounced back from that quite nicely though, advancing to four straight state tournaments.

Lorensen expects CMB and Gilbert to be the preseason favorites to win the conference title.

CMB welcomes back a good core of players that won 15 games last year, including first-team all-HOIAC player Bryce Kemp, while Gilbert returns senior Wes Greder (14 ppg) but lost senior Jared Gescheidler (12.4 ppg) for the season with a torn ACL.