Maloney Boys' Basketball Preview: Deep Team Bodes Well for Spartans

Versatile:  That is what Maloney boys' basketball coach Howie Hewitt likes his players to be.

And in his 25^th season, Hewitt has once again assembled a deep athletic team with tons of interchangeable parts.

The result, he hopes, is another trip to the state tournament.  The journey will begin on Wednesday when the Spartans host Tolland at 7 p.m.  

Maloney lost its leading scorer and rebounder, Dom Elliott (12.4 ppg, 5.8 rpg), from a team that finished 15-7-1 and lost in the first round of the state tournament last season. But the Spartans plan to compensate by running waves of players at the opposition in hopes of wearing teams down.  

Hewitt said his roster is "at least 10" deep.  

"We are not as experienced (as in years past), but we have a lot of kids who can play," Hewitt said during practice on Monday. "I suspect we are going to have a different guy leading us in scoring every game."

And he isn't going to pigeon hole his players into specific roles.

"We really just like to call them basketball players," he said. "The kids get caught up in who is a '1' (point guard) or who is a '2' (shooting guard).    "But I always ask them, 'What happens if you're a '3' (small forward) and the '2' comes down?  Do you guard the '2' guy?' And they don't have an answer because there is no answer."  

Opposing teams may not have answer for senior guard Ryan Belote (11.9 ppg), who was second on the team in scoring last season and is one of Maloney's many capable 3-point shooters. Belote hit 37 percent of his attempts last season.  

"We do shoot the ball pretty well," Hewitt conceded. "But we have to get some easy baskets in transition. No one can stand there and shoot three's all game and they understand that." 

When they do set up in the half court, Maloney is counting on a bevy of players to help replace Elliott's scoring. 

"We have a couple of guys (to replace Dom)," he said.

The other players who will try to pick up the slack are Zach Milslagle (6'3," 165 lbs) and Rayen Williams (6'0" 191). Milslagle averaged 7.4 points and 4.2 rebounds last season, good for third and fourth respectively on the team. Williams, meanwhile, was fourth on the team in scoring (7.0 ppg) and second in rebounding (4.2 rpg). 

Overall, the Spartans will seek a happy balance on offense while continuing to rely on their signature man-to-man pressure defense.  That was the formula that Hewitt used in 2008 when he led Maloney to its first state championship in 51 years. 

This year's team may not be as experienced, but Hewitt thinks things will work out.  His 326 career victories, one shy of tying the school record, suggest he is right.  

One thing is for sure, there's no such thing as too many good players.

"I hope with all the guys we have we can wear teams down, because we are going to play hard for the whole 32 minutes," Hewitt said.

Correction: In the article, published on Dec. 14 , we originally implied that Caleb Edwards was a player on the Maloney team. Edwards played for Maloney last year, but has since transferred to Platt. This has been corrected.

Editor's Note: Everyone makes mistakes... even us! If there's something in this article that you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, give Local Editor Laurie Rich Salerno a ring at 203-231-9143 or shoot her an e-mail at laurie.salerno@patch.com.