Season Preview: Reasons for Optimism for Boys Basketball

There are many factors working against Mark Antonelli and the Somerville boys basketball team this season: The Highlanders lost their leading scorer from last season, they play arguably one of the toughest schedules in Eastern Massachusetts and lastly, height, or lack thereof, will be an issue for the third straight season.

But if you ask Antonelli, he is going into this year with a level of cautious optimism, because he thinks he has the talent to improve on an 8-12 season of last year. 

"Right now it's a crapshoot to get the inexperienced guys to where they need to be," said Antonelli, who is entering his third season as head coach. "I'm going in with an open mind."

Let's tackle the first issue: replacing Franklin Salvador.

Salvador became on the second player in Highlanders' history to record 1,000 points over his career last season. He was by far the team's most consistent player and scoerer, and filling those shoes will take more than one man, according to the head coach.

Skerby Obdin, who was second on the team in points per game last year, will have to lead the pack of players that will replace the numbers that Salvador accounted for. Expect to see lot of minutes from Kevin Silva, Johnson Thomas and Gustavo Bemoura, who Antonelli has very high hopes for in his first year with the program.

Learning on the fly will not be easy for a team that boasts four sophomores with limited varsity experience. Last year, the Highlanders played 20 games, and 19 of those teams made the tournament. Antonelli said the margin of error was so close in many of the outcomes, and leardership in tough stretches will be key for this team to get over the hump.

"We had six wins by less than five points and also had six losses by less than five points," said Antonelli. "It was one of those years where we didn't have any easy games. We were battling night-in-and-night-out for our tournament lives."

Expect another tough schedule this year in the Greater Boston League and in the Highlanders' nonleague tilts.

Height will be an issue again for Somerville, but Antonelli thinks this season his team will be able to rally around the fact that the Highlanders don't have a player over 6-foot-3-inches tall. The Highlanders will be a ball-pressure team, with a mixture of defenses to try and confuse the opponents.

If this sounds familiar to fans of the NCAA Tournament, it's because Antonelli has picked up a few tips by watching Tom Izzo coach his Michigan State Spartans to Final Four appearances year-in-and-year out.

"We tried to through and take bits and pieces from Tom Izzo from Michigan State," said Antonelli. "His teams are usually a little under-sized but they really try to be physical, make contact and attack the ball with two hands.

"You have to be an animal when you go after the ball," he added. "We've had some success with it the past couple of years. The games that we haven't it's obviously been a disadvantage for us, because we don't have that big kid that can get you the rebound when you absolutely need it."

Antonelli's team will need conditioning way above the rest of the competition to run that pressure-style of basketball every game. But the optimism of the preseason is there for a coach ready to get the ball rolling on 2010-11.

"If we can get those guys up to speed and where we need to be," he said, "then I think we can surprise some people."