Miller Boys Look to Build on Late Season Success

On Jan. 30, it looked like the Millburn boys basketball team could officially forget about the postseason. They had just lost an opening round county tournament game to University the day before, dropping their record to 3-12.

“Really, our only realistic goal at the time was to not finish at the bottom of the division,” said Millburn head coach Rodger Blind. “Our message was: Look, we’re close. If each guy could just make one more play. …Much to the kids’ credit, they did it.”

Up until that point, five of the team’s 12 losses had been by five points or fewer. Blind knew they were knocking on the door.

With their backs up against the wall and staring at a long end of the season, the Miller boys made a remarkable run to the state playoffs, winning six consecutive games following the University loss to squeak into the playoffs as a No. 16 seed.

Just as they had been losing a bunch of close games, the winning streak featured the Miller boys winning by an average margin of slightly more than five points per game. What was even more perfect, the team found out they were in the playoffs, following a one-point win over Belleville on Senior Night.

“We won the game on Senior Night and as I was walking into the locker room I got the call. My wife called and said we were in,” Blind said. “When I went in and told the team, there was a huge celebration in the locker room.”

Millburn’s season ended two games later against top-seeded Somerville, but because of Millburn’s run at the end of the season (five of the six games were in the Super Essex Colonial Division), the boys finished up in fourth place overall.

“You’ve got to be able to bounce back from adversity and that’s the story of our season,” Blind said. “We didn’t lose those games by a lot the first time around, so I was able to sell the guys on that.”

While they’ll be losing a good group of seniors — including co-captains Adam Whitten and Benji Friedman — the team won’t enter next season like they did this past one: trying to replace 10 seniors, including five starters and two of the best players in school history.

The top returnee for the boys next winter will be Tony Bai, who led the team in points and rebounds per game (12.7 ppg, 6.7 rpg). Bai was a complementary player a year ago as a sophomore on a team that went to the state sectional finals. This year he took a step towards becoming the team’s go-to primary player, but Blind said that he’s looking for more from his big man.

“The thing with Tony is that he is still capable of doing more and he’s still capable of improving more,” Blind said. “The hardest thing in sports to do is go from being a complementary player to being a primary player. The next step for him is to get a mid-range game. He has to be a better rebounder in traffic.”

Bai scored 20 or more points five times this season and at times looked like a very good post presence.

“He has to be a better free throw shooter; he’s going to be a marked man next season,” Blind said. “He has to understand that he has to be our tough guy protecting the basket.”

Other returnees include Gabe Inwood, Brian Barkley, Ben Kizel and Dean DeLong, all of whom received playing time this year on the varsity squad. Players from junior varsity in the mix are Aiden Kahn, who led the JV team in scoring, Josh Landeau and Zoran Scekic, the JV leading rebounded.

It’s difficult to tell right now how the boys will fare next winter, mainly because their division is not yet set. Because of three schools from Newark being added into the SEC, teams will have to wait and see which division they are placed in.