Attitude adjustment pays off for Coronado boys basketball team
Sometimes a change in attitude can be more important than a change in personnel.
Coronado’s boys basketball team hopes that’s the case as the Cougars begin play in the Division I Sunrise Region tournament today.
“It’s a group that really likes each other, that plays hard for each other,” Coronado coach Jeff Kaufman said. “They care about the school. There’s a whole new environment around Coronado, and they play that way. And in the past, our teams haven’t so much played that way.”
The Cougars (16-4) host Liberty (3-22) in a quarterfinal at 6:30 p.m. today. Coronado is hoping to advance past the tournament’s opening round for the first time since 2011.
The Division I Sunset Region tournament and the I-A Southern Region tournament also begin today at host sites.
The Cougars lost 83-56 to Valley in last season’s quarterfinals, but junior forward Jake DesJardins thinks a more unselfish attitude can help Coronado be more successful this season.
“The difference is night and day,” DesJardins said. “Last year we lost in the first round of the playoffs, and I think part of that was because we were selfish and didn’t want to make the extra pass. This year, that’s just the complete difference, and I think that helps a lot.”
The team’s offensive focus is two versatile 6-foot-7-inch forwards in DesJardins and senior Nick Kornieck. Both players can handle the ball and shoot from the perimeter as well as take advantage of their length around the basket. And 6-5 junior forward Travis Boman is willing to do the dirty work around the basket, completing a formidable front line.
“Kornieck’s having an unbelievable year,” Kaufman said. “He had 42 the other night at Rancho. An unorthodox shot, but it goes in. It’s not pretty, but it goes in. He gets to the hole real well. DesJardins runs that other side, and he rebounds really well for us, shoots the ball really well. Between the two of those guys, you’ve got to stay honest and somebody’s got to put a body on Boman.”
Kornieck averaged 17.7 points and 6.0 rebounds in the regular season. DesJardins averaged 11.3 points and 7.3 rebounds, and Boman chipped in 7.4 points and 8.2 boards.
“Hopefully with Nick and myself, we’re a little bigger and handle the rock a little better, hopefully we can get some mismatches on the floor and use that to our advantage,” DesJardins said.
While Kornieck and DesJardins are the team’s scorers, Kaufman said Boman might be the key to the front line.
“If I could have 10 Bomans, I’d love to have 10 Bomans,” Kaufman said. “He’s a football player by heart. He’s so intense, and he’s so physical. He wants to win, and he wants his teammates to win. He will dive after every ball, he will fight for every rebound, he will sprint up and down the court. And that’s what you need.
“Kids don’t want to guard him in practice, because it doesn’t matter who he’s playing against. He’s a really nice guy, but it doesn’t matter if you’re his best friend or his most hated rival, he’s going to play just as hard all the time. As he goes, we go.”
Capturing the Southeast League’s top playoff seed was huge for the Cougars this season, enabling them to open the postseason against Liberty rather than the Northeast League’s three powerful teams: Las Vegas (20-7), Valley (24-3) and Canyon Springs (16-10). Las Vegas and Valley tied for third in the final area coaches poll, and No. 6 Canyon Springs upset nationally ranked Findlay Prep this season.
“We just have to play our kind of basketball,” Kaufman said. “We can’t get into a running game with Vegas or Valley or Canyon Springs, for that matter. We’re going to utilize our front line. We have a bigger front line than Valley. We have a more fundamentally sound front line. So we’ll try to utilize that. Our problem is we’ve got to worry about guards.”
But postseason success may well go back to the team’s new unselfish attitude.
“I have confidence in any one of these guys to make an open shot, and I’m going to give it up,” Kornieck said.
Contact prep sports editor Damon Seiters at dseiters@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4587. Follow him on Twitter: @DamonSeiters.
