Playoff run offers glimpse of bright future for Wolverine basketball program

For almost half of the 2014-15 season, Polk County boys basketball coach Josh McEntire held practices where he didn’t have enough healthy bodies for a scrimmage.

Given those aches and ailments, not to mention the typical growing pains associated with a young roster, the Wolverines’ second-half surge to earn a 2A state playoff berth offered both a taste of what might have been and a glimpse of what’s to come for the Polk County program.

The Wolverines struggled through a 1-12 start, but finished with six wins in their final 12 games to finish third in the WHC, sweeping rival Hendersonville along the way. Polk County seemed poised for a good run in the WHC tournament before winter weather limited the event to just the top two teams in the league and left Polk with a two-week break before its playoff trip to West Wilkes, which ended with a 64-46 defeat.

“The two biggest factors that kept us from being as successful as we wanted to be during the season were, number one, injuries,” McEntire said. “Not only did the injuries affect our depth during games early in the season, it also affected the team during practice because until after Christmas we didn’t even have 10 healthy varsity players available to get quality five-on-five reps during practice.

“Number two, inexperience. Coming into the season I knew having so many new players we would struggle early to gel as a team, but also felt like the young talent would keep developing and it would start paying off in the second half of the season. Seven of our 12 varsity players had never played in a varsity basketball game and only two players had played significant minutes the year before.”

Indeed, the young talent began to shine as the season progressed. Polk County’s freshmen trio of Arnie Twitty, Dillion Overholt and Holden Owens combined for 13.5 points per game, each contributing key minutes nightly by the end of the season. Twitty finished third on the team in scoring and fourth in rebounds and should be an anchor of the Wolverines’ starting lineup for the next three seasons. Overholt and Owens no doubt will as well.

“The biggest challenge for the freshmen was learning to break old bad habits on offense and defense, bad habits that the freshmen developed over time when they were young and could get away with because of their superior size and athletic ability,” McEntire said.

“One of the main things I want to see during a basketball season is constant improvement from the team and the players’ individual game. Even though it didn’t always show during the games, I felt as a whole the team grew a lot during the season and all the players definitely continued to improve their individual skill.”

Perhaps no one showed more individual skill during the season than junior guard Jamal Wheeler. That Wheeler led the team in scoring at 17.8 points per game perhaps comes as no surprise. But he also led the team in rebounding (5.3 rpg), steals (3.2 spg) and assists (2.0 apg), earning all-conference honors, third-team all-district selection and setting a couple of school records in the process, including the single-game scoring mark with his 40-point effort at Hendersonville. He also, McEntire said, emerged as a leader both on and off the court.

Wheeler is part of a junior class, along with Daniel Painter, Davis Derkach, Wes Mullis and Jaylan Wilkins, of whom much will be expected next season. Derkach, Wilkins and especially Mullis, who averaged six points and five rebounds per game, showed the makings of a solid frontcourt for the Wolverines.

Polk will have to replace a group of seniors led by Jason Chupp, who averaged nearly nine points and five rebounds per game. But a solid nucleus will be there on which to build.

“Our main focus this offseason is to build on where we were as a team at the end of the season and keep growing as a group,” McEntire said. “The players need to keep figuring out and fitting into their roles and expanding their individual skill.”