New-look Lower Moreland finding identity

LOWER MORELAND >> There’s a lot of noticeable differences at a Lower Moreland boys basketball game this season.

That’s to be expected after the Lions graduated arguably its most successful senior class after a run to the state quarterfinals this year. Most of the core guys on that team are now in college and the Lions are playing a lot of underclassmen for a lot of minutes.

There are still a few holdovers like captains Nick Smolda and Cobe Wiggins, but for the most part, it is a new team.

A little more than halfway through their regular season, the Lions are also still trying to figure out their identity.

“We just have to work on getting better and winning the next game,” Smolda said. “We still have to find what type of team we are. We haven’t really even gotten to that point yet. We just have to keep coming to practice every day wanting to be a better team.”

Lower Moreland starts two sophomores in its backcourt with Shane Cohen and Bryce Horn as the primary ball handlers. Jake Himmelstein has been the fifth starter for most of the year, while Kris and Jordan Zoubroulis and Dan Shimon have been coming off the bench.

The last two years, the Lions were a run-and-gun type of team, playing a free-flowing offense that put up a lot of 3-point shots and a lot of points. They made up for a lack of size with a scrambling, aggressive defense and a bunch of seniors who bought into a team identity and embraced their roles.

This season, the pace is a little slower.

“We’ll be at the same place all season which is worrying about the next game,” LM coach Seth Baron said. “This team has got to play focused for the next game, every single time. That’s where we are and we haven’t changed that philosophy.”

The team sits at 7-6 after Tuesday’s 55-34 loss to Holy Ghost Prep and was the 8th-seeded team in the initial round of District I Class 4A power rankings released on Monday. That would make them the last team in, but Smolda said it was something that wasn’t even brought up around the team.

Smolda, a sharpshooting guard last year, did add that the current spot can be motivation, because Lower Moreland could easily be knocked out of that spot. But in general, the team is too young and unfinished to be worrying about the postseason.

There have been mistakes typical of young players, but in general, the underclassmen filling out the roster have been very solid all season.

“We’re just telling them to go out and play basketball,” Smolda said. “They’ve been playing their whole life, it’s no different. Just go out and enjoy it, don’t be stressed out, have fun and win.”

Smolda said the biggest thing the team has done so far is shown that it can win games even with this new roster. The next step is to win a few more of them and find ways to produce those few key possessions that can turn the outcome in a close game.

“They’ve played great but there are mistakes there and those are the mistakes that come with playing varsity basketball,” Baron said. “We have three sophomores in the starting lineup and we have a key sophomore or two coming off the bench. You have to live with the mistakes and I think their job is to learn from those mistakes and if they do, they’re going to be phenomenal.”

Smolda has had to change his game to fit the new team. Instead of being a spot-up guy ready to let it fly off a kick-out pass, he’s taking less outside shots and driving the ball more. He put the work to become a better finisher and has been a leader all season.

Likewise, Wiggins has taken on a bigger role on both sides of the ball and is not afraid to fight for position down low and finish shots.

Lower Moreland’s schedule has been pretty unforgiving, with a lot of quick turnarounds and plenty of games packed into a given week.

“The turnarounds are tough in terms of game-planning and with a young team, you need that game-planning and I think that’s hurt us,” Baron said. “But on the flip side, a tough loss like (Tuesday against HGP), you get to turn around go right back to playing basketball.”

Part of the next steps is for the young guys to start figuring what roles they play and embracing them. Last year, the Lions knew Danny Duffey and Tyler Millan were going to do most of the scoring, with Smolda and Dicky Rhoads as the secondary options.

They also knew exactly what they were getting from Jake Fazio, Mike Gould and Wiggins. Gould and Fazio took their job doing the dirty work, like setting screens, taking charges and getting on the floor seriously.

Sometimes, it takes a little longer for a young player to realize that carries the same value as a 3-point shot or getting fouled going to the rim.

“We’re not there yet,” Baron said. “That’s what it has to be, everybody has to learn their roles and it’s not at that point yet. That’s all part of that inexperience you have to live with and learn from it. We’re playing right now for the end of the year, for that BAL tournament and planning to get into districts.”

The schedule doesn’t get any easier, with games against Valley Forge Military Academy and Church Farm coming up soon, plus the rest of the BAL slate, so the Lions will continued to be pushed and challenged the rest of the way. But even last year’s team wasn’t built in a week; those guys all worked their way up, grew into roles and came together as a group.

With good captains and coaches in charge, don’t be surprised if Lower Moreland is again a different team early next month.

“We are building, we are much better now than we were the first week of the season,” Baron said. “We still have a couple weeks to improve on that.”