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Who's Next: Lions look to several to make up for Moutry
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
The McKinney basketball team will be in a familiar position going into next season, as the graduation of A.J. Moutry will reintroduce the same problem he helped solve this year: scoring.
When the Lions lost their top two scorers to graduation in 2010, Moutry stepped in to take control of the offense and averaged an impressive 24.2 points per game in that role. Someone will have to step up in a similar fashion this season if the team hopes to continue its success, and suspect No. 1 is point guard Red Shannon.
Shannon put up great numbers during the 2011-12 season, averaging 16.4 points, 8.1 assists, 3.5 rebounds and 6.5 steals per game as the catalyst of the Lions’ up-tempo offense and full-court press defense. Those numbers were a significant rise from those he put up his sophomore season.
“Red is probably always going to look to get his teammates involved early first,” said Wes Watson, McKinney head coach. “That’s just his mindset. He wants to try to make the guys around him better, but he also understands, and we’ll have this conversation with them, that we need him to score a little more.”
Shannon already showed he's up to the task this season when Moutry was sidelined with an injury. He averaged 22 points per game from that point on and hit 30 in an 80-75 loss to South Oak Cliff in the area round.
“I thought when A.J. went down late in the season that Red did a tremendous job of stepping into that role,” Watson said. “He had to become more of a scoring point guard at that point.”
Watson said that it won't be just one player replacing Moutry, though. He expects players like guard Connor Fuentes to help with the transition as well by continuing on the improvement he showed this year.
After all, getting back the level the Lions were at this year may not be good enough. They will be contending with a much tougher schedule next season when they move up in classification to join Allen, Plano, Plano West, Plano East and McKinney Boyd in District 10-5A.
McKinney will be the smallest school by far in that group, as it has just about one-third of the number of students as East.
Watson pegged size and depth as two of the biggest differences between 4A and 5A basketball – with the latter having more of each – but McKinney's current roster is well equipped to deal with the transition.
“We’re going to be taller than we’ve ever been,” Watson said.
That size will come from returning players Raynell Denny (6'4”), Tracy Miles (6'5”) and Darrin Donaldson (6'4”), who can be played simultaneously to combat the bigger lineups McKinney's new 5A rivals will be able to roll out.
But while the Lions will be able to look the part of a 5A school at first glance, the style of ball they'll bring to the table will be unlike what other teams in their district will roll out. That may give them an advantage in the shortened district season, as being part of a six-team district gives opponents limited time to make adjustments.
“We play a different style than those teams are accustomed to seeing night in and night out,” Watson said. “If you look at the district and you ask who the most different is from the other teams in the district, it may be us.”
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