April 5, 2021 at 8:54 a.m.
Team review: RHS boys' basketball
Hodag hoops returned to winning form this season
Team review: RHS boys' basketball
Following back-to-back sub-.500 campaigns, Rhinelander went 14-6 overall this season, finished second in the Great Northern Conference standings and advanced to the regional final round of the WIAA tournament for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
All of it happened during a season marked by the COVID-19 pandemic. It forced the team to pause for a week and a half during the season due to a positive test.
"It's a lot to be proud of in what was a crazy season," Hodag coach Derek Lemmens said following a season-ending loss at Medford Feb. 20. "We're thankful that we're standing here and I think if they leave with anything, it's that thankfulness, they don't take anything for granted and they know that living through this experience that we've got to cherish all these opportunities."
Here are five storylines from the recently completed season.
COVID break
The Hodags were knocked out of commission for roughly a week and a half at the beginning of January due to a positive COVID-19 case. The team found out it needed to pause shortly after a 55-47 victory over Lakeland on Jan. 5 and did not return to the court until a 54-51 overtime win over Shawano Jan. 16.
Unlike during the 2016-17 season, when a pertussis outbreak prevented the team from gathering for 17 days, right around the same portion of the season, the Hodags seemed to benefit from the down time. Rhinelander won five straight games once it resumed play, part of a perfect month of January for the team.
Lemmens said the team was much more prepared to pause this time around, and was also aided by the fact that asymptomatic players could at least do some individual work during their quarantine period.
"The accountability piece is there where we had no accountability piece in 2016," he said. "We just had to hope that guys were working out. We had to hope that guys were watching a little film here and there. Here, we've got the accountability piece and we've got a heavy senior group that's going to hold themselves and their team accountable."
Chasing Medford
Ultimately, Medford prevented Rhinelander from taking the Great Northern Conference title, but the Hodags proved at the end of the season that they were able to hang with a team that was ranked in the AP and WBCA polls most of the season.
That wasn't the case when the teams first met back in December and the Raiders throttled the Hodags 83-47 in Medford. That proved to be Rhinelander's most lop-sided defeat of the year.
Lemmens called that loss a wake-up call for his team, and things were very different when the teams met again Feb. 5 in Rhinelander.
The Hodags held the lead in the second half, and had a chance to tie the game in the final minute of regulation, before falling 54-50.
Round 3 was somewhere in the middle of those two contests. Medford went up by 11 at the half and held off a second-half run to defeat the Hodags 64-54 in the WIAA tournament.
Of the six games Rhinelander lost this season, three were to the Raiders.
"This is an incredibly good Medford team, and I hope that we don't lose sight that every game that we've lost, we've lost to really good teams," Lemmens said. "This team had a tough schedule and they came out on top much more than they (didn't)."
Returning to form
Taking a dive into the numbers, a big reason for Rhinelander's turnaround this season can be credited to a rededication to the defensive identity that has been a hallmark of past successful Hodag teams.
The Hodags allowed, on average, less than 60 points per game for the first time in three seasons. Only seven times this season did a team put up 60 or more points against Rhinelander, compared to 16 times last year and 18 times the year before.
Not only was opponent scoring down, so was opponent shooting, as teams shot 43.2% overall and 33.8% from 3-point range this year, compared to 45.9% and 38.1% splits last year. Rhinelander's defense also improved to 0.94 points allowed per possession, compared to 1.00 last year.
Perhaps the most telling statistic, however, was the team's ability to finish plays defensively. Rhinelander had a plus-3.3 rebounding differential this year after being minus-4.2 in that category a year ago, a swing of 7.5 rebounds per game.
That was evident when Rhinelander won at Mosinee 73-56 Jan. 29 in what Lemmens called the team's best defensive effort of the year.
"We played mainly man-to-man and guys, they did what they needed to do on their man and also provided their teammates support," he said. "There were a lot of one and dones. We finished played despite giving a significant amount of size. We matched their physicality so I thought it was really good all across the board."
Statbook
The Hodags had two unanimous first-team All-GNC selections in seniors Ross Skeen and Quinn Lamers.
Skeen led the team averaging 14.3 points per game while connecting on 45.8% of his 3-point attempts (55 of 120). He was also second on the team averaging 5.3 rebounds per game. Lamers was second in scoring (12.1 ppg), averaged 5.3 assists per game and had a team-best 2.59 assist-to-turnover ratio.
"Ross is shooting so well from 3 on the year, just a really impressive stat considering it's not like he just showed up this year. He's been hitting 3s in this conference for two years," Lemmens said, also noting Skeen's improvement on the defensive end of the floor this year. "Quinn, he had a really nice stat line and just gave us great energy in so many games."
Junior guard Jacksen Smith (10.8 ppg) and senior forward Travis Towne (8.3 ppg, 6.9 rpg were also honored by the conference.
What's next
The Hodags will look much different next as seven seniors - including four starters and two others who saw significant rotational minutes - from this year's squad will graduate.
This year's senior class accounted for 71.8% of the team's scoring this year. Smith will be the lone returning starter from this year's squad. Guard Caleb Olcikas and forward Jackson Zettler are the only other underclassmen who saw significant varsity minutes this year.
"There's going to be a lot of changes. We had seven seniors and the majority of them saw a lot of minutes," Lemmens said. "They brought so much that needs to be replaced. It's just a great group and I wish them luck in the future."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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