March 28, 2021 at 6:32 a.m.
Skeen voted Hodag Hoops MVP
Skeen voted Hodag Hoops MVP
Skeen took home the team's top honor Wednesday night in a banquet held in the RHS commons. The award was voted on by his teammates.
Skeen was deadly from behind the 3-point line this year, draining 55 triples and shooting 45.8% from distance overall. That helped Skeen lead the Hodags in scoring, averaging 14.3 points per game.
But Lemmens said Skeen made strides elsewhere to improve his game. He was the team's second-best free throw shooter at 73.9% and finished second on the team in rebounding, averaging 5.3 boards per contest.
"This year it was great to see him, in the fall, in the gym the few times that we could, working to get better," Lemmens said. "In the actual games you saw a player that is now also rebounding, he's defending. We had him on Medford's best player. We had him on really good players and that was something we weren't able to do the year before. And then just finishing, seeing him attack the rim and going from a skinny shooter as a sophomore to a really good, all-around basketball player."
Lemmens said he was somewhat reluctant to hand out an MVP award considering how well the team played together. The cohesiveness showed on the court as Rhinelander went 14-6 overall this season and made the regional final round of the WIAA tournament for the first time since 2016.
"I'm always torn on this award. It's great to see personal accolades but, at the end of the day, what I really love about this team and really good teams is that it's not about the individual," he said.
"They share the basketball and play for each other. I felt like this team, thought we have an MVP, it could have gone to a lot of different people and these guys played selfless basketball. That was a great thing to see," Lemmens added.
Luckily, there were plenty of other awards to go around. Jackson Labs won the team's Mr. Defense Award, Travis Towne was voted Mr. Hustle, Devyn Orth was named the team's most-improved player and three players shared the team's Hodag Award - Quinn Lamers, Jacksen Smith and Ty Welk.
Labs, despite being listed at 5-foot-11, tied for the team lead with seven blocked shots this year. He was also second on the team in both deflections (35) and steals (35), and was third on the team averaging 3.4 rebounds a game.
"Between the steals, deflections and just keeping guys in front and being a person we could always on, I think this was very accurate," Lemmens said. "Every night, we knew that Jackson Labs was going to impact the game defensively."
Lemmens admitted that Towne was generously listed as 6-4 in the program, though he's a couple inches shorter than that. Still, on a team that did not have much interior depth, Towne was counted on inside for Rhinelander and lead the team on the glass, averaging 6.8 rebounds a contest. He was also fourth on the team, averaging 8.3 points per game.
"When we talk about how undersized he was at his position and yet he still found a way to get rebounds and play strong post defense. He had to work hard to do that," Lemmens said. "And then, he still had time to outrun the big and get a wide-open, transition layup."
Orth averaged only 2.2 points per game, appearing in 19 of the team's 20 games, but he recorded a key steal in the final seconds of Rhinelander's 58-56 playoff win over Mosinee and saw an increase in minutes off the bench during the second half of the season.
"It went from, at the beginning of the year, I don't know how much I can get him on the floor to the end of the year needed to get him in the rotation more and getting big minutes in big games," Lemmens said. "It was really just seeing him grow as a player as he became more confident."
Lamers and Smith shared the point guard role for the Hodags this season. Lamers averaged 12.1 points per game, led the team with 5.3 assists a game and was the team's top free throw shooter at 74.4%. Smith averaged 10.8 points per game and was second on the team with 3.4 assists per contest. Welk saw limited action as a junior, but was commended for his selflessness and energy on the bench as he split the Hodag Award with Lamers and Smith.
"I think all three of these (players) are not just really solid with on the court with what they do, but they're really great off the court," Lemmens said.
After back-to-back sub-.500 seasons, the Hodags rebounded to finish second in the Great Northern Conference standings this year. Lemmens noted five of the team's six losses came to ranked teams - including three losses to GNC-champion Medford.
"With all the success this year, it just felt like everything went together," he said. "I didn't really have an opportunity until the season was over to sit back and reflect on what this group had accomplished and the success that they had."
Lemmens thanked the players and parents for the sacrifices, and patience as the team played through the COVID-19 pandemic - only pausing once due to a couple of positive cases in early January.
"Just to be able to have an entire season, that was great," Lemmens said. "This is a group that's put in way too much time, and has done way too much and loves the game too much not to have that opportunity to play.
"It really was a successful year and, even when we had our little COVID freeze, it was great to see this team bounce back and be successful."
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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