It took a new year, but the Pima men’s basketball team finally found the balance it was looking for.
The other balance the Aztecs had achieved — a 7-7 record to open the season — was less well-received.
But in moving above .500 for the season with a 105-67 home win over Just Hoops Prep, head coach Brian Peabody got another kind of balance — scoring balance — as five players scored in double figures.
Now that the Aztecs have the ship righted after two straight wins, conference play looms large.
The Star caught up with Peabody on the eve of Wednesday’s ACCAC showdown with Arizona Western.
Heading into conference play, did this team need a win like yours over Just Hoops, just to get the players’ heads right?
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A: “No question. We went to California and tried to figure things out as a team and as a staff, and we got back to Tucson and put up some good numbers. I feel good about our team. The pulse of the team is really good right now, and hopefully we can catch Western on an off-night.”
As a head coach whose priority is winning every game, how do you push pause on a season and readjust to your players?
A: “It’s probably more about the staff figuring it out, who to play and how much. We have 11 freshmen and four sophomores and only one played last year, Justice Martion. Eleven freshmen are new, and a lot of the pieces were kind of the same. There wasn’t a lot of difference between the three 6-11 kids. Finally one of them stepped up, Damon Dubots, and he’s playing the five. Kwintin Williams, a freshman, he’s solidified the four spot. We just had guys fall into place and separate themselves.”
You want to win every game, but in the midst of a slow start, do you have to recalibrate your expectations?
A: “I hate to say it, but yeah. You have to take step back and relax, remember 11 freshmen. You lose Murphy Gershman and Shakir Smith in back-to-back years, and you have to replace those guys. We had to collectively replace them, and not just one guy. We changed some things philosophy-wise. It’s not easy to lose games, but I think we’re on the right track. I might be the only guy in Tucson who believes it, but I think we have a chance to win this thing. I told the team from Day One, such a long season, people are gonna lose guys, and it’s the team with the 10 toughest guys who will make it.”
Does the start of conference play offer a natural reset to the season?
A: “It is for me. We go really hard, as hard as we can in the preseason and through Christmas, and after Christmas. To be honest with you, it’s the kids’ team. It becomes on the players, and they’ve either bought in, or they haven’t. If they haven’t you’re not going to be very good.”
How do you get a big group of freshmen to accept losses?
A: “It’s like, ‘I told you so. It’s a lot harder than you imagined.’ When we say you need to do X and you decide to do Y, it’s not gonna work. A lot of times we don’t get the most talented kid, but the kid who works hardest and buys into what we do as a staff. When we say run to the block, it means run to the block, not four feet past it. When you can get guys to do it, they make those adjustments, you see some success, like our last two games. When we went to California, played against Los Angeles City College — they have two big-time D-1 guys — and it was clear we have to be better. There’s gonna be guys like that at Western.”
