Riverview boys to play up-tempo game with deep bench
The Riverview boys basketball program, under the leadership of head coach Kirklan Pettis and assistant coach Nathan Claxton, has a team of battletested starters and a deep bench that has Raider Nation thinking big.
“We had a good season last year, and in the conference, those games were all close, coming from behind. It was competitive,” Pettis said. “I always tell my guys, ‘At the end of the day, winners are going to find a way to win,’ and they found ways to win. That’s what it’s about.”
The team turned in an impressive 21-7 record last year, going 12-4 in 3A-2 Conference play. The Raiders added conference and district titles to their resume before getting stopped in the first round of the regional tournament.
“We play very fast,” Pettis said. “That played into our hands big last year, and I think it’ll play big into our hands again because of the depth we have. We were able to win a lot of games in the fourth quarter last season because we were eventually able to wear teams down.
“Talking about the mistakes, we put ourselves in holes with our turnovers. We’ve definitely got to improve there if we want to win games. We’ve worked hard on that, and I think we’ll be fine.”
The Raiders are led by sophomore Tadrian Baker, a 6-3 point guard who earned allconference and all-state honors as a freshman. Pettis called Baker “probably the second-best point guard in the league. He’ll be a guy to watch.”
Also back is all-conference shooting guard Tristan Cunningham, a junior, plus senior Trigg Rodgers in the post and senior swingman Joe Williams.
“Tristan was our top 3-point shooter and averaged 16, 17 points last year,” Pettis said. “Trigg is one of our bigger guys; he plays forward, sometimes our 5 spot. Joe Williams plays both guard and forward. At 5-10, he’s a small thing, but he’s scrappy, so he plays forward for us sometimes.”
From there, Pettis noted that several talented sophomores will compete for the final starting spot, along with 6-0 junior Tucker Cunningham, who joined the team this season.
“It keeps it competitive because guys know I’ve got nine or 10 guys who can go out and play big minutes on any given night,” Pettis said. “They’re super competitive.”
The Raiders move from the 3A-2 Conference to 3A-6 in 2022-23. That, plus the addition of the shot clock, piques Pettis’ curiosity about what the new season holds.
“For the most part, we run and gun. We try to get up and down, and I think that’ll play into our hands this year, with the shot clock coming in,” he said. “Defensively, we like to press. Hopefully, with our numbers, we won’t have to worry about foul trouble as much. At times, we got so physical last year we would end up in foul trouble, and we’d have to back up.
“We switch a lot from man to zone, but we’re always trying to speed the game up and make teams play to our tempo. When we can control the pace of the game, it’s hard to keep up with us.”