The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
North boys basketball aiming for progress
Nate Barnes checks in with the Rangers, who have already matched their win total from last season with three victories. Plus, the Top of the Crop and this week’s area statistics.
North has shown progress halfway through its second season under coach Rob Koelling.
The Rangers’ three wins equal their total from the entirety of last season. Brandon Barron and Jimmy Arnold have emerged as a scoring tandem.
But Koelling isn’t satisfied and hopes to see more progress in the second half of the season. He believes North is a few quarters away from a winning record as opposed to its 3-7 mark.
“There’s times that we look good and we look aggressive,” Koelling said. “There’s other times that we look complacent and we take a couple steps back. What I’m looking for is consistency on both ends of the floor.”
The Rangers opened their season with a victory against Geneva before they fell to Mayfield. North led the Wildcats in the second half before Mayfield rallied for a 69-62 win. The Rangers’ other victories are against Madison and Collinwood.
Barron leads the team with 18.7 points per game and 21 3-pointers. Arnold averages 11.2 points and a team-best four assists per game.
Aside from statistical production, Koelling is looking for one of his players to fill a leadership void.
“Once we have guys communicating out there, they’re going to realize
how much easier the game is and how much easier the game’s going to come to them,” Koelling said. “Right now, we don’t have anyone on the team that wants to take that vocal leadership role.”
Improved communication, Koelling hopes, would lead to improved execution.
Common threads through North’s lackluster sequences are quick shots that come after one or two passes in a possession. When the Rangers have played well, their offense derives from drives to the rim.
“We’ve attacked early on,” Koelling said. “We’ve attacked, we haven’t backed down, we’ve got to the basket. When we’ve done that, it collapses the defense, we get higher percentage 3s and our 3-point percentage goes up in those games.”