By Staff
The Buchanan basketball team ran into a team that matched its own speed and defensive prowess Thursday afternoon at the Class C semifinals at Michigan State's Breslin Center.
Saginaw Buena Vista, however, wasn't able to pull away from the Bucks until the fourth quarter and, even then, the two teams looked very evenly matched.
After the game, Buena Vista's coach talked about how young his team is and rightly so. The Knights have only four seniors and only two of them started.
Buchanan coach Reid McBeth didn't talk about the youth of his team because he's saying goodbye to eight seniors. Only two of them, however, started.
Granted, the Bucks are losing much more than Buena Vista to graduation, but both teams have a solid nucleus of talent returning next season.
Buchanan starts three juniors--Tony Robinson, Gordon Bryant and Brian Shannon--that basically carried the team through the state tournament this season. Those three led the team on both ends of the floor and three players like that is enough to make for a good team next year.
But it's not just three players returning to Buchanan's roster next season. Juniors P.J. Pollock, and Jared Rusher are also coming back, along with sophomore Jeff Kyles, who was pulled up to the varsity for the state tournament.
Other than an obvious lack of height, Buchanan's future looks very bright.
Much like last season when Buchanan was pummeled in the regional championship game by Kalamazoo Christian, the Bucks are now probably wishing they had another shot at Saginaw Buena Vista.
And, who knows, maybe they'll get another shot next season.
A rematch between these two teams in next year's semifinals or finals would be a treat to watch and an incredible challenge for both teams.
Hopefully, both teams will keep the focus and determination they showed Thursday and find their ways back to the Breslin Center in March of 2005.
Speaking of next year, Michigan and Notre Dame fans are going to have to wait until next season to see the Wolverines and Irish meet on the basketball court after Notre Dame's loss to Oregon in the NIT tournament Thursday night.
A win by the Irish would have set up a Michigan-Notre Dame semifinal game in New York City.
Don't worry, though, because the two teams are scheduled to meet in a regular-season game during the 2004-05 season.
Michigan and Notre Dame should play against each other every season because it's such a great rivalry between the two schools and between the states of Michigan and Indiana.
Oh well, we'll just have to wait until next year.
Dan Weiss is sports editor of the Niles Daily Star. Email him at dan.weiss@leaderpub.com