Riverhead boys basketball preview —
It’s ‘we’ before ‘me’ this year, coach says

From the opening seconds of their scrimmage against East Hampton on Tuesday, it was clear: the Blue Waves still have a lot of work to do.

Basketball is 75-percent timing and 25-percent execution. Being in the right place at the right time gives you the best chance to succeed.  When half of the team on the floor understands what the play is and the other half doesn’t, it ends up becoming a turnover parade.  But all that gets cleaned up in practice.

“It’s still early in the season,” head coach John Rossetti said. “We’re sloppy right now. A lot of out passes are getting deflected.”

Rossetti fields a young team this year but many return with experience. While only three seniors are on the roster — Andre Juarez, Ethan Greenidge, and Steven Reid — five others played significant roles on the team last year as sophomores.  Ryun Moore, Tyrese Kerr, Lintell Brown, John Lavelle and Malik Washington all figure to get greater roles this season.

One of last year’s sophomores, Charles Manning, the team’s leading scorer, will not return. He decided to move to his father’s house in Bridgehampton and will be a member of the varsity team there.

“His grades weren’t where they needed to be,” assistant coach Elwood Lamb said. “His father wanted him in a better environment to succeed. His classes there won’t have more than 10 kids in it whereas in Riverhead you’ll get over 30. He’s able to get more attention there and he’s already producing 90s.”

Without Manning, there is no one guy who can dominate at will.  This team will have to play team ball, move the rock to the open guy and believe in one another.  There was already evidence of that early on.

“We are very unselfish this year,” Rossetti said. “There isn’t just one guy getting all the shots. Everyone’s getting it and we’re pushing the ball up the floor.”

“Our motto in practice,” Rossetti continued. “Is we before me. It doesn’t matter who scores as long as we get the basket and guys have bought into it. They’ll make the extra pass when necessary. If one guy scores 20 one day the next guy could do the same the next day, we don’t really care.”

Sometimes however, the extra pass becomes one pass too many.  When there isn’t a star player to go to, players will even pass up open shots, which happened on more than one occasion.

“Sometimes you do have to be selfish on the court,” Rossetti said, “With time and confidence, those shots will be taken and made.”

Joe Cunningham will be the starting point guard for the Blue Waves but didn’t get on the court Tuesday because he was sick.  Rossetti didn’t want to force anything so early in the season and perhaps his absence lead to some of the discontinuity on offense.

He’ll have to be very decisive in a high-octane offense that Rossetti is trying to instill in the brains of the young Blue Waves.

“We’re going to be an uptempo team,” Rossetti said. “We’re not going to be successful if it’s a slow half-court game. I want them pushing the ball as much as they can.”

Before the scrimmage, the Blue Waves ran a fast-break drill in which they needed to record four baskets in 20 seconds.

“It’s all about cutting seconds down in a fast break,” Rossetti said. “The faster we are the better we’ll be.”

Juniors Steven Asconio and Greg Edmund both showed flashes of what they could do in a full-court set with Asconio grabbing boards and scoring under the basket and Edmund stroking a sweet jumper from outside and though it’s still early, both should factor in the rotation come game time.

If this team will be successful it will have to be a result of good defense.  Good defense will instantly spring this team into an easy offensive basket with their fast-break soon to be figured out.  Defenders need to get out to shooters, rotations need to be communicated and rebounders need to box out.

Either way, Rossetti is confident in this group.  And he’ll continue to iron out the inconsistency over the next few practices.

Riverhead will have a scrimmage against Mount Sinai on Thursday and play Bellport in a non-league Dec. 12 before opening their season against Newfield on Dec. 15 in Riverhead at 4 p.m.