High aspirations

Cedric Lane has lofty goals for his Pinson Valley High School boys basketball team this year.

The second-year coach wants the Indians to become nationally ranked and to win every game they play.

Who wouldn’t want those things?

One of those goals is certainly attainable. Pinson Valley plays in enough high-profile tournaments across the Southeast that if it performs well, it could find itself earning some national recognition.

“If you want to be the top team in the state, you’ve got to beat some of the top teams in the state,” Lane said. “If you want to be the top team in the nation, you’ve got to get on another scale.”

Going undefeated is not a likely scenario, given the tough schedule the Indians play in those tournaments — over three consecutive weekends in December, Pinson Valley travels to Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia — along with the fact that a few of their key players could potentially miss the first handful of games due to the football team’s potential postseason success.

But that’s not going to stop them from trying.

“We expect to win every game we play,” Lane said. “If we lose a game, we expect to win the rest of them.”

Lane said he lost his team a few games last year by playing some of those football guys too soon upon their arrival to the basketball team after the football season had ended.

“I’ll try not to [make that] mistake this year,” he said, while adding that he still likes the team he has before the football players rejoin the fray.

That confidence is not borne of delusion. After seeing his team blossom into a top 10 team in Class 6A last year and advance to the Northeast Regional, the Indians return a host of contributors and expect the emergence of a few young players as well.

“We look like an experienced team and we know what to do,” Lane said. “The guys know each other. The most important thing is [that the] guys understand their strengths and weaknesses — what shots they need to take, what shots they don’t need to take.”

Pinson Valley put together a stellar record of 30-3 over the summer, backing up its head coach’s belief. His system has taken hold, and the group of largely inexperienced players he inherited last year should excel with a season under its belt.

Lane said, “You can’t get that stuff without experience. Everybody knows what they need to be doing now, it’s just a matter of getting out there and executing.”

Lane’s teams are generally known for their proficiency on the offensive side, and he wasted no time giving Indians supporters a taste of that last season. In his first game on the sidelines, Pinson Valley put together a stunning display, defeating Jackson-Olin 132-67.

That offensive style is one of the most fast-paced in the area. The Indians look to get up the floor as quickly as possible, and more often than not, fire up a shot within a handful of passes.

“I was proud of how the guys gelled this summer,” Lane said. “If that’s any indication of what we’re going to look like this season, we’re going to be scary.”

That aggression translates to the defensive end of the floor as well, as the Indians attempt to force turnovers as often as possible. Even if that energy sometimes leads to an open shot, it’s the thought planted in an opponent’s mind that carries over.

“It looks chaotic, but it’s organized,” Lane said. “Everybody knows what they’re doing. From the outside, it may just look like they’re sliding and jumping, but they’re going where they’re supposed to be. We may give up an open shot every now and then.”

Pinson Valley will look to players like Kewaski Jackson, Colby Jones and Cam Scott to lead the way initially. All three are expected to have big seasons, and all three are only sophomores.

LiAllen Dailey, Jackie Matthews, Orion Morris and GaQuincy McKinstry will certainly make their presence felt once football season concludes. Geordon Pollard is another player to look for on a deep Indians squad.

Pinson Valley has had strong teams in the past, but has not been a perennial state final contender, something that it appears to be this season. Lane has not encountered many mental hurdles getting his team to believe that, because even though it is not common territory for the school, his current players are young.

“The only thing they know is what happened last year,” he said. “The older guys didn’t play before we got here last year… Last year, it was challenging to get the guys to buy in because they weren’t used to doing the type of work that we were doing, and a lot of them quit. We jumped that hurdle last year, so now let’s just build on what we started.”

The Indians open their season at Thompson on Nov. 9.