Photo by Frank Couch.
Jamari Blackmon scored a game-high 29 points for Hoover in the state semifinal last year. He’s back and eager to lead Hoover back to the Final Four.
A team coming off a 16-19 record is not often considered among the favorites to win the Class 7A boys basketball state championship.
That was the mark of the Hoover High School team last season when the dust settled. The Bucs replaced nine seniors from a 2015 championship team, and the win-loss record was not pretty to start out for a young team.
“The schedule was unbelievably tough,” said head coach Charles Burkett. “We had one of two options: We could tank it, or we could get better. We got better.”
A month through the season, the Bucs were stuck with a 2-9 record, but there were encouraging signs.
“Our record didn’t indicate how well we played, because we got more losses than wins,” Burkett said. “However, the bulk of those games came down to the last three minutes. That’s where — over the course of the season — we gained that experience, and by the end of the season, we knew how to finish games.”
The Bucs rode a wave of momentum all the way to the Final Four at the end of the season, but they fell in double overtime to eventual state champion McGill-Toolen.
“They feel as though we let one slip last year,” Burkett said. “We had an opportunity to play in the championship game to win a back-to-back, and they feel like we let that slip away … So we’re back to finish it this year. We’re going to pick up right where we left off and hopefully once we get on the big stage, we want to finish it this time.”
Burkett’s cast of characters this year will largely resemble the ensemble he put on the floor last year, one where the go-to scorer could change from night to night, that could beat teams with excellent guard play or by dumping the ball into the paint.
It combines that feature with one from the 2014 squad that won it all. Now the Bucs’ roster is loaded with seniors — eight, to be exact.
Burkett said he could give “seven or eight names out there who are bona fide leaders” of his team, including a young player who came on strong at the end of last year in guard Jamari Blackmon. He scored a game-high 29 points in the loss to McGill.
“He’s so much more mature,” Burkett said. “He’s got a whole year under his belt. He knows how hard the game has to be played.”
Marion Humphrey and Ahman Ellington played much of last season on the junior varsity team before being called up to varsity toward the end of the season. They will help comprise a dangerous backcourt that also includes Matthew Rickman, Tavian Roundtree, JD Gaines, Ellis Conwell and Darius Jenkins.
Justin Rumph and Cam Jones are two forwards who garnered minutes last year that will also contribute in a big way.
“I think we have excellent guard play and experience. Mix that in, you have the potential to be pretty good. The only thing left for us to do is to go out there and do it,” Burkett said.
That experience does not make Burkett any less prone to play a demanding schedule.
“I love this schedule because it’s preparing us. If there are any weaknesses out there, our schedule will definitely find it for us. That allows us to go back to the drawing board and put in work and improve,” Burkett said.
