‘You don’t get used to it.’ Parade of injuries, flu couldn’t stop this region champ.
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Sweet Sixteen stories
The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories. Click below to read the stories published so far.
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Editor’s Note: The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories.
Few teams were as ready for prime time as Warren Central, which for the third season in a row qualified for the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16.
And if it’s actually played this year, the Dragons might be the only ones happy to have had an extended layoff between the regional round and state.
“If we do finally get to play again, we might finally be 100 percent healthy for the first time all year,” Dragons Coach William Unseld said with a laugh during a phone interview with the Herald-Leader.
Warren Central through the course of this season had its full rotation available for, Unseld guessed, a total of four or five games. Kobe Brents — one of three Dragons who averaged double-digit scoring (10.9) and who started in their three Sweet 16 games last year — missed the first four games of the season with a knee injury. Tegra Muleka, Central’s starting point guard, got hurt one game following Brents’ return to the lineup and missed the next four games. The same game that Muleka returned, starting center Jessie Wright sprained his ankle and missed the next 10 games. Wright returned, then two games later Kamden Lawrence — another key piece in last year’s run to the state quarterfinals and among Central’s top rebounders this season — broke his wrist and missed Central’s last 10 games. Lawrence’s arm is set to be re-evaluated soon.
Dragons, it turns out, are not immune to snake bites, of which they’d racked up enough by mid-January to bring them to their lowest point: In the span of three days Central suffered back-to-back, bruising losses to John Hardin (an 85-47 drubbing in the Class 2A State Championship semifinals) and Bowling Green (79-62 at its 14th district and crosstown rival with whom it has split the last 12 region titles).
Central didn’t even bother practicing before that tilt with Bowling Green, the first of what would eventually become four this year, as Unseld’s available guys were too gassed after a trip to Owensboro for the 2A tournament. He encouraged them to give it their all against the Purples but was more concerned about avoiding further injury.
About a week after that loss Unseld had his full rotation for a few games and it showed in a rematch with the Purples that they won, 61-55. It was the fourth victory of a 12-game win streak halted by — you guessed it — Bowling Green in the 14th District title bout.
“That Bowling Green loss in the district tournament helped us get refocused,” Unseld said. “When you win, even as a coach, most of it’s my fault, ‘cause you get comfortable. You don’t practice as hard, you get a win here that you probably should’ve won by 20 but you won by four so you don’t go in and correct all your issues, little small stuff that’s happening. That kind of compounds on you.
Warren Central torched Barren County, 77-49, in the Fourth Region Tournament opener but had to wait five days to play its semifinal against Clinton County. The layoff proved fortuitous: Dre Boyd, Central’s leading scorer (18.0 points per game), and two other players were diagnosed with the flu on a Friday, leaving Unseld with only five healthy members of his rotation. The team just shot around that Friday and Saturday but were able to get real runs in on Sunday before their Monday tip-off. Their rust showed but they earned a double-digit win. Central did the same in its grudge match with the Purples, a 53-42 final.
It’s anyone’s guess who would’ve taken a fifth game had one been played to disentangle the season series.
“I tell my guys all the time, I don’t want to beat ’em four times. I want to beat ’em once.’ The last time we play, that’s the time I want to beat ’em,” Unseld said. “It’s hard to beat somebody four times, and usually the team who loses the game before the last one comes in a little more motivated, so that’s what I have in mind. We try to win the district championship, we go out to compete to win, but we don’t put a whole lot of emphasis on, ‘Hey let’s win the district,’ ‘cause more than likely, we’ll always play Bowling Green in the region like we have the last three years.”
The path to a third straight region title was bumpier than expected, but it was no less sweet for Unseld, who won his fourth as head coach of his alma mater after being part of several runs as an assistant under Tim Riley.
“One of my assistant coaches this year said, ‘All right coach, I’m gonna be calm and composed at the end of the region championship,” Unseld said. “He said, ‘Man every time that daggone horn goes off I lose my mind, I’m jumping in the pile with the kids.’ …
“You don’t get used to it. It gets better. For the rest of my life, even if I’m not coaching or I don’t have a team in it, I will be at the state tournament. It’s that type of experience.”
This story was originally published March 31, 2020 at 7:53 AM.
