The Pine Bluff Zebras have come out of the gate strong at 3-1 in boys basketball, but their sole loss, coming from a tournament in New Madrid, Mo., was a game coach Ronald Moragne felt the Zebras should have won.
“It was a learning lesson for us,” Moragne said. “When you’ve got a young team, a lot of times they learn a few things from a loss, but we don’t want very many of those.”
The Zebras have a strong annual contribution from athletes who also participate in football. As the season comes to a close on the gridiron, Moragne is ready to work them in on the hardwood.
“I think we’re gonna be pretty good,” Moragne said. “Hopefully we’ll get these guys that just came out of football in shape, kinda get them mixed in and get the chemistry with them. We’ve got some guys that can do a multitude of things. It’s just a matter of: Can we match up with the size of the (other) teams?”
Some of those teams include 6A-South Conference contenders Little Rock McClellan, Benton, and El Dorado, which have multiple players ranging from 6-foot-7 to 6-10. Although that disadvantage is apparent, Moragne is confident in the other talents Pine Bluff will bring to the table.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Pine Bluff only has one returning starter from last season, junior Darrian Kee, but the Zebras expect strong contributions from junior shooter Rickey Clements Jr., senior utility player Marcus Barnes, and rebounders Tyrone Payne (junior) and Quentin Williams (senior).
“I think we got a good group of kids,” Moragne said. “They’re not big, but they work hard and they play hard.”
Moragne is also buying into the up-tempo philosophy adapted by many prep coaches, but doesn’t want to lose focus on an aspect of the game lost on the professional level.
“We want to be defensive-minded,” Moragne said. “We think we’ve got guys that can score, but we’ve got to be physical defensively, and we’ve got to be able to take teams out of what they wanna do.
“We’re gonna be probably more up-tempo; we wanna push it (and) run it fast as we can get it down the floor. Hopefully we can get that done.”
The conference has parity, according to Moragne. He couldn’t single out a particular team of concern in the conference to focus on, but stated any team could pose a threat any given night.
“Our conference from top to bottom is gonna be pretty good,” Moragne said. “We tell our kids every day, ‘You practice to beat the best teams,’ and we think that our conference is gonna be pretty tough, as good as any conference in the state.
“We just gotta prepare every night and get ready to play. I think a good test is gonna be (tonight) for us, against Cabot.”
Action will begin with a junior varsity boys game at 6, followed by the varsity at approximately 7.