Prep Hoops Preview | Harrisburg: Bulldogs learning as they go

Everything seemed to be going Harrisburg's way as the school year opened and the Bulldog basketball team learned they would be stepping down from 3A postseason competition and returning to its regular home in 2A.

Randy Smithpeters, head coach for the Bulldogs, even called it a blessing and then just as quickly, Harrisburg was cursed when one of its star players, Blake Drue, was lost for the season after suffering an ACL injury the first week of the football season.

Drue, a 5-foot-10 junior guard brought everything to the table that Smithpeters needed. It's become a case of back to the drawing board for the head coach and his hipsters.

"Not having Blake Drue, who is a basketball guy, we lost his skills, we lost his experience and that's going to be terribly hard to make up," Smithpeters said. "I think it's going to be a learning situation for us to figure out who can do what best and just find the different combinations that are going to be best for us.

"With Blake you lost a good player and practically every phase of the game. You lost a good defender, a good rebounder, your best ball handler, a good basketball IQ person that makes other guys better and that's very hard to replace. No one person is going to do that, so we have to look at other people who can do different things and that might change from night to night. There might be nights when we need more size because we're not overly blessed with size for sure and there are nights when we need more ball handling in the game and it's just going to vary from time to time what we are going to be able to do."

If there is a silver lining, not all is lost on Harrisburg who return last year's leading scorer in the form of the 6-foot-1 junior guard Isaiah Saulsberry.

"We want him to have a good year," Smithpeters said of Saulsberry. "He also has to have a lot of help. He can't be the only guy out there, doing a lot of the things. We have always been a team-oriented program and that's what we want to be, but there is no question nor do I think there will be any question with our opponent's mind who our best player is."

Aside from Saulsberry, Harrisburg also returns Jordan Bartok, Noah Ferrell, Jordan Gould, Hunter Smith and Austin Hefner that all saw significant minutes last year.

Harrisburg starts the season this week as they return to the Ernie Bozarth Memorial Tournament at Murphysboro High School for the second straight season. As much as Smithpeters is excited to get things tipped off, he knows there is still a lot of work that needs to be done.

"I think we have a lot of growing to do," Smithpeters said. "There is no question about that as far as the basketball season goes. We have to spend a lot of time on skill work in practice because that is one of the first places we have to get better at.

"I think there will be adversity and how will they continue to work to get better and can we get over some of those humps. I think there will be some hard times to go through, some concerns and I don't know if we'll get off to a great start because we're not basketball ready right now. We're not very skilled and we haven't spent a lot of time in the gym. We'll get better as the season goes on, but can you handle the adversity to get to that point."

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register and Eldorado Daily Journal. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.

Harrisburg Schedule + Roster

<p><strong>Harrisburg Schedule</strong></p>

<p>Nov. 30         vs. Confluence Prep*         6:15 PM<br />Dec. 2         vs. Murphysboro*         7:45 PM<br />Dec. 3         vs. Roosevelt*             7:45 PM<br />Dec. 9         at West Frankfort             6:15 PM<br />Dec. 10         MERIDIAN                 6:15 PM<br />Dec. 16         MASSAC CO.             6:15 PM<br />Dec. 17         Du QUOIN                 6:15 PM<br />Dec. 20         BENTON                     6:15 PM<br />Dec. 26-28         ELDORADO HOLIDAY TOURN     TBA<br />Jan. 6         at Murphysboro             6:15 PM<br />Jan. 7         MARION                     6:15 PM<br />Jan. 13         HERRIN                     6:15 PM<br />Jan. 16-20         CWC INVITE TOURNAMENT     TBA<br />Jan. 27         WEST FRANKFORT         6:15 PM<br />Feb. 3         at Massac Co.             6:15 PM<br />Feb. 4         RICH HERRIN CLASSIC     TBA<br />Feb. 10         at Benton                 6:15 PM<br />Feb. 11         MURPHYSBORO             6:15 PM<br />Feb. 14         at Carterville             6:15 PM<br />Feb. 17         at Herrin                     6:15 PM<br /><br />*At Ernie Bozarth Tournament (Murphysboro)</p>

<p><strong>Harrisburg Roster</strong></p>

<p>No.    Name                    Class    Hgt.    Pos.<br />03    Axavier Doss            Sr.    5-11    G<br />04    Alvin Villanueva        Jr.    5-5    G<br />11    Austin Hefner        Sr.    5-9    G<br />12    Blake Drue                Jr.    5-10    G<br />14    Jordan Gould            Sr.    6-2    G<br />15    Carl Russ                Fr.    5-8    G<br />21    Hunter Smith            Jr.    6-0    G<br />22    Carson Burtis            Jr.    6-2    G<br />23    Isaiah Saulsberry        Jr.    6-1    G<br />25    William Sanders        So.    6-3    G<br />30    Dawson Beers        So.    6-0    F<br />32    Jaden Sigler            So.    5-8    F<br />33    Dylan Morris            So.    5-8    F<br />40    Dalton Lambert        Jr.    6-3    F<br />42    Jordan Bartok        Jr.     6-0    F<br />44    Noah Ferrell            Sr.    6-2    F<br />45    Brayden Storms        Jr.    6-1    F<br />52    Zack Gibbs            So.    6-0    F<br />55    Isaac Crabb            Fr.    6-0    F<br /><br /></p>