Wauwatosa East Boys Basketball Preview

Last year

Overall: 15-8

League: 11-3, second place

Playoffs: Lost in regional to Milwaukee Lutheran, 52-51

Conference: Greater Metro Conference

Personnel

Coach: Tim Arndorfer

Key returnees: Anthony Carroll, jr. (11.4 ppg); Vince Cupertino, sr. (5.3 ppg), Diamonte Mckinley, sr. (4.7 ppg);

Key losses: Darrell Bowie (12.9 ppg); Jackson Orin (6.7 ppg); Aaron Uden (4.4 ppg); Walter Clark, Jr. (2.5 ppg)

The lowdown

Wauwatosa East coach Tim Arndorfer believes that they can compete for the conference title, although admitting there are several good teams in the GMC this year and the race for the title could be a dogfight. He is blessed with three talented players in Anthony Carroll, Vince Cupertino and Diamonte Mckinley, who played a ton of minutes last year. The loss of star player Darrell Bowie hurts. Any time you lose your team's leading scorer and rebounder there is a big hole to fill. The Red Raiders need to play well as a team more than ever this season in order to find success in the conference.

Three pointers

1 Defense - Arndorfer sees his defense as a strength, especially with the Red Raiders' ability to defend the perimeter. They have an abundance of talent at the guard position and hopefully they can force the tempo with defensive pressure. On the other end, they will need their defense to create easy offensive opportunities to be successful.

2 Rebounding - The Red Raiders need to step it up on the boards and they need to defend the low post. Arndorfer is hoping that despite a lack of height, they "have a lot of guys with heart that hopefully can get the job done down low."

3 Finishing - The Red Raiders must learn to close out games. In the last two years, they've given a lot of games away in the waning moments of the fourth quarter. Improved free-throw shooting, valuing the basketball better and developing the confidence to win the close ones this year has to be a focus.

Schedule

Dec. 2 - West Allis Central; Dec. 6 - at Whitefish Bay; Dec. 9 - at Brookfield East; Dec. 10 - Wisconsin Lutheran (NY2LA Sports Classic at Homestead); Dec. 13 - Menomonee Falls; Dec. 16 - Sussex Hamilton; Dec. 27 - Germantown (WBY Shootout at Concordia University); Dec. 28 - TBD (WBY Shootout at Concordia University); Jan. 3 - at Waukesha South; Jan. 6 - at West Allis Hale; Jan. 7 - Wauwatosa West; Jan. 13 - Brookfield Central; Jan. 20 - at Marquette; Jan. 24 - at West Allis Central; Jan. 27 - Brookfield East; Jan. 28 - Waunakee; Jan. 31 - at Menomonee Falls; Feb. 3 - at Sussex Hamilton; Feb. 10 - Sussex Hamilton; Feb. 14 - at Racine Park; Feb. 17 - at Brookfield Central; Feb. 23 - Marquette.