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Discussion

February 15, 2012

Rick Teverbaugh: Familiar face leads Wildcats

For me, there will be much excitement and anticipation as part of the girls basketball regional Saturday at Decatur Central.

First of all, it will represent a chance to see the Anderson Lady Tribe hopefully win a pair of games and reach the Class 4A Final Four. We will have a preview of that trip in Friday’s edition.

But the presence of Lawrence North as one of the other teams at Decatur Central has ramped up my expectations.

The Wildcats are coached by Jim Etherington, who is a former head girls basketball at Pendleton Heights as well as an assistant boys coach at both Lawrence North and Anderson. That stint as a boys assistant at Lawrence North included a run of three straight state championships under head coach Jack Keefer from 2004 through 2006.

Lawrence North is 18-4 and will play Ben Davis in the 10 a.m. opener. The Wildcats were nine-point winners over the Giants during the regular season.

“We are very quick but not very deep,” said Etherington in a Tuesday phone interview. “As the year’s gone on, we’ve gotten very good defensively. We’re averaging giving up about 40 points per game. We put pressure on and take it off because we only play about seven kids. We rebound well, but we’re a small team.”

Once the Wildcats made it into the regionals,

Etherington didn’t have a preference on whether Pendleton Heights and Anderson made it into the field.

“I didn’t relish playing either one of them,” he said. “I coached at Pendleton Heights for seven years. Then I coached as an assistant under Heck (AHS coach Ron Hecklinski). I’m a Kokomo kid so I enjoyed being in the North Central Conference. I like to watch film and I enjoy working as an assistant. I thought I was getting too old to be a head coach.”

Apparently not.

Etherington is a very bright guy and he knows the game.

He has always done his homework and was often seen on scouting trips during both his girls and boys coaching stints.

I’m willing to say that he’s gotten as much out of the Lawrence North team as about any coach.

“I knew a lot of the girls from class,” said Etherington. “This has been a really good season.”

I know this would go against Etherington’s wishes, but my wish would be for the Wildcats to repeat their win over Ben Davis, followed by Anderson stopping the Pioneers from Mooresville.

Then the title game would be the Lady Tribe against the Wildcats.

Since I’m not a coach I can look forward to such things. Coaches can’t.

“Ben Davis is huge,” said Etherington. “They have a lot of size. That will be a difficult game for us.”

Etherington will have his team ready to play. I will be ready to watch.

It would be great to see a big crowd follow the Indians to the regional.

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