Team Preview: Edmond Santa Fe (6A)

<p>Edmond Santa Fe coach Troy Lallemand has a couple unique problems.</p> <p>First, most of his team, including two of his returning starters -- Talyn and [player_tooltip player_id="955395" first="Tabry" last="Shettron"] -- are preoccupied with another sport until the 6A football State Championship game Saturday afternoon.</p> <p>"This is a different job right now just because of the influence of football," Lallemand said, "Right now, I’ve got eight-to-nine guys still in football.</p> <p>"So for us, right now, it’s kind of crazy," Lallemand said.</p> <p>Second, though Lallemand returns four starters from the 2020 season, the missing one -- graduate point guard [player_tooltip player_id="931192" first="Donovan" last="Vickers"] -- tied for first in scoring and led every other major statistical category for the Wolves while earning conference defensive player of the year honors.</p> <p>"The biggest thing is having to replace Donovan," Lallemand said. "We’re missing a big piece with that he did.</p> [caption id="attachment_1012652" align="alignleft" width="300"]<a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/07/Xavier-Alexander-Swarm-Elite-17U_Colby-Onyekuru-1.jpeg"><img class="wp-image-1012652 size-medium" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/07/Xavier-Alexander-Swarm-Elite-17U_Colby-Onyekuru-1-300x192.jpeg" alt="" width="300" height="192" /></a> [player_tooltip player_id="745367" first="Colby" last="Onyekuru"] (Clare Reynolds/Prep Hoops).[/caption] <p>Aside from the Shettron brothers, [player_tooltip player_id="964492" first="Michael" last="Reeves"] and [player_tooltip player_id="745367" first="Colby" last="Onyekuru"] return for the Wolves.</p> <p>Reeves is the leading returning scorer for Lallemand’s squad.</p> <p>Onyekuru is Lallemand’s "Swiss Army knife."</p> <p>"Colby is perfect for what we do. . . he’s kind of in position-less basketball," Lallemand said. "He’s 6-5, he’s long, athletic, he can shoot it, he can handle it.</p> <p>"He can play all five positions, and he can guard all five positions, more importantly," Lallemand said.</p> <p>Lallemand said that Onyekuru may even handle point-guard responsibilities given the right circumstances.</p> <p>"We kind of joke about it. . . he’s probably the best point guard in the league," Lallemand said. "Simply because of a mismatch problem."</p> <p>Seniors Kristian Baccus and Willie Watkins, junior [player_tooltip player_id="1015838" first="Joe" last="Adams"], and sophomores Kayden Gipson, [player_tooltip player_id="981278" first="Jayden" last="Cincotta"], and Kaden Stewart will also be expected to step into larger roles for the Wolves, Lallemand said.</p> <p><a href="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/11/Talyn-Shettron.png"><img class="size-medium wp-image-1092795 alignright" src="https://prephoops-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/ph/uploads/2020/11/Talyn-Shettron-300x199.png" alt="" width="300" height="199" /></a>Lallemand said that defense will be Santa Fe’s No. 1 priority this season.</p> <p>"We’re gonna have to have the same attention to detail, defensively, that we did last year," Lallemand said. "We went zone, but it was really just what we had to do to help out our offense.</p> <p>"We’re gonna man more this year," Lallemand said.</p> <p>Offensively, Lallemand said that the Wolves have to shoot the ball better this season.</p> <p>"We shot 26 percent from three, and it wasn’t even that," Lallemand said. "We weren’t very high from, you know, two-foot range.</p> <p>"I think being a year older, a year stronger, we should be able to do that," Lallemand said.</p> <p>Lallemand noted that due to football absences early in the season, the Wolves will need to peak later in the season.</p> <p>"We’re not gonna be playing our best basketball in December," Lallemand said. "A lot of teams say this, but we really have to be playing our best basketball in January and February."</p>