March 7, 2023
Chat with Coach Biehl #7
by Brother Neal Golden, S.C. (CJ ’57)
"Brother Martin’s season came to an end in a first round playoff loss to Karr, 64-61. The Crusaders had beaten the Cougars both times in district play, but it’s difficult to beat a good team three times.
“Give credit to the other team,” says Coach Chris Biehl. “They came out and played with good intensity. I thought Karr’s weakness was the fact that they didn’t shoot well from outside. We tried to force them to make outside shots, and they did. They capitalized off of two things. When we turned the ball over, especially in the first half, they scored. They also beat us badly on rebounds. When you’re getting outrebounded and turning the ball over, you’re giving the other team too many opportunities to score.
“Both DJ Fowler and Eli Pichon were solid as a rock. We did a good job of on ball defense, but our off ball defense was uncharacteristically bad. We fought and battled and had a chance at the buzzer to tie the game. It’s upsetting because I really liked this group of seniors and wanted them to go out on a better note than that.”
Review of the Season
“This whole season was a roller coaster ride. We came out of the box playing exceptionally good basketball. For the first time in my history at Brother Martin, we had the opportunity to work with kids prior to the first practice date. From a fundamentals and team chemistry standpoint, we were farther along than in any season since I’ve been at Brother Martin. We had only seven or eight players, but they had been together since August. In my 30 years of coaching, it was the first time I coached a team that won a 16-team tournament, the Sophie B. Wright Tournament of Champions. I’ve never been prouder of a group of players.
“I think some fatigue set in. When we started facing our greatest adversities, that’s when the schedule got the toughest. We lost a bit of our magic midway through December, but we fought tooth and nail to get it back. But from there, it was just adversity after adversity, primarily because of injuries. We only had four players in our program who had scored in a varsity game to start the season. In the offseason, sophomores like Jake Klein and Nolan Huguet looked like they would be serviceable varsity subs. It turned out that Nolan was one of only two kids who started every game. He far exceeded my expectations. You forgot at times that he’s only a sophomore.
“At the beginning of the year, if you asked who are your five starters, three of those boys didn’t play in the last three games of the season and two of them played less than 12 games the whole season.
“Nobody will ever say these guys didn’t battle. We never made an excuse. In many games, we were down 12 to14 points, and two or three minutes later, we were right back in the game.
“These guys are exceptional ambassadors for our school. DJ Fowler is a coach’s dream come true. He does everything right. He gets straight A’s. He could play college basketball, but he wants to go to medical school. He was a great team captain. I’m proud that for the rest of his life, he’ll call me ‘coach.’”
Next Year
“We’ve got a great core coming back. With our seniors, next year is gonna be a lot of fun. We need Jordan West to make a full recovery from his knee injury. Jordan has basketball IQ. He’s a coach on the floor. There was no replacing him. He’s not a stat sheet filler but does the intangibles.
“I think Eli Pichon will be in the running for district MVP next year. Eli had to play point guard and was usually guarding one of the top two players on other team and got no sub. So his shooting percentage was not that efficient for him. He will benefit greatly from Jordan’s recovery.
“Kevin Marinello played out of position from day one. He’s not a five (center). He’s an incredible three-point shooter who led the team in three-point percentage and finished the season as our third leading scorer. He has a work ethic second to none.
“Nobody saw Parker Dinsdale at 100% this year. He was recovering from a hellacious concussion from the beginning of the year and missed six weeks of training. He never got back to full speed. I think he’s a college basketball player. He played this year at 60-70%. At the end of the year, he got another injury, and he still was our team’s leading rebounder. He’s a hustle kid who takes charges and knocks down big shots. People have no idea how talented that young man is. He’s a matchup nightmare who can be an all-district player. You can’t put a guard on him because he’s too big, and you can’t put a big on him because he’s too quick. You can’t sag off him because he shoots it. And he’s quick enough with his first step to go by you. If he’s healthy, this year’s team wins five more games and we’re probably going deep into playoffs.”
Congratulations, Crusaders, on a solid season despite all the adversity. We’re already looking forward to next year."
