2021-22 Hoops Preview: Salina Central Boys

By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor

The Salina Central boys basketball team will enter the new year with a loaded senior class and will look to that veteran core for the program's first winning season since 2018-19.

The Mustangs will be under the direction of head coach Ryan Modin in his third year at the helm, and will look to improve upon a 7-14 season from a year ago.

When Central tips off their 2021-22 campaign, their starting lineup should look something like this.

G- Hayden Vidricksen (Sr)
G- Kenyon McMillan (Jr)
G- Nolan Puckett (Sr)
G/F- Micah Moore (Sr)
F- Parker Kavanagh (Sr)

The Mustangs will also get a big boost from a trio of transfers, in Sid Duplessis, Ethan Waters and Sebastian Alexander.

Ahead of the new year, we had a chance to sit down with Coach Modin to ask a few questions about this year's team.

Q: Coming into the new season, what would you say is this team’s biggest strength?

A: “I think it’s the depth. When we’re at full strength I think we can rotate 8-9 guys and we have a lot of quick, active guards that can be disruptive. We’re diverse in how we can score and we’re not overly reliant on one or two guys so we can spread the wealth on offense and give our guys a break.”

Q: What are the biggest question marks that you guys still have ahead of the first game?

A: “The big question is ‘are our upperclassmen going to step up’. We lost 60% of our scoring from last year so we have to fill a lot of that production but I think our guys will do that. We also got three transfers that weren’t able to work with us this summer so it’ll be interesting to see who steps up for us off the bench.”

Q: What does this team want to accomplish coming into the new season?

A: “I think we want to get back to having a winning season which is something we’ve missed the mark on the last couple of years. The guys want to go out and be in the mix to win league, win the SIT and get to state. We’ve played good basketball but we just haven’t been able to get over the hump and with our schedule, you have to execute day in and day out but this feels like the most complete team that we’ve had in my time here.”

Q: How excited are you guys to get back to a somewhat normal season?

A: “I didn’t think about it until the other day but it’s going to be great. We have a heck of a home-court advantage when that Brickhouse is rocking and it’ll be great to be able to communicate with people in person again. It was nice to get to play last year but it really did feel like a grind sometimes.”

The Mustangs will tip off their season with a road game against their cross-town rivals when they take on Salina South on December third.

For more on Central Mustang hoops stay tuned to the Salina Post.