Deep roster to play key role for North Hills boys basketball

By: Chris Harlan
Sunday, January 10, 2021 | 9:01 AM

North Hills boys basketball coach Buzz Gabos has plans for the 10th, 11th and maybe even 12th player on the team’s bench.

They won’t all just sit there.

After enduring a 31-day layoff, this season will require a group effort, especially in the early weeks, said Gabos, who intends to deploy up to a dozen players as the team works itself into shape. It’s a strategy other WPIAL coaches are sure to use, if they have the luxury Gabos does.

The Indians’ bench is anchored by five seniors, and four of them played significant minutes last season.

“Conditioning is going to be a factor but you can offset the conditioning a little bit if you want to play more guys,” Gabos said. “We know we’re probably going to have to play 10, 11 or 12 guys to play at a certain pace. I can go to the guy sitting next to me, and he knows what to do.”

North Hills sat idle earlier this winter longer than most basketball teams in the WPIAL. The Indians already had shut down practice for eight days over covid-19 concerns before Gov. Tom Wolf paused winter sports for three weeks starting Dec. 12.

The Indians resumed workouts Jan. 4.

Gabos said timing and conditioning suffered most during those weeks without team workouts.

“Like everyone else, it will probably take four weeks to really kind of get into conditioning,” he said. “I’m not worried about Jan. 8. All I’m worried about is Feb. 8. Where are we then? I expect that by Feb. 8 we’re going to be pretty good.”

North Hills returns leading scorer Alex Smith, a 6-foot-1 guard who averaged 16.6 points and earned second-team all-section honors last season. A third-year starter, Smith is one of four juniors in the Indians lineup.

He’s joined by juniors Matt Seidl, Devin Burgess and Will Blass. Blass, the team’s point guard, is back after missing most of last season with a broken foot.

The fifth starter is freshman Royce Parham, a 6-6 forward with big potential. His mother is Kim Calhoun, a star for Penn Hills in the early 1990s who set block records at Penn State. Parham is one of two freshmen who’ll contribute this season for North Hills.

Coming off the bench are seniors Nate Belack, Ethan Chmura, Michael Topich, Anthony McCall and Malachi Armstead, freshman Logan Johnson and junior Jayden Smith.

“We have a lot of experience,” Gabos said. “I think that’s probably our biggest thing. We have a lot of guys who have played a lot.”

The Indians are coming off an 8-13 season when they narrowly missed the playoffs. Two senior starters graduated from that lineup, including 16-point scorer Logan Marshalek. A loss in their season finale dropped their section record to 3-7, one win short of qualifying.

They last reached the postseason in 2017, a wait likely to end this winter because the WPIAL plans to hold an open tournament with all teams allowed to enter.

The Indians share a five-team section with Butler, North Allegheny, Pine-Richland and Seneca Valley. With so few teams in the section, the schools in Section 1-6A agreed to play one another three times in the regular season rather than twice.

Gabos predicted the first handful of games will be a struggle for teams across the WPIAL. He noticed during the first few practices how his players at times seemed out of rhythm.

“I’ve said, ‘Gosh, it seems like our coordination is off,’ ” Gabos said. “But it’s not coordination. It’s timing. You’re going to the rim, and all of a sudden you’re asking, ‘Why did that happen? Why didn’t I make that pass or make that shot?’

“And then fatigue sets in, and that’s going to affect your shooting. The legs aren’t there.”

Fortunately, Gabos said, this likely will be his deepest bench in his 15 years at North Hills. And the group comes with varying skill sets, making it easier to carve out a niche.

“We have a nice mix of guys,” he said. “They’re not necessarily specialized, but one can do this or one does that really well. It gives you a certain role, which is nice.”

Chris Harlan is a TribLive reporter covering sports. He joined the Trib in 2009 after seven years as a reporter at the Beaver County Times. He can be reached at charlan@triblive.com.

Tags: North Hills