Prep Hoops: Eldorado looks to be BDC contender under Bradley

For Josh Bradley it's always been a slow burn.

The one-time Eldorado girls' basketball coach rebuilt that program that has seen it sustain success even after he left two years ago to become the boys' coach.

Now, in his second year, the building blocks put in place that helped drive the girls' program, Bradley hopes will spark his Eagles bunch with a roster that looks to set the conference on fire.

Bradley is hoping for a reversal of fortunes as Eldorado went 8-16 a year ago and finished 3-6 in the Black Diamond Conference.

The lone loss - albeit critical - came from Nathan Burnett who graduated after leading the team in scoring at 15 points per game and fellow classmate Richard Graceffa, who despite an early season injury that kept the point guard sidelined for most of the season, returned in the later half to finish with 11 points per game.

"Those are some huge shoes to fill," Bradley said of the loss of Burnett. "Offensively, he was our best scorer last year. On a young team, he was kind of that senior that took that role on for everybody. I think right now we have four or five guys that can score and are playing really well right now."

Back is Adam Partridge, a 6-foot-4 senior forward and is joined by classmate Adam Ninness (5-10 senior guard), Clay Boulds (6-7 senior center) and (X) and juniors Ethan Partridge (6-5 junior forward) and Isaac Bethel (6-2 junior guard).

"Bethel has taken that spot on the three hoping to get out on the open floor and do some of

the things Bernie did for us last year," Bradley said. "Our big guys are working hard and playing

well. Our guards are pushing the ball down the floor, getting the ball inside a little bit in practice. I'll be curious to see what happens (tonight) at the Vienna Classic."

Aside from looking to get back in the talk of contenders in the BDC, Bradley and company will be using the Vienna Classic as a barometer to gauge things in the early going. The Eagles will get to good test with Massac County and last year's Class 1A state runner up in Meridian.

"I just think we hope to compete and win a few more games early if our guard play is a little better and I think we have a chance to be a pretty decent basketball team," Bradley said. " We have two tough early games with Massac and Meridian back-to-back, so we're going to find out what our guards are made of in those first two games."

if nothing else, Bradley has depth and experience leaving him excited and anxious for the upcoming season.

"We have a lot of guys coming back that played a lot of varsity minutes last year that weren't quite ready for it last season, but because we needed that, they have a lot of experience coming back in it this year," Bradley said. "We've got a sophomore class - I mean we've got a lot of depth - we've got 10 -11 guys that I wouldn't hesitate to play in our varsity game right now. So as a coach, it's a great thing and a difficult thing at the same time because you're trying to figure out what line ups mesh well together and who meshes better."

In a true testament to irony, Bradley said the one thing that seems to be a weak link right now is his guard play. When asked what has to happen to have a successful season, Bradley said "guard play."

"It's a lot better than what it was and they are doing things and moving the ball with a lot more confidence, it's doing things on a consistent basis that we need to get a little bit better at," Bradley said. "Our guards have to take care of the basketball. I think defensively, if we play defense like we did last year and they're our focus and we play hard and get after the ball, but if our guards will take care of the ball, value, every day we talk about valuing the basketball and value every possession. If we can do that, we have a shot to be a pretty decent team come late in the season."

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Harrisburg Daily Register. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.