With three games to go in the North Bay League the regular season title is all wrapped up and the winner with an 11-0 record in league and 20-3 overall after a 63-46 Thursday night road win at Casa Grande-Petaluma is Prep2Prep CIF North Coast Section No. 9 Windsor.
It’s the first league title for Windsor since joining the North Bay League for the 2012-13 season. The Jaguars were 11-1 in 2011-12 and tied with Analy for first place but that was in the Sonoma County League.
The last four years has been a journey the team and four-year Coach Travis Taylor have taken together, and it hasn’t always been a joy ride. When Taylor took the helm in 2012 the Jaguars had been pretty successful in the Sonoma County League but the North Bay League with perennial powers Cardinal Newman-Santa Rosa and Montgomery-Santa Rosa was a different deal altogether.
The first year the team was 4-10 in the NBL and 10-16 overall. The Jaguars improved to 5-9 in league and 13-14 for the season. Current seniors Curtis Jonson and Brent Tucker were big contributors and gave Taylor an indication of what was to come.
Last season Windsor went 15-12 and a decent 9-5 in NBL action. Johnson didn’t play but Tucker was the second-leading scorer (9.8 ppg) behind Gabe Knight, a transfer last year from Ukiah who averaged 18.7 points and 8.0 rebounds a game. After a heartbreaking 63-62 overtime loss to Cardinal Newman in the NBL league playoffs the Jaguars made the CIFNCS Division II playoffs but were one and done after a 59-31 loss at San Marin.
It’s looking a little different this year come playoff time but one of the three losses was 70-65 in overtime to the team directly ahead of them in the Prep2Prep NCS rankings, No. 8 Dublin and its junior star Tim Falls, who was very impressive in the Gaels Prep2Prep Tip-Off Classic 62-48 victory over Bishop O’Dowd-Oakland.
The other two losses came at the Mission Prep Christmas Classic in San Luis Obispo, 64-54 to a very solid Dorsey-Los Angeles in the consolation title game, and an opening round 53-52 loss at the buzzer to a host Mission Prep team to which Taylor has some ties.
Taylor has shown by building this year’s team why many consider him one of the bright young coaches in the Redwood Empire, but the reality is the 2000 graduate of Cardinal Newman is in his 15th year of coaching.
Two years out of Newman he hurt his knee in junior college and then landed in San Luis Obispo where he started as a JV assistant at Mission Prep. In his three seasons on the staff of highly-successful Coach Tom Mott he began to develop a coaching philosophy that stresses man-to-man defense
“Coach Mott was a tremendous influence on me and the direction I took in my coaching career,” Taylor remarked.
After his time down south Taylor came back to Sonoma County where he was a JV coach at his alma mater Newman while getting his degree from Sonoma State. When the job opened up at Healdsburg, where he still teaches physical education, Taylor got it and in his four year at the Greyhounds helm he had a respectable 56-54 record at a school not know for boys basketball.
Now, he has Windsor in a position to make some noise in the NCS D2 playoffs where they Jaguars would seem to be one of the teams to beat along with Dublin and a P2P NCS No. 11-ranked Newark Memorial team that recently knocked Moreau Catholic-Hayward from the Cal-Hi Sports state rankings with a 73-69 victory.
Not surprisingly the team is once again led by the 6-4 senior co-captain Knight who is averaging 18.5 points and nine rebounds a game. Senior 6-3 co-captain Patrick Canady, a 3-year varsity player, is averaging 12.0 points a game, and another co-captain, 6-4 senior Brent Tucker adds 10.5 points and nine rebounds per contest.
Last week prior to the Casa Grande win and with the Prep2Prep Caravan in attendance the Jaguars were a 58-33 winner over a very short-handed Cardinal Newman. Tucker led the way with 14 points (three 3-pointers) and six rebounds. Despite foul trouble that limited his action and getting yanked late with all the starters, Knight had 11 points (two 3-pointers), seven rebounds and four assists. Canady had nine points and four assists.
"We are an experienced team this year, and everything has started to click,” Taylor said. “ We returned three starters from last year, and four of our top six players, so that definitely helped over the off-season and our preparation for this year, plus our seniors led the hardest-working fall training session that I've ever had, and we really hit the ground running as a result of that.”
Because of the nature of the game it really didn’t give the Jaguars an opportunity to show everything they have in their arsenal but it was apparent Taylor has a deep squad.
“We can go 8-10 deep depending on the game,” Taylor continued. “Our philosophy is to put five 'basketball players' on the court, not really designated positions. We run motion offense, so we want players who are versatile. And all five of our guys out there can run, shoot, pass, and rebound.”
Windsor is deep, and has 10 seniors on the team, but according to Taylor Knight is the key. "He's a special kid, the basketball equivalent of a five-tool player in baseball. He's great in the post, but plays point due to his ball handling and decision-making.”
A player Taylor really likes that didn’t get a lot of touches in the Newman game is 6-6 sophomore Riley Smith. “Riley has a ton of potential, might be the best college prospect in the program.”
It’s likely Windsor won’t be on the road as a No. 12 seed like they were in last year’s NCS D2 playoffs, so don’t look for this year’s to one and done whether or not they can actually win the title.
Until then they just have to be known as the kings of the Redwood Empire.
SHAKEUPS IN THE MARIN COUNTY ATHLETIC LEAGUE AND HUMBOLDT-DEL NORTE – BIG 5
Windsor continues to roll in the North Bay League but last week the other three Redwood Empire teams in the Prep2Prep NCS rankings, Drake-San Anselmo, Marin Catholic-Kentfield, San Marin-Novato and Arcata, all suffered losses.
No. 21 Drake (16-7, 10-2 MCAL) started the week great with an 85-68 win over No. 22 Marin Catholic (17-7, 9-3) to complete a sweep in league, but there was an incident in the stands still being investigated that may have taken some of the starch out of the Pirates because two days later they lost at home, 71-53 to Branson-Ross.
No. 24 San Marin (18-6, 9-3) suffered a 64-63 loss at Tamalpais and they now meet Drake on Tuesday at home where the Mustangs will look for a split after losing 54-44 in mid-January on the road.
Like fellow newcomers San Marin and Marin Catholic in last week’s rankings, it’s a cinch that Arcata (19-4, 6-1) will have a short stay as the No. 23 Tigers suffered a 65-54 loss at Fortuna.
Both Drake and Arcata remain in first place in their respective leagues but it’s likely only Drake and maybe Marin Catholic will stay in Nate Smith’s NCS rankings in one of the lowest spots or the "others considered" group.
