WEST SALEM — The ball bounced from player to player as they cut to the basket and curled to the corners.
West Salem High School boys basketball coach Mark Wagner shouted with encouragement each time it was passed and blew his whistle often to correct some of the movements made by his players as they worked on spacing the floor for good shots.
The Panthers are going to shoot the ball a lot more than most teams this season, and Wagner is trying to take advantage of some expected balance with another frenetic pace designed to increase possessions and create enough shots for all of those players.
West Salem has turned this approach into three straight WIAA state tournaments — the first two in Division 3 before jumping to Division 2 a year ago — and 80 victories in their past 88 games.
“I don’t anticipate us changing and expect that we will play the way we play,” Wagner said with a smile. “I’m not smart enough to learn anything new, so we’ll do what we’ve done.”
Wagner is certainly smart enough to play to the strengths of his players, and a group led by senior Kyle Hehli is filled with shooters and will be tough to outscore as it chases a fourth straight Coulee Conference championship.
Hehli led a team that averaged 82.7 points per game with 73 3-pointers as a junior. He averaged 16.7 ppg, made eight 3s in a loss to Caledonia and scored 43 points in a win over G-E-T as the Panthers won 25 games and lost four.
The 6-foot guard, who also averaged 4.5 rebounds and 3.9 assist per game last season, won’t have to be the focal point for a team that has the potential to be another very balanced one, but he may have to be the No. 1 option more than he has in the past.
“Kyle definitely needs to be a playmaker, and playmaker doesn’t mean getting a ton of shots,” Wagner said. “He needs the ball in his hands, and he needs to make the right decisions.
“But when we get to crunch time, that’s mostly going to be Kyle this year.”
Hehli has made 37.2 percent of his career 3-point attempts (138 of 371) and has 222 assists in 83 career games for a per-game average of 2.7. He also registered 69 steals last season and might be more focused on those numbers to get the Panthers in transition as much as possible.
“It’s always a focus to get points off turnovers,” Hehli said. “We want to play high-pressure defense.
“We have to be able to trust each other, and we all need to have the pride that we can stop our own man. If we can do that, we’ll be really good.”
Just as Hehli saw his role increase from his sophomore to junior season, many of his teammates will see a similar opportunity after the graduation of players like Tamarrein Henderson (19.3 ppg) and Joe Sullivan (9.4 ppg) — two of the team’s top three scorers from a year ago.
Seniors Nathan Karr and Carter Pontius, juniors Nathan Dillaber and Landon Michlig and sophomore Drew McConkey are going to fill important positions for the Panthers, who begin their season Dec. 2 with a home game against Logan.
Dillaber (8.3 ppg) made 50 3-pointers last season, while Karr (7.5 ppg) added 32 and Michlig (6.6 ppg) 24. There will be more chances for all of them this winter during a schedule with good nonconference games scheduled against Caledonia, Verona, Fox Valley Lutheran and Milwaukee Academy of Science.
Building the right chemistry with a new rotation may take some time, but Hehli is confident it can be done.
“We didn’t lose a lot of players from last year but we have some new faces in different places,” Hehli said. “We have some time but not a lot of time to learn new things. It will take some getting used to, but I think we have a team that can be successful this year.”
