Mike Craft: We knew we had a good team coming into the season Subject:* A friend wanted you to see this item from High School OT: https://wr.al/1K4DB Ardrey Kell boys basketball coach Mike Craft said he knew his team would be good this season, but he knows their opponent will be tough in the state championship too. Show Transcript coach, tell us what it was like going to R hosting North Neck and coming away with the win over the team that a lot of people in North Carolina thought was the favorite to win the state championship this year. It was very exciting. I told them Monday afternoon at practice that this would probably never happen again, getting a regional final at home and unprecedented times, and so we just had to take advantage of it. And so I thought, really, the home court advantage was huge North. You've got a great team. Coach Luis does a great job, but we were able to get some stops and get some rebounds and get some buckets down the stretch and were able to come away with a victory. Very good team. You know, it's one of those things where I don't know how many times we would beat them nine out of 10. But in a one game kind of shot, we were able to get them, especially the home court advantage was huge. I said a minute ago, you know that that was the team that a lot of people thought was the favorite to win the state championship this year. You guys were at the top seed. You had the home home court advantage. But did you? Did you feel like the underdog, or did you guys always know that you You had a shot to beat that team? Well, I told him that we certainly would be challenged, and But I felt like we were playing really good basketball, and we had had two really good games before that. And we we had been, didn't gain any confidence and everybody picked them. Uh, Langston works and his crew, the talking preps. Everybody picked them, so our players knew that, and so that gave them a little incentive. But you're talking about a team that had won 29 in a row defending state champs. We called him at a good time because they didn't get to play last year, so they probably were really hoping to go ahead and win it outright this year. But our players stepped up to the challenge. I'm so proud of them and the crowd was into it. They you know, you're getting some fans in the stands now, which is great for these kids. They've been through so much, they've been resilient here at odd wrinkle. We had 24 day layoff, 24 day pause, and when they came back, they were ready to go. And so hopefully we'll continue to play our best basketball on Saturday. I want to get into that pause and in just a second. But I want to talk about some of the players on the team first. You've got about three, I think three kids that average between 13 and 16 points a game, which is pretty balanced. Um, you've got a couple seniors who are big time players as well for you guys. How how important is it? Do you have a few seniors on the team who have been through some things when you've got some younger kids because you've got some sophomores and juniors who contribute as well? Well, Peyton Gerald's been in our program four years, and he's one of those kids that came in as a freshman and was probably 64 But now he's 68 and he's just progressed each and every year. He played on the varsity of sophomore but didn't play a lot and his junior he started. But this year he's really come into his own. He's defending well. He's scoring more. He's rebounding at a high level, and so it helps to have him. And then Noah carvers another senior. That's really stepped up. He's really shot 23 Well, he's unbelievable and free throws this year. And so it does help to have some seniors. But you've also got Evan Smith, who is, uh, kind of do it all guy. He's a glue guy. He doesn't care if he scores or not. He always plays the other team's best player on defense. He runs our show. He distributes the ball. I think he had 12 points, eight assists and eight rebounds last night. He's a stat stuffer and then got Elijah Gray, who is 68 Skilled can step out. Shoot 23 I really did a good job on Chris Ford last night, even though he was in foul trouble and then Brandon Nelson's a sophomore, so he he had a really good game against Reynolds. Helped us get to the regional championship, so you've got some some good mix there and but our seniors have really stepped up and I'm very proud of them that that loss that you talked about a minute ago, Uh, for people who don't know Charlotte Meck actually shut down sports for a while due to covid 19. Uh, and that meant basketball went on pause, I think. I mean, there was some concern about whether or not basketball would even get to finish at some point. Um, what was that like as a coach to be in the middle of your season and then all of a sudden you're not, and then you don't know what's going to happen, and then they're like, Oh, well, you're gonna get two weeks or three weeks or whatever it was, and then you can go to the playoffs. It's unprecedented. I'd like to tell our players that I've usually gone through anything that you're going to go through because I played in high school and played in college. However, this I've never been through anything like that. They were disappointed, but obviously we want everybody to be safe. We understood the decision that was made, so we just tried to be positive. I held a zoom call with him that day and said, Hey, look, guys, we're planning on playing again, so try to do the best you can to stay in shape. We didn't get together. We had maybe two zoom calls. That was it. But the one question they wanted to know was, Will we finish the season and will we have a state playoff? In fact, that's one question they had when we had our first room call in the summer. Well, we have a season. Will we have the state playoffs? So I like their mentality. They've been resilient, but 24 days off is a lot. And But when they came back, they were ready to go. They were focused and they really wanted to continue the season. But it is. It was hard for 24 days. I watched designated Survivor every night because I just I didn't have much to do, and I didn't know if we were coming back, But I had. I was really holding out hope that we would, because we were in a good position to win the conference and get a good seat the state playoffs. So unfortunately for us, it worked out and now the positivity rates down. So that's a that's a major two right there. Yeah, definitely some good news coming out lately about the pandemic. This will not be the first time you've coached in the state championship game. You were there in 2015 against Garner. Actually, that Garden team knocked Millbrook out of the playoffs that year as well. What? What did you learn from that run to the state finals in 2015? That you can apply. I know it's a whole lot this season, a whole lot different than that one, but that you can apply to to this run just taking it day by day, taking it possession by possession, trying to Really. We'll talk today about trying to play each quarter because we got off to a terrible start against Corner. That's all my fault. I didn't have them ready to play or the situation. The moment was too big for us. I don't know. We obviously came back and took the lead in the fourth quarter, but we just had built ourselves such a hole to come out of. So hopefully we'll get off to a better start and hopefully we'll be able to play all four quarters. I know it's going to be a heck of a game we wanna build. Brooks got a A great team with some great players, a great coach, and they've got a great program, great tradition. But you wouldn't want it any other way going into a state championship. You want to play the best, and I feel like they're the best out of the East. What do you know about this Millbrook team? You know Coach Chris Davis? He was an assistant on the Millbrook team that went to the state finals and finishes the runner up about 10 years ago. Um, what do you know about this? This team this year? Um And what do you think that matchup is gonna look like between Andrei Kelin Millbrook? I know they score a lot of points, but I really haven't gotten into watching film on them yet. I know they had overtime game against Lumberton last night, and I know they had a close game against a Shockwave arena, So we'll start looking at tape. We'll start looking at personnel. I know they got the kid, uh, band or whatever. Going to Louisville. Who knows? 69 Tough matchup for everybody. And they got some other kids that can really play and really score the ball. So it's gonna be a tough game, Coach Davis. I mean, uh, they do a great job, and they will. They will play hard. They play the right way. They got a great program. So again, we're gonna we're gonna look forward to being on the court with them. Last question for you. I'll let you go. What? What do you think is the key for archery? Tell if you are going to come away with the state championship trophy on Saturday. How about article? Shoot the ball? Really? Well, Everything goes better when you put the ball in the basket and you shoot a high percentage. Now, obviously, that's hard to do in the state championship, but it will be a high school gym. Maybe that will help everybody with shooting, because sometimes you get that depth perception in the arenas. The Dean Dome especially. There's not gonna be as many people there, so I feel bad for our kids because that was probably 7000 people at the Garner Game. One experience with the unknown. But this will be a unique experience as well, and that's how we're gonna approach it. And let's just take one day at a time. Let's get better day in practice and then go from there. One of the toughest things this year will be tickets. We just went over that. I mean, we got a lot of big demand for tickets and just can't let everybody come and so that's going to be disappointing for some people. But we will definitely take care of our families. But I think the key is shooting the ball. Whoever shoots the ball, the best I think, is going to win the game. Well, typically, if you if you score more points, you win the game, right? Well, Coach, good luck on Saturday. Congratulations on winning the regional. We're looking forward to seeing you. Thank you for all you do for our sports high school sports, and we'll see you Saturday.