Progin still puzzled by final record
By: Rudy Brandl
There are many ways to look at the 2006-07 Hillsborough High basketball season. Fourth-year head coach Ian Progin is still having trouble digesting everything that happened this winter.
The Raiders finished 11-12, which many would consider a bad season considering they had seven seniors back in uniform. Then again, they won a holiday tournament title, advanced to the Somerset County semifinals and won a first-round game in the state playoffs. HHS lost eight of its last 11 games, but the team started the campaign with a scintillating victory over Bridgewater-Raritan en route to an 8-2 start.
How do you figure?
"I still haven’t completely been able to come up with an answer for what happened this season," said Progin, who certainly expected to improve upon the previous year’s 13 victories. "It was the most difficult season for me as a coach. I had a hard time putting my finger on the problem. Every time I put my finger on one thing, something else would happen."
Inconsistency was the team’s biggest problem. Even when the Raiders were winning, they weren’t doing things well all the time.
They had tremendous trouble hitting free throws and sometimes won in spite of horrible performances from the line. They often looked stagnant on offense and struggled to score points.
There were other games, such as the high-flying home victories over North Hunterdon and Hunterdon Central, when the Raiders looked like an offensive machine. They ran the floor, fired in 3-pointers from all over the place and piled up points.
Progin pointed out that his team wasn’t merely inconsistent from one game to another. Sometimes, the Raiders went hot and cold or vice versa from one quarter to the next.
A perfect example came in the team’s final game at Freehold in the Central Jersey Group 4 quarterfinals. The Raiders opened with a two-point first quarter, which tied their lowest number of the season. Later, they hit a high mark for the season with 29 points in the third period against one of the state’s best teams.
Another great example came in the home game vs. Montgomery. The Raiders opened a huge lead in the first half but scored only six points in the third and fourth quarters combined and suffered a brutal loss.
"We were very inconsistent," Progin said. "At times, I was looking for a little more leadership out there. I often felt like they didn’t come together as a group. We needed somebody to step up and get things under control."
Hillsborough’s seven seniors all made an impact. Shooting guard Tom Molarz tied for the team lead with an 11.4 scoring average. Point guard Tom Pappalardo (8.1) boasted an impressive 3.5-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, an impressive stat for a player who usually handles the ball. Pat Fedroff, who rotated between starting and coming off the bench as the sixth man, was fourth in scoring (6.6) and second in rebounding (4.2). Fellow seniors Brett Bisconti, Bryan Humphrey, Chris Livelli and Eric Udowychenko contributed mainly off the bench.
Despite the frustration and inconsistency, the Raiders arguably accomplished more with their 11 wins this year than with the 13 of the previous season. HHS set the tone and probably the bar too high with a riveting opening night triumph at Bridgewater. For a good part of the season, the Raiders were the only team to beat the Panthers.
After winning the Molinelli Classic in Hopewell over the holidays, the Raiders stayed hot in the New Year with four more wins to improve to 8-2. Then came the beginning of the slide.
The Raiders dropped a pivotal Delaware East Division home game to Franklin by one point. At the time, it was their third loss, but second by one point, with the other coming vs. Immaculata a few days before Christmas.
HHS briefly righted the ship with a thrilling road win at Montgomery, but things got very tough after that. Hillsborough dropped its next five games, three by lopsided margins, to fall all the way to 9-8. The Raiders lost four consecutive home games on Tuesday nights and didn’t win a league game in Hillsborough this season.
The HHS boys were still in contention for the division and No. 1 seed in the county tourney before getting drubbed by Bridgewater-Raritan in the start of the second trip through the league. Hillsborough lost at Immaculata a few nights later and didn’t recover for quite a while.
"The loss to Bridgewater really exposed us," Progin said. "We got beat really bad. They sagged off people who couldn’t make outside jumpers. They really pounded the ball inside on us and our post defense wasn’t that good that night. We got beat badly by Bridgewater and Immaculata and that sent us into a tailspin."
Progin felt his boys took a psychological hit after losing to their two biggest rivals.
"Bridgewater and Immaculata are the measuring stick," he said. "When we weren’t able to meet the challenge two games in a row, it hurt the kids and their confidence. We lost to two teams we put a lot of effort into measuring ourselves against."
To Hillsborough’s credit, the team recovered in time to win a crucial county quarterfinal game against Watchung Hills. It was a rubber match after the schools had split two very tight regular season games. Thanks to a monster career game by junior guard Steve Westphal, the Raiders prevailed. That 60-50 victory that propelled the Raiders into the SCT semifinals was one of the year’s major highlights.
"They were a resilient bunch," Progin said. "We started off really slow last year and won five games in a row to make the states. Things were pretty bad going into that Watchung game. They put the past behind them and won to get us to the semifinals."
A slow start took the Raiders out of the game vs. Immaculata and that loss started another little skid that had the team on its heels entering the state playoffs. Again, the HHS boys showed guts and character to pull out a victory at East Brunswick in their post-season opener.
"A lot of good things happened and they were all major steps forward," Progin said. "The seniors definitely laid the groundwork and made those positive things happen. I’m really going to miss those guys. They’re good kids and the first group to come through the program since I’ve been here. We spent a lot of time together."
Progin has already started looking to the future. He knows many improvements still need to be made. That means working during the entire off-season to prepare his team for next December.
"I’m not content with where the program is," Progin said. "I expect more from the program and from myself. We had a lot of positives this year, but I want more than that. I want this program to get to the level of winning 16-18 games every year. We’re looking to win championships."
The Raiders will try to build something around junior forward Rob Champouillon, whose scoring (11.4) and rebounding (5.3) numbers improved in his second varsity season. Progin is also looking forward to the return of Westphal and sophomore shooting guard Jason Smartt. Other varsity players eligible to return include sophomore Dennis McGill and freshmen Kyle Banfield and Frank Mitchell.

