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Sidney's state tournament experience from a year ago can be nothing but beneficial during this year's state tournament.
The Raiders (22-4) made the state finals a year ago, falling to Elkhorn South in the state championship game. This year, they open state tournament play against Aurora (24-1) at 8:45 p.m. CST Thursday at the Devaney Sports Center in Lincoln.
Sidney coach Erik Kohl said last year's state tournament experience can do nothing but help this year's team.
"I think that helps a lot," he said. "Number one, it helps us from a coaching standpoint. We kind of know what worked, maybe what didn't work last year from practices leading up, so we can make better practice plans. The players just have the right mindset. They know that last year during this time, we worked so hard over this course of the seven to 10 days, whatever this short time is, that's just that focus, and we had it yesterday (Thursday) in practice, where it's just that mindset knowing this is the final thing. There's no scenario where there could be more. This is it. You've got five, six, seven days to prepare to be the best that you can be on Thursday. It's just nice to have that experience, for the mindset, especially."
Kohl said his squad has been working to improve during practice by working on the fundamentals.
"It's that mindset that we've got to get back to work," he said. "We've got to do basics well, work on fundamentals, and then start to work on team things. It's just keep working and it's a day by day process to get better. It's just really the little things, keep getting better at all the little things."
The Sidney coach said that mindset includes making each day the most important day. He said it's especially important for the Raiders' six seniors - Brady Radcliffe, Ryan Birner, Jake Heeren, Cutter O'Connell, Tyler Wintholz and Seth Trost.
"I think, for the seniors...you know, some of those guys won't play any college sports. Some of those guys, this is the last time they'll play basketball with people in the stands and referees there," Kohl said. "I think it really hits home when they know, hey, this is it. We had guys last year that were seniors and it really registered. It's kind of a fun process to see how those guys just know, hey, this is the last hurrah, and we've got to make sure everybody's working as hard as they can. I think we'll do that. We've started that way. We've just got to keep having that mindset."
Sidney's rugged schedule down the stretch could also help in state tournament play. Two of the last four games the Raiders played have been against state-bound competition. They lost to Hastings St. Cecilia, which earned a berth in the Class C2 state tournament, in addition to Class B top-seed Scottsbluff. Sidney went 1-2 against Scottsbluff this season, including a 43-41 win at home on Feb. 6.
The Raiders' penchant for winning at the buzzer and winning late could also be beneficial down the stretch in close state tournament games. Sidney has won on three buzzer-beaters this season.
"It's hard to win basketball games, and it doesn't matter what your talent is. This year, we've been really fortunate," Kohl said. "We've had five close games and we've won all of them, and we've had three buzzer-beater games and we've won all three of those. If we lose any of those five games and any of those three buzzer-beater games, we're not playing in the state tournament. We're watching other people play.
"So it's just that continual focus that they've had all year this year and all year last year. It's really been special. I think that's why our guys are so motivated to have another week together, because, rarely do you get in on a wild card. It's a little bit of luck."
Sidney's back-to-back state tournament appearances have been courtesy of the wild card, which is a rare thing. The Raiders are 42-8 over the past two regular seasons, prior to state tournament play each year.
"To me, it's an awesome thing, not just for our own program and the players and the coaches, but just the community," Kohl said. "It's so hard with the size of school that we have, since we're so small an enrollment in Class B. I don't know how realistic it is to get to the state tournament very often in basketball. So, to be able to have back to back years where we make it, is really cool. It's a special deal. I think that's another thing that everybody realizes. This doesn't happen that often, so enjoy the moment, but realize that we still have a purpose and a mission that we want to accomplish."
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