JAY — P — Pressure

O — Overwhelm

D — Demoralize

Spruce Mountain coach Scott Bessey drew up the P.O.D. philosophy of basketball a decade ago as an assistant coach at then-Class A powerhouse Cheverus. When it all comes together, like he and the Phoenix believe it will this year, its rewards go beyond adding a tally to the win column.

“Kids love it. Kids love that identity of when you’re pressuring a team, you begin to overwhelm them, and then you get into their emotions and then you demoralize them,” Bessey said. “That’s when it gets fun. That’s when all the hard work pays off. That’s when you know you’ve done your job in our philosophy. “

The idea is to punish an opponent physically first, with up-tempo basketball played the full 84 feet, from baseline to baseline. Get the ball, push the ball, get in your range or find someone who is in their range, and shoot. Then get in someone’s grill defensively using any one of a number of sets that will leave your foe’s head spinning.

When that opponent starts to get tired and can’t look to the scoreboard for any solace, when their shoulders start slumping and they start complaining to their coach of aches and pains that may or may not be actual injuries, that’s when Bessey and the Phoenix know they’ve successfully executed their POD style.

“It’s very hard to do, but that’s our goal each and every time we step on the court,” senior guard Austin Darling said.

“We don’t often achieve the demoralization, the ‘D,'” senior guard/forward Noah Preble said. “But when we do, it’s beautiful to be a part of. Once we get to that point, it’s our game. There’s nothing they can do.”

The cross-section of talent and experience is such that Bessey, now in his third year at Spruce Mountain, expects the Phoenix to reach the ‘D’ more than they ever have this season.

Three starters are back from last year’s 11-8 team that reached the Class B South quarterfinals — senior co-captains Darling, Preble and Caulin Parker.

Joined by junior forward Mason Shink, who may be the best pure shooter on the team, junior guard Brett Frey and sophomore forward Andrew Shaw, the Phoenix will be able to spread the floor like few other teams, and will have the experience to know how to adjust when opposing defense’s react.

“It’s the first time since I’ve been here that I feel comfortable I can throw a lot of stuff at these guys and they can respond,” Bessey said.

 Bessey will throw most of that stuff at his team’s defense, where the coach is a lot more hands-on.

“Play my way on defense,” Bessey said. “Have fun on offense.”

Defensively, the Phoenix take advantage of their speed and quickness to defend and wear other teams down. They believe they will have the fresher legs at crunch time.

“Conditioning isn’t going to be a problem for us,” Bessey said. “It’s the way we play. It’s the way we practice. And hopefully, when the fourth quarter comes around, can the opponent keep up that pace? That’s part of the strategy, part of the system.”

The system is predicated on the defense causing turnovers and missed shots to kick-start the offense.

“We’re a defense first team,” Parker said. “We emphasize our defense first and our defense will create plays for our offense.”

“Once we play out our defense, get a steal, get a turnover, get it going on the fast break, that’s our style. That’s our game,” Darling added. “Once we do that, we don’t really have to run a set offense. We’re talented enough and have a lot of good chemistry to just play together.”

Bessey trusts his players to freelance the offense off of turnovers. If they’re coming off a dead ball, he’ll call a play. But on his best nights, that rarely happens.

“I always tell them if you get a steal or get a rebound, you guys can play the first 20 seconds of the possession. It’s up to you, play basketball. Set screens, move, shoot,” Bessey said. “After that, it’s mine, and we’re going to run something.”

The players love having control of half of the game in their hands. 

“He trusts us to go and make basketball plays, and that’s what we like doing,” Parker said. “He gives us a lot of freedom.”

 “As long as you don’t care who’s taking shots and making shots, it’s so much fun,” Preble said. “One night, one guy can go for 30 and it’s, like, ‘Wow.’ It’s amazing to see. We have so much shooting, it’s insane.”

Bessey sometimes has to remind the Phoenix how much faith he has in their shooting. In order for the system to work, his shooters have to be selfish when they have the ball and an open look at the basket.

“He gets mad if you don’t take open shots, in a practice, in a game,” Preble said. “Last weekend, we played Messalonskee (in a preseason game). I had an open shot and I didn’t take it. He called a timeout just so he could yell at me and tell me to shoot that open shot. You’ve got to have no conscience. You’ve just got to shoot if it’s there and if you don’t make it, get a stop and get another chance. Just keep shooting.”

Bessey back up his demands with a pat on the back and a commitment to help a player overcome his doubts, Preble said.

“Last year, at the beginning of the year I started off so bad, shooting-wise,” Preble said. “Towards the end of the year, I got my confidence back, thanks to coach working with me before and after practice and telling me to keep shooting.”

“I just think that it’s going to be a breakout year for (Preble),” Bessey said of the 6-0 guard/forward. “He does it all. He takes charges. He rebounds. You can’t not leave him open at the arc. He can score inside. He’s a great leader.”

Parker, a 6-3 center/forward who, like Preble, is a two-year starter, creates openings for the guards and wings to take the ball to the hoop by drawing out the opposition’s rim protectors.

“He’s a matchup nightmare. He’s such a strong kid and he’s got such a pretty stroke that I think his range is limitless,” Bessey said. “The other team’s big man does not want to come out that far and guard, and that presents such an advantage for us, for Austin and Noah and Brett (Frey) and Mason (Shink) to have driving lanes. That middle is going to be so wide open.”

Tying it all together with his leadership on the floor is the 5-8 Darling, a three-year starter who gets the Phoenix in gear at both ends.

“What a luxury,” Bessey said. “Any coach will say when you have a point guard that’s starter multiple years, in our case three years, it’s a huge luxury. You can put more sets in, more plays in than you would otherwise, because he’s like a coach on the floor.”

The Phoenix have had a similar wealth of talent in previous years, but couldn’t quite put it all together once the tournament arrived. Now feeling more at home in their third season in the KVAC, they believe they have all of the right ingredients to not only get past the regional quarterfinals for the first time since 2012 — the first year after Jay and Livermore Falls merged —  but make a run at a gold ball.

“I think this is the best chance that we’ve had since I’ve been in high school,” Preble said. “My sophomore year, we were pretty good but that was the first year we had in that conference. Now we’ve seen it and we know what to expect.”

“Until we do something about it, we’ll always get overlooked in B South,” Bessey said. “Until we go out and prove that we belong in the discussion, we won’t be in the discussion.”

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