I come now with a report on the first public sighting of the 2016-17 Morton High School Lady Potters basketball team. This report will serve as a storm warning to teams so unfortunate as to be on Morton’s schedule this winter. The report also will be a keep-the-date reminder to all living souls between Ackerman’s pumpkin patches and those nervous birds at the Yordy Turkey Farm. The date is Monday, Nov. 21. You are invited to the Potterdome. The fun begins: the Lady Potters open the season against Chatham-Glenwood.

However good the Lady Potters were last season in winning a second straight state championship, they’re at least that good now. Whether they can three-peat is to be determined by talent, luck, and fate. But what’s already clear – as seen in Friday night’s Red-White scrimmage – is that the Potters are a sensational mix of proven veterans and precocious newcomers.

I am of a certain age with certain infirmities. So I had to fetch my reading glasses to be certain of numbers on the Potters’ roster. Was I reading those heights correctly? Well, yes. Last year the Potters had only one starter over 5-foot-9. Suddenly, they’re likely to have three at 5-foot-11 and another at 6-1. Seldom, if ever, will these Potters be the smaller team on the court.

More important, they almost always will be the better team. Their starting lineup is likely to have two seniors, 5-11 Brandi Bisping and 5-11 Jacey Wharram; two juniors, 5-4 Josi Becker and 5-3 Kassidy Shurman, and the 5-11 sophomore Tenley Dowell. First off the bench: 5-8 junior Caylie Jones, 6-1 freshman Lindsey Dullard and 5-8 freshman Courtney Jones. Six of those players have been on the back-to-back state champion teams that went 33-3 each year. The two freshmen went 53-3 in grade school with one state championship.

So there you have a team that is eight players deep with little drop-off in quality, such a rarity that I asked the Potters’ coach, Bob Becker, “How many teams will you play this season that can go eight-deep?”

Becker’s answer was a smile born of serenity. Most high school girls basketball coaches are happy if they can find not eight girls who can play, not seven, not even five. Most are thrilled with two or three.

This will be my seventh winter watching Lady Potters basketball. I have seen Mariah Nimmo and Lexi Ellis, Sarah Livingston and Kait Byrne, Erin Tisdale and Cortney Allenbaugh, Emma Heisler and Chandler Ryan, Brandi Bisping and Jadison Wharram. Their teams have gone 27-5, 31-3, 30-6, 26-5, 33-3, and 33-3. That’s 210-25 with an Elite Eight finish and three trips to Redbird Arena, twice coming home with the big trophy.

All that is good, even fabulous, more than anyone could ask or hope for, and yet . . .

Yet I left the Potterdome on Friday night thinking this team might be the best of all.

Because Becker’s teams always do it, this one will play relentlessly at both ends, applying real and psychological pressure 32 minutes a night, more than enough to break the will of most opponents.

This team may not be as dominant defensively as last season’s; it lost Jadison Wharram and Kayla McCormick, who lived for defensive challenges. But it will still be good. Becker insists on it. With greater length on his top eight, along with speed from his small guards, the coach imagines his team effective not only with its basic man-to-man defense but, when needed, with a full-court press.

Offensively, this team will be very good. It can score from everywhere. Becker believes it can average 60 points a game, up from last season’s 52. He has good reason to think so. In the Friday night scrimmage, Brandi Bisping again showed the inside/outside game she has, scoring on rebounds, dribble-drives, and 3-pointers. Tenley Dowell, the team’s third-leading scorer last season as a gangly freshman, is a year stronger, two inches taller, and as determined as ever to get to the hoop (where she can finish with either hand). Josi Becker, Kassidy Shurman, and Lindsey Dullard all threw in 3’s.

At one point, as the Reds and Whites flew on fast breaks, I turned in the bleachers to ask an expert what she thought.
“Looking good to me,” said the expert, Jadison Wharram, home from college for Thanksgiving break. “They’re all running the floor so well. And everybody can score. I’m so excited for them.”

The key line in Wharram’s assessment was the one saying “everybody can score.” As always, the Potters’ offense is generous in its balance. With an offense built to maximize her skills, Bisping could score 30 a game. But for all the good coaching reasons — team chemistry, protection against gimmick defenses, the inevitable bad nights — Becker prefers an offense that spreads the floor and gives all his good shooters a green light.

After the scrimmage, as he had done before it, Becker allowed himself a contented smile. This time he also spoke. He said words that gladden the heart of everyone – raise your hands, folks – who admire and respect great defense but admire, respect, and love great offense a tiny bit more.

Becker said, “We’ve got firepower.”

I say, “Hooray.”
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My book on the girls second state championship season, “True Grit,” will be published by the end of the month.

You can order it off the team’s website at Mortonladypotters.com.

When I have books in hand, they will be for sale at Eli’s Coffee Shop, 206 West Jefferson Street in Morton. Also, at Lady Potters’ home games.

Here’s a bonus. If you need last year’s book – “Mighty in Heart” – I have some in my garage, $1 each. Let me know how many dozen you need.