Training Camp Report - Full of Hope

There's a feeling of unlimited promise that fills the air around the Troy boys basketball team these days.

Longtime Colts head coach Gary Fralick believes he might have the best squad he's ever had this winter.

"This year's team has a tremendous amount of opportunity in front of itself if we play up to our potential," he said. "We have a bunch of guys that have a genuine desire to make a mark on this program that will last for long after they leave. I think they have a real nice shot to do that."

Troy's 2011-2012 lineup is stacked. Headed by junior phenom James Young, a 6-foot-8 swingman/point forward, arguably the best player in the state regardless of grade, the Colts should contend for both district and regional championships.

Possessing the ability to play all five positions on the floor with natural fluidity and flair, he has an X-factor quality and killer instinct to his game that can't be taught. One of the nation's most coveted college recruits in the Class of 2013, Young will have his pick of the litter when it comes to his future at the next level as long as he keeps his grades in check, a problem that cost him the second semester of his freshman camapign, following an outstanding start to his prep career highlighted by dropping 25 against Clarkston in his first ever meeting with the powerhouse Wolfpack. As a junior last season, he averaged 24 points, nine rebounds and five assists per game, leading Troy to its first league title in 16 years.

Flanking Young in the Colts' on-court assault this winter will be all-conference senior combo guard Evan Mahone and up-and-coming sophomore sensation Maceo Baston, Jr., a 6-foot-4 wing that has vastly improved since last winter and is starting to get serious looks from Division 1 programs following a productive summer on the showcase camp circuit.

Both Mahone and Baston come from sterling hoop pedigrees. Mahone's dad shared a high school backcourt with former NBA gunslinger Nick Van Exel and played in college at North Dakota State, while Baston's dad and namesake was a prep All-American out of Texas in the early-1990s that went on to lead the University of Michigan to a Big 10 crown in 1998 and have a lengthy career in the NBA.

Completing Troy's starting lineup and holding down the post for the Colts will be a pair of Sir-Grind-A-Lot seniors in power forward Jeff Holmes (6-4), a gritty banger on the blocks who averaged 8 points and 6 rebounds a game as a starter last year, and Leo Aryault, a 6-foot-5 sleeper in the middle with an accomplished arsenal of crafty moves with his back to the basket that Fralick expects to average close to a double-double.

Fueling Fralick's bench unit this year will be junior guard Joe Leonard, a speedy sparkplug that can play either position in the backcourt and the inside-outside sophomore tandem of Zach Noor and Danny Wunderlich. Noor is the Colts' floor general of the future and will spell Mahone and Young at the point and Wunderlich, whose older brother Bobby was a two-sport team captain at the school who took Troy to its last district on the hardwood in 2008, is a mirror image of his big bro; prototypical roughneck around the basket with a pure touch in the paint and a knack for grabbing every rebound in his vicinity with reckless abandon.

"James is obviously our No. 1 player, we're going to be running most of our stuff through him, but that's really going to open up stuff for other guys to take advantage of," Fralick said. "When defenses overplay in his direction they'll get lots of open shots. If they can consistently knock those shots down, which I know they can, that will make us very hard to deal with."

In his two decades on the sidelines, Fralick has raised seven district championship banners and produced a number of college players, including the likes of Jay Phifer (Valparaiso), Wyki Tyson (Illinois State) and his own son Tim (Oakland University), a point guard on Troy's 1997 squad that made a run into the Sweet 16.  

The last time the Colts won a regional was in 1989 when Fralick was an assistant to Jim Clary.

Fralick's current team will be a favorite to repeat as league champion in the OAA White when conference action begins in January. The top threats to Troy's chances at claiming a second consecutive White title will most likely come from Rochester Adams (coming off a Sweet 16 appearance last march), Auburn Hills Avondale (2011 White co-champs) and Ferndale.