River Hill boys basketball races to undefeated start behind past-faced style: ‘Every play is exciting’

River Hill boys basketball is redefining playing with pace. Coach Matthew Graves had a clear vision for his group this season, a stark difference from his usual philosophy.

The Hawks typically run a methodical, Princeton-style offense, designed to slow the game’s pace. However, Graves called up his assistants over the summer and said, ‘We’re going to do things a little different this year.’ His Hawks are now playing at a frenetic pace on both ends of the floor, running the opposition out of the gym.

“It’s kind of me feeling young again, like I was a young assistant coach,” Graves said. “I reached out to former VCU and now Penn State coach Mike Rhoades, who was an assistant when I was at Lynchburg. We’re still good friends and I reached out to him saying, ‘I need some of that havoc defense.’ He sent me some game tape and showed me some drills. I reached out to some high school coaches in the Carolinas and researched what the University of Alabama team does. It was almost like a project. I said, ‘OK, let’s put this project to work this year. Let’s have fun with it.'”

Graves’ project has yielded great early results as the Hawks (9-0) are on pace for a record-breaking offense, winning every game by double digits.

River Hill has several dynamic athletes, including OJ Ndu, Aiden Igwebe and Soma Unegbu, and a confident floor general in point guard and captain Braden Sauritch.

“It was also knowing that I have the tools that can run this philosophy,” Graves said. “You just don’t wake up one morning and say, ‘OK, let’s go ahead and run and try to score 80 points a game, shoot it 65 to 70 times a game.’ You’ve got to have the players who could do it and it’s been a match made in heaven with what I have here.”

Blending that fast-paced style with an analytical approach, Graves has set eight statistical goals for the Hawks: Shooting 65-70 times a game, shooting 15-20 3-pointers, shooting 15-20 free throws, averaging 80 points, averaging 10-15 steals, averaging 15-20 assists, averaging 35-40 rebounds, and averaging 10-15 offensive rebounds.

Through nine games, the Hawks are averaging a blistering and county-leading 77.7 points per game, averaging 66.5 shots through the first eight games. Four of the Hawks’ starting five are averaging double figures, led by Igwebe (15.6 ppg), with added contributions from Ndu (14.4), Sauritch (13.2) and Unegbu (13). Anthony Pryzyzycki (8.2) rounds out a versatile starting five featuring threats to score from all over.

“I knew we could do this,” Ndu said. “I knew we were going to be really good coming into this year. A lot of people on this team could start on any team in Howard County. We just know that we have a lot of good players on this team and expected this.”

River Hill consistently creates extra possessions, averaging 14.6 steals and 14.3 offensive rebounds in its first eight games. Those eye-opening game day numbers come from high-intensity practices that test the Hawks’ physical and competitive stamina.

Graves started Tuesday’s practice with a brief scout of Wednesday’s opponent, Glenelg, also detailing areas of improvement moving forward. He also awarded Powerade, Pop Tarts and Sour Patch Kids to several players who earned them by making team-first hustle plays in winter break tournament wins over Quince Orchard and Thomas Johnson.

Practice began with a five-minute ball-handling drill with each player running down the floor, rotating through several dribble moves. The speed of practice only intensified. Next came a four-minute full-court layup circuit that involved constant motion with the ball seemingly never touching the ground. Graves set a 164-point target score with the Hawks needing to make at least 82 combined layups. Any player who missed a layup dropped for pushups after the drill. Those target scores fluctuate, intent on pushing the Hawks to play faster, also fueling their competitive fire.

The next series of drills simulated running off made baskets. Cycling through five-man rotations, the Hawks needed to make three layups and a 3-pointer from straight on in 25 seconds. The Hawks auxiliary gym quickly turned into a track with players racing up and down the floor.

Playing with such pace also necessitates depth. That shows in the next 20-minute period where the Hawks starters compete against the bench in a five-on-five setting. River Hill’s starters dominate, not allowing a basket for nearly eight minutes. The starters swarm the second unit, employing their patented backcourt trap. However, the reserves — Dylan Bena, Nicholas Kogut, Ayomikun Olofintila, Boden Lee, Malcolm Grant, Anderson Dang and Omar Hassan — don’t back down and continue to test everyone’s resolve.

“A lot of people might not know, but we have a really close team,” Sauritch said. “We’re all friends with each other. So, if one guy is having a bad game, we trust each other to step up and lift the other guy up. If a guy goes down, someone else is always stepping up and our bench does the same thing. Our bench is always ready to play; they add good minutes. They get buckets and steals. That’s why our stats are so high because everyone is always locked in.”

After running a quick two-minute, three-man weave sequence, it’s time for the Hawks’ two favorite practice drills: Corral and Shell. Corral matches up one ball handler against two defenders in the backcourt, working on breaking a trap. Each player goes until they successfully navigate the hounding defense — the trash talk and competitive banter increased with each rep.

Meanwhile, Shell employs a similar concept but utilizes more players. It starts out with four defenders and three offensive players, once again designed to make it challenging for the offense to cross half court. However, if they do, a fourth offensive player sprints onto the floor from near midcourt, leaking out in transition. This drill is Igwebe, Sauritch and Unegbu’s favorite as it mimics the Hawks’ game day style.

“I love playing Shell,” Unegbu said. “It’s competitive, fun, fast-paced. It’s how we play in games, so we get used to that.”

Graves employs two more drills to close out practice. First, a three-minute, 3-point shooting circuit, designed to create shots off V-cuts, flair screens and kick outs from the corner. Then, came 15 minutes of work on out-of-bounds plays and free-throw shooting. Fittingly, practice concludes with team-wide sprints, one final display of the speed that defines the 2023-24 Hawks.

“It’s just fun,” Igwebe said. “We all like running, we all like being active. We’re not a slow-paced team, so I feel like when we’re out on the court, every play is exciting.”