Deep Roster, Up-Tempo Playing Style Paying Dividends for Richard Montgomery Boys Basketball

After starting the season slowly with a 1-2 record, Richard Montgomery's boys basketball team has begun to hit its stride. The Rockets have reeled off six straight wins to give themselves a 7-2 mark.

Head coach David Breslaw credits the slow start to the team not realizing how tough it would be to employ their fast paced style of play. The team is a senior laden bunch, but mostly made up of guards, meaning the Rockets try to win games by playing up-tempo.

"It took us a bit of time to get used to the zones that are being thrown at us to slow us down but we are starting to get the hang of it," Breslaw said. "We were able to score 63 points against a very big Whitman team earlier this week who played zone the entire game. That means a lot to us because we know Whitman has always had one of the best coached and toughest zones around."

The team has been able to keep it's energy up by taking advantage of its deep bench. Breslaw says the team routinely plays as many as 11 players in a game, constantly rotating so that his team remains fresh. The team has had seven different leading scorers in their games this season.

One stat that sets Richard Montgomery apart is that the Rockets average 65 points a game, but do not have a single player who averages double digit points per game. Instead, the Rockets have nine players who average between five and 9.3 points a game, with Jonathan Custodio, Daniel Alexander, Nassir Robinson and Julian Stover scoring the most.

Breslaw believes that many of his players are capable of averaging 17 points and 10 rebounds a game, but it's hard to do that when a majority of your roster averages 15-20 minutes every game.

"Our stats are completely diluted because of the shared minutes from the entire team," Breslaw said. "I know a lot of our guys can play D3 and maybe D2 college ball, but coaches would really need to come out to see what we are doing to understand the talent we have doesn't translate to paper."

Looking ahead, Richard Montgomery is hoping to have a better playoff performance than they did last season. Last year, the Rockets finished the season 22-2 but were bounced from the MPSSAA 4A state tournament in the sectional final against B-CC, a team Richard Montgomery had already beaten twice that campaign.

Before the team reaches the postseason though, they will have to get through a tough slate of regular season games. The next contest for the Rockets is a highly anticipated rematch of last year's sectional final with B-CC, which should have big playoff and division implications. Richard Montgomery also still has Springbrook on their schedule, as well as the school's main rival, Rockville.

Despite the tough games on the horizon, Breslaw is still confident that his team is capable of accomplishing what last season's team did, and finishing the year with a much deeper playoff run.

"We fully believe we can defend our division title from last year and win our region," Breslaw said. "We know our county is a tossup and that we aren't the clear favorite. We don't have the best players in the county, but we feel we can beat anybody."