DANVILLE — Fast, faster, fastest. Those are the three styles of basketball that the Danville Vikings plan to use this season.
Without a single player taller than 6 foot, 5 inches, the Vikings have 14 players that coach Durrell Robinson describes as being “athletic and exciting.’’
“We are going to be undersized, and we play in a really big Big 12 Conference,’’ said Robinson. “I think nearly every school has a 6-10 Division signee except for Danville.
“But, we are prepared for it. We had a pretty good summer, playing against some state-ranked teams and we played pretty well against them.’’
The Big 12 Conference this season features 6-9 Lathan Sommerville at Peoria Richwoods, who signed with Rutgers, and 6-10 Jaheem Webber of Normal Community, who is still unsigned as the top senior big men.
And the lack of size is nothing new for the Vikings, who went 10-20 a year ago with only two seniors taller than 6-4 in O’Shawn Jones-Winslow and Quintin Alblinger.
But, there is a difference this year.
“I feel like we are going to play a lot more defense because we have a lot of guards that are better defenders,’’ said junior Ja’Vaugh “Diddy” Robinson, one of two returning starters along with guard Devan Larkin. “We are going to go faster on the court and we are striving to get more layups. This year our pace is going to be speed, speed and speed.
“Our speed and defense should make up for our lack of size.’’
Danville also has several new faces this season, adding C.L. Dye and Jerry Reed III from Schlarman Academy, Jentezen Harris from Danville Christian Academy and Darius Jay from Madison, Ind., while Persiris Menifield returns to the program after being away for a season.
“All of those transfers have basketball experience, it’s just been at different levels, but I think that experience is going to help us,’’ Durrell Robinson said. “I’m looking forward to watching them grow togethers and then as coaches, we have to figure out what are their best qualities and then put them in positions to be successful.’’
Ja’Vaughn Robinson says the transfers will make an impact this season.
“We have definitely improved our speed from last year with the transfers,’’ he said. “That’s one of the main reasons that we going to play fast this season.’’
And while playing faster is important, coach Robinson is also hoping for some improvement in shooting.
“We had a great group last year, but we lost more than half of our games by 10 points or less because of poor shooting,’’ he said. “We have really focused on our shooting during the off-season and with our transfers, we have a more versatile group that can make plays and handle the ball.
“All of the pressure will not be on Diddy this season to be creative. I think he is excited about that.’’
The 6-1 junior point guard agreed.
“I’m just going to continue to do what I need to do, but having more than one person that can handle the ball and get us into our offense will be good,’’ Diddy Robinson said. “And, if we can improve our shooting, I know we will win more games than we did last year.’’
Durrell Robinson acknowledges that group, team rebounding is going to be a key with an undersized team.
“We just need to see where we are at and make the adjustments necessary to defend and rebound,’’ he said. “Right now, we are just excited to play a game.’’
Danville will get its season started in traditional fashion with the Lincoln Thanksgiving Tournament. The first opponent for the Vikings on Tuesday will be the Champaign Centennial Chargers, followed by a pool play games against Belleville West on Wednesday and Mahomet-Seymour on Friday. Their final opponent on Saturday will be from the pool consisting of Belleville Althoff, Cahokia, Lincoln and Mt. Zion.
“It’s tough opening against a conference foe like Centennial,’’ said Durrell. “Honestly, we just want to figure out where we are at and get better from there.’’
The Vikings will open the season with eight straight games outside of Vermilion County, their first home game will be Dec. 12 against St. Joseph-Ogden.