DANVILLE — After a first year filled with learning, Danville boys basketball coach David Gouard is looking for improvement this season.
And he has an experienced cast returning to make that happen.
“This year, a lot of the guys are returning with two or three new kids,” Gouard said. “So the transition is not as hard as coming in with guys that I had before but was not directly coached by me, so it has been a lot easier.
“One would think it it would be smoother, but we have a lot of stuff to tweak and fix. We have guys returning that have been around since freshmen year. They already know what I want. We have hit the ground running. We are not where we are at nine days in, but we are ahead of the game.”
“He’s a good coach. He teaches us more than basketball, he teaches us to be men, grow and how to do things in a certain way,” Senior Erien Smith said. “In life, there will be times you don’t want to do things and you have to do them, so he teaches us to be men. It is more than basketball with him and I appreciate that.”
With eight seniors, four juniors and two sophomores who can contribute, Gouard said that it is time for the team to build its own identity after the departure of JaVaughn Robinson, CL Dye and Jerry Reed III.
“I told them first day of practice that those guys are not coming back and we have to build our own identity,” Gouard said. “You can’t depend on Diddy, Jerry and CL. Everyone has to find their own identity and we have found it. We just have to put it all together and put it on the floor on game night.
Top seniors returning include Ajani Davis and Smith, who were captains last season.
“All the players that are returning are leaders and coach wants us to show everyone what to do and tighten up on things before the season starts,” Davis said. “Erien, me, DJ and Kindyn know what to do and know what coach is looking for us to do and that is lead on the court, while he leads from the bench.”
“It’s a lot more to keep everyone accountable. I just want to make sure I do right and set the example for the younger classmen,” Smith said. “We have some wrinkles to iron out, but we should be good. We are working hard and trying and pushing ourselves to be better every day.”
“Ajani Davis is a four-year starter and junkyard dog of the team,” Gouard said. “We have Erien Smith as the shooter on the team and is also a four-year player and one of the leaders that I depend on.
“Corey Frye is a second-year player and he transferred last year but he has made himself at home in Danville, and he is someone that we will depend on. We have youth in Amir Beasley. Dre Burns and Kindyn Mason. They understand what I want and all three of them I have had for three years.”
The season starts on Monday with the Lincoln/Eaton RR Thanksgiving Tournament. The Vikings will play Big 12 rival Champaign Centennial at Champaign before going to Lincoln to take on Chicago Dunbar on Tuesday and host Lincoln on Friday.
“Lincoln is always challenging,” Gouard said. “Starting with Centennial is a conference game, but not a conference game. We split with them last year and we have different players and they have different players. Playing Lincoln at their place is always tough and we play Chicago Dunbar and we don’t know much about them but they put their shorts on just like we do.”
“Lincoln is always fun,” Davis said. “We get to start off with a known rival. We came up short last year against them and beat them during the season, so we want to go 2-for-2 against them. Lincoln has very good shooters so we have to defend well and close out on everything so they don’t get to their shots.”
After the tournaments in November and December, the Vikings will delve deeper into Big 12 play, which could be a little more open than in years past.
“All the bigs in the conference graduated and I am sure everyone is grateful for that,” Gouard said. “Normal Community was big for years and huge across the board. So the conference is probably at a turning point right now to see who can come out and take hold and we are looking to be one of those teams this year and years forward.”
“We had a lot of opportunity that we didn’t close out last season,” Davis said. “Our main focus is we want to have a record better than 10-20 last year. We just have more team chemistry and we are looking to go farther than before. We always want to look at ourselves as the best in the conference. Realistically, is it true? To us it is and all we can do is get ready and go game by game.”
“We want to be the best in the conference and we will work every day to achieve that,” Smith said. “We have a lot of depth and not many teams have that and we have good team chemistry and we hope we can go far in the conference.”