Newsness abounds for North Linn’s boys’ basketball program

CENTRAL CITY - So much new for this North Linn boys’ basketball team. SO much new.

There are no seniors on this season’s roster. All five starters graduated from last season’s Class 1A state tournament team, as did a total of 69.3 points per game.

And the best smallest-school program has its third head coach in as many years. Tim Schuring has taken things over for Travis Griffith, who stepped away in late October.

He’d been a longtime assistant for Mike Hilmer, who began an incredible run this school has been on: nine straight state tournament appearances, a streak of seven straight years in a state championship game ended last season.

This inexperienced group would seem to have a long way to go to be a state tourney team, but Nolan Woods believes it can get there. The junior guard poured in six 3-pointers and 26 points Friday night as North Linn beat Central City, 73-52.

“What they’ve always been,” Woods said, when asked what are this team’s realistic expectations. “Make a run at state and go and try to win it. Win our conference, be the best team we can be.”

Woods made seven 3-pointers in North Linn’s season-opening win against Springville earlier this week. It appears this Lynx team will do a lot of long-distance shooting and from a lot of different players.

It made 14 treys against Springville and 10 more Friday night against Central City (1-1). North Linn built a 22-point halftime lead, saw Central City rally in the third quarter, then re-built its edge to 17 after three quarters.

But CC got things going again in the fourth making it a 60-50 game with 6:10 left on a Chris Hanson layup. A North Linn timeout was followed by a North Linn run that brought the lead back over 20 points down the stretch.

“I love to see us be able to handle a run and then respond to it,” Schuring said. “That’s going to happen during a season, you know that. And these guys responded well after a timeout. They came out of that timeout and went out and executed very well on both ends of the floor.

“Central City is a much improved team from a year ago. They’re getting after it, going to win some games this year.”

Schuring has spent three decades in basketball, coaching at the high school and college levels, his final collegiate job being head women’s coach at Mount Mercy University a couple of years ago. He also had a basketball skills program called TNT5 Basketball Development that just ended a year or so ago.

North Linn Activities Director Brian Wheatley knew of Schuring and gave him a phone call on Halloween night about the head coaching position at his school that had just come open. Wheatley wanted to know if Schuring knew anyone who might come in and take over on such short notice.

Schuring told him he couldn’t think of anyone off the top of his head, but he’d call Wheatley back the following day. He did, telling Wheatley that he would take the job.

“Quite frankly if it hadn’t been North Linn or a school like North Linn, where I had some relationships built and I knew the culture of the school, that the kids were great and the community were great ...,” Schuring said. “I’d had my time in coaching. But, man, I’m glad I’m back here. I’m having a blast.”

Schuring said he didn’t come in completely blind, saying he knew some of North Linn’s players and some North Linn parents. He’s running a lot of the same concepts as Griffith and Hilmer did since that’s what the kids are used to.

“If it isn’t broke, then don’t fix it is how I kind of felt,” Schuring said. “I just felt like I could pick up on what they had been doing. But we do have some different things that are specific for this team that can help this team.”

“It’s a little different, but I love him,” Woods said. “He’s a great dude, just like the coaches we’ve had in the past. He’s always pushing us. So it hasn’t really been much of a difference. We’re still working as hard as we always have and stuff.”

Jackson Nielsen added 18 points, Patrick Peyton 14 and Waylon Raue 13 for North Linn, which plays Saturday night against Dyersville Beckman. Josh Lindsey and Chris Hanson had 14 points apiece for Central City, who hired a head coach very late as well.

Sam Elgin has worked in local AAU basketball, was an assistant for a state championship team at Cedar Rapids Xavier and had most recently been head sophomore coach at Linn-Mar. This is his first head coaching gig, and he’s excited as excited gets.

“I was contacted about it about a month and a half ago,” Elgin said. “I was ready to go back to Linn-Mar, but this was one of those opportunities I couldn’t pass up.

“I want to build a basketball culture here. North Linn has set an example for that.”

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AT CENTRAL CITY

NORTH LINN (73): Waylon Raue 5-13 2-2 13, Nolan Woods 9-16 2-2 26, Braden Wheatley 1-5 0-0 2, Jackson Nielsen 7-11 2-2 18, Patrick Peyton 6-12 1-2 14, Bradyn Bistline 0-0 0-0 0, Landon Mertens 0-0 0-0 0, James Haughenbury 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-58 7-8 73.

CENTRAL CITY (52): Dashny Munyakazi 3-9 0-0 6, Josh Lindsey 6-9 0-0 14, Jase Stecher 4-6 0-0 9, Chris Hanson 7-8 0-0 14, Colton Welton 3-8 3-7 9, Beau Decker 0-0 0-0 0, Frederick Gericke 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 23-42 3-8 52.

Halftime - North Linn 45, Central City 23. 3-point goals - North Linn 10-26 (Raue 1-7, Woods 6-10, Nielsen 2-4, Peyton 1-4, Mertens 0-1), Central City 3-9 (Lindsey 2-4, Stecher 1-2, Welton 0-3). Rebounds - North Linn 31 (Raue 7), Central City 20 (Munyazaki 5). Total fouls - North Linn 13, Central City 11. Technical foul - Central City coach. Fouled out - None.

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