Photo by Philip Southern Grosse Pointe South senior Jarvis Wise slashes to the basket during a preseason scrimmage. The Blue Devils will rely on their experienced guards to guide them this season.

By Jon Malavolti
C & G Sports Writer

GROSSE POINTE — The Grosse Pointe South boys basketball team was one of the youngest squads in the Macomb Area Conference last year.

This season, the Blue Devils are still young, but now they’re also one of the most experienced. Three players who started as sophomores return, as well as senior guard Jarvis Wise —who missed most of last season due to an injury.

“I think our experience is a good factor for us,” South coach Jim Twigg said.

Juniors Ben Fry, Victor Mattison and Corbet Conroy make up that aforementioned experienced trio and will join Wise to give South a deep and talented backcourt group. The Blue Devils, who are not big in size, will rely on their guard play to steer them to success this season.

“We’ve got pretty good decision making for the most part,” Twigg said. “We’ve got good outside shooting, ball handling and quickness.”

Due to their lack of size, defense is a concern for the Blue Devils.

“We’ve just got to get better defensively,” Twigg said. “We’re small, so we’ve got to work on our toughness defensively quite a bit, but we’ll get there.”

The coach is confident the team can hold its own against larger foes because of its discipline and focus on the defensive end — a trademark of the program.

“Defense comes first. We’ve always been a defensive squad,” Wise said.

Twigg will turn to Wise to lead the squad, which features 10 juniors but just five seniors.

“His floor leadership is huge for us,” the coach said. “When he’s in the game, we’re organized and we know what we’re doing. He makes pretty good decisions.”

The point guard’s toughest foe may not be the opponents or pressure from his leadership duties, but instead the challenge of playing at full strength again after recovering from surgery on his knee in January.

“He’s still rounding into shape,” Twigg said. “It’s not going to be until halfway through the year that he’s got his full game back because he had to sit out so long.”
Wise said he picked up some pointers while he sat out, but is looking forward to going full speed again against real opponents.

“Watching from the sidelines, I got to see little creases and whatnot — but nothing’s like playing,” Wise said.  “I’m craving it. It’s been almost a year since being back out.

“Everybody’s good; we’ve got good kids on this team. It should be a real nice year,” he continued.

Catch the Blue Devils in action when they host Chandler Park Academy at 7 p.m. Dec. 14.

You can reach Sports Writer Jon Malavolti at jmalavolti@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1040.