With seven players moving on to the next level — including three NCAA Division I signees — the 2014-15 Trinity High School basketball team was one of the state’s most talented in recent years.
But what many didn’t see behind the scenes last season was a group of talented — yet undersized — underclassmen who regularly beat the likes of Raymond Spalding, Christian Thieneman, D’Angelo West and others.
“These guys want to win and expect to win and did win last year at practice a lot of times,” Trinity coach Mike Szabo said. “They would frustrate that group a lot of times.”
“These guys” are the members of the current Trinity squad, and they’ve accomplished something last season’s talented group couldn’t — advancing to the state tournament.
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The Shamrocks (29-6) – No. 5 in the state in The Courier-Journal’s Litkenhous Ratings – will face No. 9 Newport Central Catholic (28-4) at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the first round of the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Sweet 16 at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Ky.
Trinity is in the Sweet 16 for the fourth time overall and first since 2014, when the Shamrocks were eliminated by Scott County in the semifinals.
With an abundance of talent, Trinity was the overwhelming pick in the preseason to win the state title last year but lost to Ballard 67-54 in the Seventh Region Tournament semifinals.
Junior L.J. Harris said expectations were overwhelming last season.
“It’s really hard to go undefeated in a season, especially in the Seventh Region and especially in Kentucky,” Harris said. “It’s really competitive. … People don’t talk about the tough games they did win. They talk about the games they lost that other people thought they should have won.”
Trinity was ranked No. 4 in the Seventh Region in a preseason poll this season, but Szabo knew a few things the outsiders didn’t.
For one, he knew how competitive Harris, Jacob King, Lukas Burkman, Gabe Schmitt and David Burton were in practice last season. And he saw how that group gelled over the summer, going undefeated against a tough schedule.
Mostly, he knew about their desire to learn and get better.
“I never have to shoo them out of the locker room to come out into the gym,” Szabo said. “They’re always out here, and half of them are smiling and laughing. They just love to play basketball … and they like to be coached. You can do a lot with a group of guys like that.”
Added Schmidt: “I think sometimes it’s better to fly under the radar a little bit and not have everybody knowing who you are and being able to upset some people early. And at the end of the year you’re right there.”
They’ve prospered this season as what Szabo termed “the best shooting team I’ve ever coached,” hitting 41.3 percent from 3-point range and 78.5 percent from the free-throw line. King (14.2 ppg) and Schmitt (13.5 ppg) are the top two scorers, and both shoot better than 40 percent from 3-point range.
And though there isn’t a starter taller than 6-foot-3 freshman David Johnson, who replaced the injured Burkman in the lineup, the Shamrocks learned how to overcome that in practices last season against the 6-9 Spalding and 6-5 Thieneman.
“They’re good because they’re skilled and they try so hard,” Szabo said. “They had to play so hard and compete at such a high level just to stay in drills with those guys because they were outmatched.”
Now Trinity finds itself right in the hunt for its second state championship, having also won the title in 2012.
While some might be surprised to see the Shamrocks in this situation, Szabo and his players aren’t.
“We’ve been playing together since we were in seventh grade and playing a lot of teams that are bigger than us and some way more athletic,” Harris said. “You just have that connection that it doesn’t matter what any team throws at you. You just endure it and stay in the game with each other.
“The team that stays together wins together.”
Jason Frakes can be reached at (502) 582-4046 and jfrakes@courier-journal.com.