Rick Hodge might not have a full look at this year’s roster, making any questions to answer or expectations difficult to determine.
Especially early in the season, Platte County’s veteran coach plans to focus rotations around six returners while waiting for reinforcements to arrive after the football team’s deep playoff run ends. However, the challenge increases after losing one of the most prolific players in program history in a class of five seniors that included three others with significant starting experience.
Hodge likely needs a group to help replace the production of guard Judah Vignery, an inexplicable omission from last year’s Class 5 Missouri Basketball Coaches Association all-state team after averaging 22.9 points, 6.4 points, 1.7 assists and 1.4 steals per game while also serving as a top defender.
Platte County might also have tighter rotations with the need to put scoring threats on the court at the same time after using 14 players total at different points last season. The Pirates finished on a five-game losing streak and bowed out of the Class 5 District 8 tournament with a first round loss to Smithville under difficult circumstances with Vignery unavailable due to illness. The Pirates do have the next two top scorers from a 13-13 team back in senior guards Jaden Peterson and Anthony Morrison, but the key to success likely hinges on increased production from senior forward Hayden Schultz and junior guards Jayden Martin and Brennan McLaughlin with senior guard Brett Mueller also back in the mix after limited minutes a year ago.
A two-year starter and three-year contributor, Vignery kept Platte County from losing any more than two games in a row until the closing stretch, scoring more than 30 points in four different games and becoming just the eighth 1,000-point scorer in program history.
Peterson went from averaging 5.5 points per game as a key reserve in his sophomore season to 12.3 a year ago. That included a career-high 26 in a Savannah Invitational third-place game victory over Hogan Prep, and the 6-foot-6 wing added 5.1 rebounds per game. Morrison quickly became an impact player off the bench and eventually took up a starting role, scoring 8.3 points per game as a slashing guard who also hit 38 3-pointers.
However, Platte County also loses starting point guard Connor Currence (2.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.1 steals per game), Brady Wetzel (3.9 points, 1.8 assists per game with 22 3-pointers) and Isaac Dittrick (3.9 points per game and 21 3-pointers) from last year’s starting lineup in addition to reserve forward Jacob Isaacson. The late-season skid came shortly after losing Dittrick to a season-ending knee injury, which turned out to be a torn ACL, in a win over Grain Valley late in the season. That left an opening in the starting lineup Morrison filled on most occasions, but Hodge continued to tinker with lineups in the final two weeks of the regular season when the Pirates lost two in Suburban Conference White Division play that kept them from earning a share of the league title.
A 6-foot-3 forward, Schultz averaged 1.5 points and 1.9 rebounds per game in his first year at Platte County, while McLaughlin and Martin earned increased minutes late in the season. McLaughlin averaged 1.2 points per game with a career-high six points in the loss to Smithville, while Martin played in 13 games as a reserve point guard and showed strong ballhandling skills.
With Vignery out in the district opener, Hodge played all 12 available players with senior Archie Wesley and juniors Braiden Stevens and Jack Utz in the group. All three could be back after football season ends with Wesley, a bruising forward, bringing the most experience. He averaged 2.2 rebounds per game off the bench last year.
Platte County opens the season against Maryville in the first round of next week’s Savannah Invitational without Wesley, Stevens and Utz, meaning additional players could receive an early look. The Pirates then have a quick turnaround before opening White Division play against defending champion Raytown the following Friday, which could be less than a week after the football team plays for a state championship.
The conference difficulty only increases this season with the addition of Ruskin, Fort Osage and Truman with 14 games total.
Platte County plays three White Division games before Christmas after finishing 5-3 in the White Division last year. The Pirates also return to a deep Class 5 District 8 field that includes defending champion and fourth-place state finisher Winnetonka, Smithville, Kearney and Pembroke Hill.
