2023-24 McClain Tigers Boys Basketball Preview

For a second straight offseason, the McClain Tigers boys basketball program made a change at head coach, as Mike Noszka is taking over at the helm of the boys basketball program, as he brings with him quite a résumé to rebuild the Tigers’ program.

Noszka takes over for Bobby Williams, who coached the Tigers for one season, with MHS finishing the 2022-23 season at 5-18 overall and 1-9 in the Frontier Athletic Conference with a team where nearly every player was gaining their first full-time varsity experience.

Fast-forward to this season, and the Tigers have Noszka taking over, as he most recently coached at St. Xavier for the past four seasons, where his teams had a combined 58-32 record.

Before that, Noszka coached at Wilmington for over a decade, where his 2016 team reached the Division I State Semifinals, having a 27-win season and just two losses.

The roster of the Tigers consists of three seniors, five juniors, one sophomore and one freshman. Seniors for McClain are center Jayden Allison, guard Seth Weller and forward Andrew Potts.

Juniors for MHS are guard Zane Adams, guard Riley Cummins, guard Brandon Greene, forward Owen Sykes and junior Mikah Parks.

The lone sophomore for the 2023-24 season is guard Jordan Bell, and the lone freshman is guard Michael Noszka Jr.

Potts and Weller are returning starters from the ’22-23 season, where Weller averaged 13 points per game, scoring 288 points. He also averaged 3.0 rebounds per game and 2.0 steals per game. In all, he had 24 steals. Weller last season also had 15 games of 10-plus points scored and three games of 20 or more points, including 27 points against Hillsboro.

Potts last season averaged 12.0 ppg and 6.0 rpg. Potts finished the 2022-23 season with 275 points and 24 steals, and he had 15 games of 10-plus points, with his top game being 21 points at Piketon.

Both Potts and Weller were named special mention OPSWA All-District last season.

“We are excited about all of our players,” Noszka said. “This is a new program and a new team. At this point of the season, we are seven practices and two scrimmages in. We are simply learning to play hard, smart, tough, and most importantly, play together.”

In building the McClain program back to prominence, Noszka spoke about how successful the offseason has been when it comes to building a positive energy with his team. He also talked about the way he coaches a team.

“The non-fall sports athletes put in a lot of strength, conditioning and skill work,” Noszka said. “We are blessed here at McClain to have Mark Bihl as our strength coach. I never look at coaching as having a system. It’s more about teaching players how to play all aspects of the game, and they have to perform on the floor.

“Overall as a program, our skill level must improve each year. I have liked our effort, but we have a lot to learn, and film study will be of paramount importance. In the meantime, our daily effort is getting us there faster. All 10 kids on the varsity level are competing every day.”

There are some parts of the McClain game that need to improve, too.

“Playing without the ball on both ends,” Noszka said when asked about improvement he wants to see this season. “In basketball, there are 10 players and one ball. Most kids today are only concerned about playing hard with the ball in their hands, and playing hard when guarding the game.

“The best players are very good when they are away from the ball.”

Expectations are also simple, but effective, for Noszka and his team.

“We want to be the toughest and best defensive team on our schedule,” he said.

Joining the FAC for the first time, some of the schools will be familiar for Noszka, as his Wilmington teams used to play most of the FAC (except for Jackson) in the now-defunct South Central Ohio League (SCOL). Noszka was complimentary of the schools in the FAC, which include Hillsboro, Jackson, Chillicothe, Miami Trace and Washington.  

“I haven’t seen any film on the rest of the FAC, but it always has been a good basketball league with great basketball towns,” Noszka said. “As for our non-conference schedule, it should help prepare us for the postseason tournament.”

McClain’s non-conference schedule consists of: vs. Paint Valley, at Lynchburg-Clay, vs. Adena, at Clinton-Massie, vs. Vinton County, vs. Athens (at Fairfield’s Chad Hodson Classic), at East Clinton, vs. Piketon, vs. Fairfield, vs. Unioto, at Whiteoak and at Zane Trace.

Assistant coaches for McClain are: David Washington, Mikel Pritchard, Tyler Jackson and Derrick Lyons.

McClain begins the 2023-24 season on Friday, Dec. 1 at home against the Paint Valley Bearcats in non-conference action.