{"id":11737,"date":"2024-02-28T23:41:51","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T23:41:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Concord-Boys-Basketball-Season-Recap-54198483\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=11737","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We learned a lot\u2019: After 3-15 season, Tim LaTorra still optimistic about the future for Concord boys\u2019 basketball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Tim
Tim LaTorra talks to his team during Senior Night against Salem on Feb. 20.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Concord
Concord guard Japhet Nduwayo scores on a one-handed layup against three Winnacunnet players during the second half on Friday night.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

The 2023-24 season for Concord boys\u2019 basketball was supposed to be one of promise. In head coach Tim LaTorra\u2019s first season last year, he\u2019d taken a team that finished 2-16 the year before to 6-12, a tiebreaker away from reaching the playoffs.<\/p>\n

But the 2023-24 season was anything but one of promise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Concord started the year 0-10, losing its games by an average margin of over 20 points. The team\u00a0provided some reason for hope in mid February with two wins in a week, over Manchester Memorial (74-64) and Salem (84-58), but ended the year with a 90-33 slaughter against Dover, the type of game you forget about as soon as the final buzzer sounds.<\/p>\n

For LaTorra, there were far too many of those types of games throughout the 3-15 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of us were frustrated,\u201d he said. \u201cI think maybe we thought that it would pick up from where we left off last year. \u2026\u00a0But I think we learned a lot, both as players and as coaches about what we need to do moving into the offseason into next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tide faced multiple blows before the season even began. Starting point guard Eli Bahuma and 6-5 forward Sam Pfitzenmayer suffered injuries that sidelined them for the entire year, hampering a roster already light on varsity experience.<\/p>\n

As the losses started to pile up, there never felt like an easy fix. Looking back, though, LaTorra said he needs to find a better way of outlining his expectations for his players. The program\u2019s not at the point yet where those expectations are widely understood, he explained,\u00a0so he\u2019ll spend the next few months working through how to best communicate those foundational components.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the floor, he added, he\u00a0plans to make increased intensity during practice a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotta make things more competitive in practice to help prepare us for the games, try to get all of our guys caught up to speed with the things that we want to do on offense and defense,\u201d he said. \u201cSometimes you don\u2019t make it competitive enough to simulate real game speed.\u201d<\/p>\n

LaTorra knew when he took over the program that it would be a long-term rebuild. Still, it\u2019s one thing to know your teams will take their lumps; it\u2019s another to endure game after game of dispiriting performances. He\u2019s keeping the faith that greener pastures lie ahead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rebuilding Concord boys\u2019 basketball at the varsity level doesn\u2019t start with the high school players. It starts with the players\u00a0in elementary school and developing them through the system so when they reach the varsity team, there\u2019s a shared level of experience and understanding of what the Concord boys\u2019 basketball program is about.<\/p>\n

That program identity is still in the early stages of development, but next year could be a turning point. The incoming freshman class was part of the first group of travel teams the community started when those players were\u00a0in fourth grade. And while next year might not be the year the Tide finally make it back to the playoffs, LaTorra\u2019s hopeful the path to achieving that feat won\u2019t feel so far-fetched by this time next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good young group coming up that\u2019s excited about basketball, enjoys playing basketball and will bring that competitiveness and daily focus that we talk about,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m hoping that some of the guys we have coming back will make some adjustments just like we will as coaches and do a better job next year.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2023-24 season for Concord boys\u2019 basketball was supposed to be one of promise. In head coach Tim LaTorra\u2019s first season last year, he\u2019d taken a team that finished 2-16 the year before to 6-12, a tiebreaker away from reaching the playoffs.But the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":11738,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,508],"tags":[91,24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-11737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-concord-high-school","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42838599-2.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11737"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11737\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11739,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11737\/revisions\/11739"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11737"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=11737"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=11737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}