To answer the question in the title: everything.
As we first reported on Saturday afternoon, Luke Hicks has officially left the Shenendehowa Plainsmen basketball program. Hicks led the team in scoring, with 20.6 points per game.
Shen, which currently sits in first overall in the Suburban Council at 13-2 (12-1 in the conference), has absolutely enormous shoes to fill. Think of this as Russell Westbrook leaving the Thunder right before the playoffs began, except imagine that the Thunder were the #1 seed in the West at the time.
Besides Hicks’ 20 points per game, their second-leading scorer is Holy Cross football commit Mike Pizziketti, who is averaging 12.6 points per game. However, at 6’8″ and 240 pounds, he’s not exactly going to be bringing the ball up the court and burying threes left and right. Hicks meant more to the team than just 20 points. He was their leader, he was the point guard, he controlled the entire offense. Whenever the offense struggled, he got it going. Whenever they desperately needed points, he scored. Hicks was easily the Plainsmen’s best player, and they are going to sorely miss him.
So the next question to be answered is: Who’s going to step up? They obviously need someone, or several ones, to replace what Hicks did for the team. While Hicks was also leading the team in 3-pointers made, I can’t imagine that shooting will be an issue for this team. They’ve been lights out from the arc all year long, and that won’t change, even without Hicks. Chris Hulbert, Jaia Benson, and Jake Dzikas are the team’s other primary shooters, and they’ll both hit a shot whenever they have an open look. They, obviously, need somebody to play point guard, but guys like Hulbert, Benson, and Dzikas aren’t unfamiliar with that role, and with the depth they have, there’s room to play around with the lineup a little bit, especially with 3 more games to go before sectionals begin.
Quite honestly, even without Hicks, Shen is still a good team. The only thing is, are they good enough to take home another title? The loss of Hicks most likely will propel Colonie into the favorite to win sectionals, mostly due to the fact that the Raiders beat Shen when they did have Hicks. Teams like Bethlehem, Schenectady, and even guys like Saratoga and Shaker all have new hope now as well. So, basically, there’s really 6 teams that all have a legitimate shot at winning the Section 2 crown this year. If we thought that sectionals were going to be interesting before, just wait until we see them now.
