The Wright City boys basketball team trades proven scoring for experience this winter.

The Wildcats lost leading scorer Trey Saddler (17.8 points last season) but Head Coach Ken Brown is hopeful another year within his system will help the returning players.

“Last year we were lacking experience,” he said. “We didn’t have experience I would have liked, but this year we’ve got three returning starters back and a few bench players, so we’ll be OK. It’s tough to lose the energy of Tyrel (Curtis) and the scoring of Trey, but at the end of the day we do have some talent.”

Starters Devon Holmes, Sean McDonald and Dakota Phillips will have high expectations from Brown, as well as guard Cameron Cole.

“It’s going to be tough to replace an all-conference player like Trey, but I think Devon Holmes, Sean McDonald and Cameron Cole are up to the challenge,” Brown said. “We’ve put a big emphasis on getting the ball inside to Dakota Phillips. It’s going to be tough, but those kids are prepared for it.”

Brown plans on changing his defensive philosophy this season, moving away from a zone.

“Defensively, we were pretty much a zone team last year, but now we want to be more of a man-to-man team than in years past,” he said. “I think we have the athletes to be a man team                    consistently.”

In the season’s early practices, the Wildcat defense has been more consistent than the offense.

“We want to be more structured this year,” Brown said. “The offense is a little behind the defense, which is to be expected. But I think we’ll be pretty good offensively.”

Brown hopes to get a boost offensively from senior transfer Nico Brown, who previously played at Troy and who, according to Brown, could help the Wildcats with his outside shooting.

“I think we’ll continue to improve and be better than last year,” Brown said. “I think we should finish above .500, but it’s all about staying healthy and good coaching. We’ll need to play better defense and take care of the ball. I think last year we turned the ball over early in the year, but this year we know what to expect as far as ball control goes.”