At the start of the old classic baseball film "Major League," fans of the Cleveland Indians were faced with a roster full of retreads and unknowns.
"Who are these guys?" was the question on everyone’s mind.
Heading into this season, many fans were asking that same question about the Greenwood boys basketball team. With last year’s entire starting lineup graduated, head coach Joe Bradburn has had to piece a new rotation together on the fly — and he’s had to do it with one of the more inexperienced squads in the state.
Only three current Woodmen — Bryce Hoffman, Devin Lester and Gavin Dowling — had seen any varsity action before this winter, and the seasoning had been limited for that trio. Hoffman and Lester appeared infrequently in mop-up roles, and Dowling averaged 3.6 points and 2.3 rebounds off the bench in seven late-season contests.
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Clearly, there were plenty of questions coming into this season — but little by little, the answers are coming into focus. After a 1-5 start, Greenwood has started to find itself, winning half of its six games since. Two of the losses, too, came in overtime; the Woodmen took Center Grove to double overtime in a surprisingly thrilling Johnson County tournament semifinal on Jan. 11 and fell to Decatur Central by a single point in OT a week later.
Bradburn has enjoyed watching these once-anonymous players make a name for themselves.
"We had a lot of holes to fill," the coach said, "and through time, there’s some guys that emerged. And it’s been a pretty neat thing to see them evolve and see how they are taking on challenges."
The most noticeable evolution has been Hoffman, who first caught Bradburn’s eye as a tenacious defender but has come on of late as the Woodmen’s go-to scorer on the offensive end.
The 5-foot-10 junior scored 16 in a mid-December victory over Beech Grove, poured in 21 points in a double-overtime win over Whiteland earlier this month and matched that total in the tournament loss to Center Grove.
"We knew he was athletic and bouncy, but he’s taken it to a different level," Bradburn said. "He’s found ways to get into the seams."
Hoffman is far from the only revelation on this team, however. Dowling poses matchup problems on the inside, a sturdy 6-4, 220-pound bruiser with agility and soft hands who can score both facing the basket and posting up. Freshman point guard Brock Kincaid offers a basketball savvy beyond his years. Senior T.J. Price and Southport transfer Matt Allen give the Woodmen a pair of athletic wings who can get to the rim.
Off the bench, junior guard Ian Raker brings defensive intensity while sophomore Rasheed Elemikan, pulled up from the junior varsity just a couple of weeks ago, provides another solid body down low that can rebound and defend a number of different positions.
Quietly holding it all together is Lester, the team’s lone captain and the player that Bradburn says has been a rock for him since he took over the program before last season.
"You take Devin for granted," Bradburn explained, "but going back to the summer, and things we’ve done throughout the year — and since I’ve been here, actually — Devin has been the one constant for me from the standpoint of, he remembers things, he has a basketball IQ, he relays that to his teammates. He’s kind of the glue to this team."
"Because we’ve got a bunch of young guys with not a lot of experience, I just try to lead them and show them what’s right to do," Lester added. "Hopefully we can change the culture here."
Getting the players to buy into his system has been a lot easier for Bradburn in year two, now that expectations are better understood.
That process has been made even smoother now that the Woodmen have started to taste some success.
Getting past Beech Grove was an important stepping stone, and the team showed some more signs in a competitive 60-44 defeat at Center Grove on Dec. 27.
But a double-overtime triumph over county and conference rival Whiteland, a far more experienced club, on Jan. 4 really seemed to convince the Greenwood players that they were on the right track.
"It catapulted our mentality to a different level," Bradburn said.
"Very early in the year, I think it was really apparent to everyone that we were struggling," Hoffman said. "Now, we’ve kind of found a groove."
In the process, they’ve started making a name for themselves — but they’re still carrying that chip on their collective shoulder, eager to stick it to the critics that might have dismissed this group before the season started because … well, hardly anyone knew who they were.
"I think that kind of fuels the fire a little bit," Lester said. "Everybody out there thinks we’re just a bunch of nobodies, and we all know we can go out there and compete with the Center Groves and people like that. … We’re a confident team."
"We certainly wanted to prove people wrong," Hoffman agreed. "We’re a lot better than what people perceive us to be."
Game by game, they’re changing that perception.
