Lessons learned from Intercity

In the Intercity game vs. Bloomington High School, Coach McDowell tells the Pioneers to get back on defense.

Grace Telling

In the Intercity game vs. Bloomington High School, Coach McDowell tells the Pioneers to get back on defense.

Jaxon Heffner, Reporter

Intercity Basketball has been a tradition in the Bloomington-Normal area for over twenty years, and although Andrew McDowell has participated in Intercity as an assistant coach for seven years this is his first year as head coach.

“I don’t know if I changed anything really,” McDowell said about taking the lead of the basketball program.

Changing the system isn’t McDowell’s focus; instead he wants to change the attitude of his players.

“McDowell focuses on us competing. He always wants us to push it as hard as we can,” senior guard Nate Robinson said.

When it came to preparing for intercity McDowell said he did not do anything different.

“We’re good enough that if we play our game we can beat anybody,” McDowell said.

Unfortunately the Pioneers went 2-2 at intercity, and McDowell was dissatisfied of his teams outcome.

“Not the way we thought it was going to go, the outcome kind of left a sour taste in our mouths,” McDowell said.

All the Pioneers can do is move forward and learn from the experience.

“As a team we need to learn from mistakes and correct them for the rest of the season,” senior guard Keondre Schumacher said.

Despite the disappointing outcome, coach McDowell said it won’t have a big outcome on the rest of their season.

“Whether we went 4-0 or 2-2, it’s about getting the experience as a team and figuring out to play together, and what role we need guys to fill,” McDowell said.

The Pioneers are now 2-0 following the week of Intercity, and they are not looking back.

“Intercity is in the past now, we don’t focus on it at all, we improve every day as a team and that’s all that matters,” senior guard Nate Robinson said.