Don’t think for a second Monte McGary has forgotten about it. Not any of it. Even 20 wins in a row won’t make it go away.
But one particular win would.
McGary is the senior point guard for what is generally regarded as Nebraska best high school basketball team for 2016. Omaha South opened the season with 20 straight wins before suffering a 59-55 loss to Colorado’s defending largest class champion, Aurora Overland, last Saturday at Grand Island. Which is nice.
Winning regular season games and having his team held in high regard, McGary’s seen this movie before, it’s just the final scene has always been a downer. He’s calling for a rewrite in this year’s script.
Two seasons ago at the state tournament South lost a triple overtime thriller to Norfolk; last year the Packers reached the Class A final before losing to Creighton Prep. Getting backed down by Overland last weekend wasn’t the end of the world, says McGary, but maybe a necessary bump in the road.
“We have a really good regular season so far, and (Overland) has a really good team, give them credit. But we are still the same team that lost those (state tournament) games, and we are hungry to win it all this year.”
Both South and Overland were ranked nationally by USA Today, and playing at a championship venue like Grand Island’s Heartland Events Center added to the aura of last weekend’s game. McGary, he digs games like that.
“Big time games are what we play for. We knew there was a chance we could lose a game like that but it was a chance for us to really test ourselves, and I’d like to play games like that all the time if we could.”
A starter since his sophomore season, McGary has been a major part of the winning at South over the past couple of seasons. The team’s point guard, he’s not only athletic but has great basketball savvy, and is willing to subjugate his own game in the name of team success.
“I don’t care if I have two points or 20 points, my job is to get the ball where it needs to go, and help my teammates be better players,” says the 6-foot-2 McGary.
When facing Nebraska competition this season the Packers have been dominant, only twice winning by less than double figures, including a pair of one-sided wins (21, 10) against defending state champion Prep, generally considered the second-best team in the state.
“We like to defend the whole court, put a lot of pressure on the other team and make them speed things up and turn over the ball. That also gets our fast break going,” says McGary, giving a scouting report on his own team. “When we have the ball in the half-court, if people want to go man on us we can get by them, and we have the shooters who can go over the top of a zone. We have a pretty complete team.”
McGary has also enjoyed a pretty complete basketball experience to this point in his young life, coming from a basketball family as he does. His father, Brandon McGary, is a South High alum and also a current assistant coach, his brother Shawn McGary was a member of the Omaha Central dynasty some years back, and he’s also got three younger siblings, two brothers and a sister, ready to hoop it up. And they do, often, and recently.
“Basically every time we have a family gathering we play basketball. It’s just what we do,” Monte says.
During his summers McGary is part of an Omaha club basketball team that also includes a couple of small town stars, Tanner Hudson of Riverside and Andy Kerkman of Clearwater/Orchard, who ironically enough, both also played in last weekend’s Heartland Hoops Classic.
“Playing basketball like that is really fun, something different, and it’s been a great way to meet new people and new teammates,” Monte says. “We also traveled all over, places like Vegas, Minnesota and St. Louis, and that was also fun.”
Born in Omaha, McGary is currently making headlines as a basketball player but his future is that of a college football player, having earlier this month signed with South Dakota State, where he might also get a chance to play basketball. A solid student with a 3.1 GPA, McGary plans to study biology with plans to someday enter the medical field.
So, while McGary has positioned his team nicely for the stretch run - No. 1 in the wild card, No. 1 in the rankings, No. 1 in the hearts of a wildly supportive south Omaha fan base - he also knows there is work yet to be done.
“We aren’t the deepest team, but guys like Jalen Tate and Kevin Lee are helping us out a lot and it’s making us better prepared for a three-day run like what you see at state. We need to stay mentally strong, defend well and not take any possessions off. If we do that, we will be in good shape.”
Championship shape, one would imagine.
@HuskerlandBob Sez: Monte and the Packers went on to win that 2016 Class A state title.
