More than two weeks after the Greyhounds’ season ended at the hands of Westfield, the dust has final settled around one of the most chaotic seasons in Carmel men’s basketball history.
The Hounds ended their season with a record of 15-7, not a great indicator of the team that beat number-two North Central and took number-one Bloomington South into overtime. Nor is it a glimpse at a team that got beaten badly by Center Grove and stumbled through the end of the season amid controversy. No, 15-7 is purely a number that will go down in line with a string of unsatisfying seasons from this decade.

However, 15-7 refers to the team from the 2009-2010 season that had five seniors on the roster. By the end of the season, the team basically played with one-half of a senior, an injured Alex Payne.
And that fact alone makes this 15-7 season different from previous seasons. Mainly because it allowed fans to see an early glimpse not of next year’s team, but of the promise of success two years down the road. Minus Payne and juniors Josh Baldridge and Alec Peterson, the team on the floor at the end of the season was composed almost entirely of sophomores.

It’s amazing to think about that pool of talent with another season of playing together under its belt. Hammons had a breakout year, averaging around eight points per game, eight rebounds per game, and more than five blocks per game. With two more years of playing against the best teams in Indiana, we could be looking at one of the most dominant centers in recent memory.

So while the incident involving the men’s basketball team was, for lack of a better word, unfortunate, fans of the game and of Carmel can still find that elusive silver lining. The fact that key seniors didn’t get to play in big games at the end of the season allowed underclassmen to get incredibly valuable experience.

Look at Gardner, who developed into the de facto point guard for Carmel’s squad. A typical season wouldn’t yield that type of experience, and Gardner showed that he is more than ready to lead the Hounds. And other players took advantage of the playing time when the team needed them most. Curts certainly did when he came into the huge Sectional game against Fishers, icing the game with two crucial three-pointers in the clutch.

I would hope that as a school we can choose to focus not on the conflict from the year, but instead on how the team handled that conflict despite massive pressure from the media and students. Carmel emerged from the season as a better team, not only gaining valuable experience for younger players, but also learning how to respond to discord with class and dignity.

When you think of 15-7, give that a thought.