The Cotter boys’ basketball team opens the season tonight on the road at Lanesboro. The Ramblers will look to take the next step after posting an 11-16 record last season. The two years prior to last year they had back-to-back five win seasons. Cotter returns three starters but they must replace last year’s leading scorers Gus Cochran and Bryan Richter.
Jon Eichman and Charlie Kretschmer headline the returners from last year. Eichman averaged 10.7 points and Krestchmer averaged 7.3 points and 6.4 rebounds. The Ramblers look to have pretty balanced scoring from the rest of the team and Cotter head coach David Jewison believes they could have 6 or 7 players lead them in scoring at different times this season.

Even though the Ramblers didn’t have any real big guys last year they still were a good rebounding team outrebounding their opponents by five per game. Cotter lost their two best outside shooter from last year in Cochran and Richter and the only player returning that made double digit three-pointers was Eichman. Outside shooting could be a little bit of a concern but Jewison does think they have enough guys that can shoot the outside shot. Jewison says their midrange game is strong and they'll post up a variety of player depending on matchups.

Cotter will also be breaking in a new defense this year using a 1-3-1 half court trap as their primary defense. The Ramblers finished fifth in the HVL Gold Division last year with a 3-9 record and Jewison says finishing in the top half of the conference would be a good goal for them.

Tonight’s Cotter boys’ game can be heard on AM 1230 KWNO and online at winonaradio.com starting at about 7:20.