| Cavs' Steele named Player of the Year
For John Carroll Catholic coach Marty Smith, it's not the numbers that make Cavs junior guard Andrew Steele deserving of The Birmingham News' Metro Boys Basketball Player of the Year award. It's that he's willing and able to play any role necessary.
"If that means he has to spend the night posting up, he's willing to do that," Smith said of the 6-foot-3 Steele. "If that means playing the point guard, he's willing to do that. He's willing to adjust his game and do anything it takes for us to get a win that particular night."
Steele headlines The News' 2007 Super All-Metro boys basketball team along with Erwin's Greg Moore, who is the Metro Boys Coach of the Year.
Steele averaged almost 16 points and eight rebounds per game as John Carroll advanced to its first Final Four since 2004. The Cavs lost to Mobile-Williamson in the Class 5A final.
More of a playmaker than a prolific scorer, Steele played his best in big games, often in the game's waning moments when his team needed him most on the road to the Final Four.
He scored seven points in the fourth quarter of the Cavaliers' sub-regional win over Jess Lanier to advance John Carroll to the Central Regional in Montgomery. At the regional, Steele capped off an MVP performance with a 20-point and 10-rebound game in the final against arch-rival Parker.
"My job is to make everybody else's job easier," Steele said. "A lot of teams' goal is to keep me as least involved as possible, which opens up opportunities for everyone else."
"It's great being his teammate," said John Carroll forward DeMarcus Covington, a Samford football signee who was Steele's main target at wide receiver in football. "He's very easy to get along with. I don't think anyone has a problem with Andrew."
While Steele and Covington were the only players on this year's squad who had ever played in the regional playoffs, next year's Cavaliers will return a host of players who've performed on the state's premiere stage.
Moore led Erwin (21-10) to its first Final Four appearance at the BJCC this season despite a season riddled with adversity.
Forced to sit during games this season after being diagnosed in December with vascular reflux, which prevented him from standing for long periods, Moore handed floor management duties to assistant coach Zeinu Taimimu midway through the season. He gave his instructions in a quieter, more passive way from his seat on the bench.
The formula worked - so well the Eagles finished the season with the Northeast Regional title. Erwin advanced to the Final Four where the Eagles fell to Class 5A champion Williamson in the semifinals.
"I coached two games from a wheelchair at the Peach Tree Classic in Atlanta," said Moore, now in his third year as Erwin head coach. He had to learn to give more responsibility to his assistant coaches such as Taimimu, Lee Hollis and Preston Wilson. "I was actually able to see things a lot better," he said.
"The game slowed down for me. Being a young coach, you get caught up in the pace of the game (while standing the entire game). You focus on stops and baskets. And you miss a lot of adjustments."
Moore expects to be able to stand and stroll the sideline next season as he has throughout his seven-year coaching career. He should fully recover from surgery he had in December.
The Eagles also overcame the suspension of standout 6-foot-10 sophomore center DeMarcus Cousins, who was dismissed from the team in late January. Without DeMarcus Cousins, Erwin relied more on North/East Player of the Year Stephen Hall, a junior forward, Arkansas-Little Rock signee guard Brian Smith and a host of role players to close out the season 9-3.
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