South Medford a 6A Oregon boys basketball contender thanks to play of elite backcourt: ‘They are the alphas’

By Shane Hoffmann  

One grande iced coffee, light on the cream. No sugar. 

That was South Medford boys basketball coach James Wightman’s Starbucks order — his fuel — ahead of a 6 p.m. practice on a Wednesday evening in early February. He needed a little juice. He had to keep up with his players, after all.

Here in late February, his Panthers (19-5, 11-0 Southwest Conference, No. 7 OSAA) sport the longest win streak in Class 6A: 13 in a row. Four games ago, they broke a school record, scoring 111 points against Roseburg as sophomore guard Boden Howell detonated for 53 points, shattering South Medford’s previous high water mark of 41, set by former NBA player Kyle Singler. 

Texts flooded in from Wightman’s friends and former colleagues after the game.

“Is that score real?”

“Boden scored how many!?” 

Hard to believe? Perhaps to some. But very real. And Wightman loved it all. There were a few other numbers that caught his eye, too. Jackson Weiland, Howell’s junior backcourt mate, finished with 28 points of his own. He added 11 assists, which helped push the Panthers’ total to 24 on the night. 

The backcourt dominance? The assists? They were signs of forbearing progress and markers of an idealistic vision for Wightman’s team heading to the postseason. And that, in and of itself, is something. After selfishness and trust issues nearly derailed the Panthers in the early going, here on the doorstep of the playoffs, they’ve fashioned themselves something of a contender. 

Wightman has been around the Panthers’ program since 1993, but never has he seen the kind of offensive bender his team found itself on this month. 

Over a four-game stretch from late January to early February, Howell scored 40, 28 and 26 points consecutively, capping it with the 53-piece.

“Those numbers are just kind of out of control,” Wightman said. “I mean, that's like video game type numbers. … He's just been kind of a different dude. What he’s doing, it’s special.” 

What’s more special is that Howell, averaging 22 points per game this season, has only narrowly outdone Weiland (20.2) in the scoring department. Wightman said he’s never had two scorers average more than 20 in the same season.

They’re the Panthers’ lifeblood — an incendiary scoring duo which has South Medford entering every game with a once-absent confidence.

“Now, they are the alphas,” Wightman said. 

A resurgent trust

It didn’t always look this smooth, this connected. Far from it.

The “alphas” are the only two returners from last season’s varsity squad. Six players in the eight-man rotation are new to the team. Without familiarity with their new teammates, Weiland and Howell pressed the issue early in the season — often unsuccessfully and inefficiently — relying on their own skills, and friendship dating back to middle school, instead of basic offensive principles.

“It was basically Jackson and Bo standing at half-court, 20 feet apart from each other, and just passing the ball back and forth,” Wightman said. 

They tried to play two-on-five, neglecting open teammates and negating any potential advantages the defenses’ attention on them could have birthed. 

It failed. At times, horrendously. The Panthers finished some games with fewer than five assists.

“We got selfish at times,” Weiland acknowledged. 

Nursing a 2-2 record, and already harboring traces of doubt, the Panthers’ confidence was dealt a vicious blow after a 67-39 loss to Davis (Wash.) in the first round of the Hardwood Invite in mid-December.

The team left the court. They returned to the locker room and Wightman made it abundantly clear: They weren’t leaving that locker room, let alone returning to the hotel, until they talked. Really talked, and laid it all out.

“I said, ‘There's no trust,’” Wightman said. “‘This is ugly. It’s bad, it’s toxic, it's not going to happen. So, what are we gonna do?’” 

It was a disconcerting juncture to arrive at just two weeks into a season. To be airing grievances that early was frustrating for all parties. It was also part of being a team and part of what coaches have to do. Wightman didn’t enjoy it any more than his players did.

He challenged the two guards, in particular — to lead, to spread the wealth, to get the team out of the bind. 

After the conclusion of the Hardwood Invite three games later, the Panthers began the Abby’s Tournament at North Medford High School. They collected a couple of narrow wins against La Salle Prep and Nelson, but they ended the tournament and the month of December with a 58-53 loss to West Salem and a 6-5 record. 

At practice the following week, the team entered the film room and was greeted by a video that had been pulled up on the projector. It wasn’t tape of the Panthers or an upcoming opponent. It was an NBA team: the 2014, championship-winning San Antonio Spurs. 

Wightman trotted in behind his players and, without saying a word, hit play on the 10-plus minute highlight compilation. 

Those Spurs teams were known for their frenetic ball movement and the speed at which they dissected defenses. They made offense look facile. And they won — a lot — for a long time. 

The team had a terrifically talented backcourt in Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili, not to mention legendary big man Tim Duncan — although by that point, he was getting a bit long in the tooth — but they won because of their style. They won as a team.

“We got the message,” Weiland said.

Ever since, South Medford has been doing a whole lot of winning, too. The Panthers’ 13-game win streak kicked off later that week. 

“I think we've been able to implement (what we saw) and it actually has made us a lot better offensively,” Weiland said.

The coaching staff had harped on the same simple principles all season, but the visual component struck a different nerve with the Panthers and, gradually, the isolation-heavy stagnancy fell by the wayside in favor of a five-out, motion-style offense.

Like several of the state’s top teams — West Linn and Tualatin, among others — the Panthers’ blueprint for success begins with a couple of elite scoring options and ends with a series of dual-sport athletes, especially football players, who can hit open shots but, more than anything, bring a grittiness and physical presence to back up the first and second options. 

It’s making up for the lack of elite height. Like the state-best West Linn Lions, the Panthers’ tallest player is 6-foot-5.

“These guys are just buying into their role,” Weiland said. “I mean, they're just great athletes. And as the season has gone on, they've gotten a lot better in terms of individual skill. They’re shooting the ball a lot better. … It's been huge.” 

Weiland and Howell have always trusted each other. Now, they trust their teammates, and in return, their teammates trust them.

“We're going into every game now with a winning mindset and a kind of confidence I don't think we had at the beginning of the year,” Howell said. 

Wightman added: “We are a completely different team than we were in December.”

‘Why not us?’

For as supremely confident a player, and scorer, as Howell is, even he didn’t see the 40-point outings coming. Let alone his record-breaking 53-point night.

As a freshman among seniors last season, Howell was primarily utilized as a catch-and-shoot specialist. He’d patrol the corners and run off down-screens and into shots. Now, he’s got the ball in his hands and a bright green light in front of him.

It’s given him the chance to unveil one of the most advanced shot-making portfolios in the state. Look no further than his patented post fadeaway, which he added to the repertoire a few summers ago. It’s an avant-garde move for a backcourt player, but the 6-foot-4 Howell uses it to deadly effect.

“I always describe my game as kind of unorthodox or unique,” he said. “I just don't feel like you see a lot of guys play the way that I do. And (those fadeaways are) definitely a big part of it. I feel like my game is just kind of slower. I can play at my own pace and really use that to my advantage.” 

Wightman describes Howell as crafty. He’s not going to power through the lane and dunk on you, but be it a fadeaway, midrange pull-up, step-back jumper or floater in the lane, more often than not, it means two-to-three more points on the Panthers’ scoreboard.

“In terms of just a scoring guard, I think that we've got one of the best in the state,” the coach said. “And he's only a young pup.” 

Weiland added: “He's one of the best pure scorers I've ever seen do it at any level.”

Weiland, more of a true point guard, is quite the scorer in his own right. Yet while he’s picked up a few things from watching Howell — like an increase in the volume of his mid-range jump shots — on the court, the two present themselves entirely differently.

Howell is the expressive type, the flashier of the two. He’s colorful and not afraid to jaw back-and-forth with his on-court competition. He’s had plenty to talk about this season. 

Weiland, meanwhile, is much quieter. He’s steely — all-business. 

“He's just the silent killer,” Wightman said. 

There’s a certain balance there, between the two. One that’s helped steady this Panthers team. It’s what makes them so minacious. 

“We're looking at the other teams in the state right now and we're just kind of thinking, ‘Why not us?’” Howell said.