They’re ready to put the past behind them.
Last season, Brooklyn High School for Law and Technology rolled through a perfect 18–0 record in league play, straight into the Public Schools Athletic League boys basketball Division A championship game, only to come up short to Walton Campus on a buzzer-beater basket.
That was then; this summer, the Law and Tech Jets are pulling out all the stops to prepare for another run at a title. The squad has participated in a number of summer basketball tournaments, a move designed to strengthen its chemistry on and off the court heading into the 2017–18 season.
“We play about a 30, 35 game schedule, so it keeps the kids together [on the court],” Law & Tech coach Kenny Pretlow said. “We also have workouts at the school twice a week, to help the camaraderie.”
Pretlow said the team’s focus this summer is more on getting everyone on the same page on the court, rather than trying to win every game. His aim is to get every player on the team familiar with the role they can expect to have once winter rolls around.
“If we have new kids, or some kid’s roles might not have been starting last year but maybe they’re going to be starting this year, so now they’ll get the feel of playing with the first team,” Pretlow said. “And just as roles are established, lessons are learned about some things we do.”
Pretlow said players who will be asked to adjust to new roles — and will benefit from summer tournament play — are rising junior Joseph Pena and rising senior Victor Ogbo. Both Pena and Ogbo saw a decent amount of playing time in 2016–17, but they will see increased roles for the Jets this upcoming year, their coach said.
“[Victor has] been putting in a lot of work so I think he’ll be ready to really dominate the paint for us this year,” Pretlow said of Ogbo. “He’s pretty much been doing this all summer.”
For a team that isn’t entirely focused on winning games this summer, Brooklyn Law & Tech is still playing well. The Jets went undefeated in the Varsity Platinum Pool of the Loyal to the Game 2017 Summer League and finished in second place in Pool C of the More Than a Game High School Summer League. Now, heading into the More Than a Game postseason, the Law and Tech squad — featuring led by Ogbo, rising seniors Larry Moreno and Kennekie Lawrence, and rising junior Davonta Cook — enters as one of the favorites to take home the championship.
Despite more than a year of sustained success, Pretlow is not ready to make any bold predictions for his team as another season approaches.
“I never have expectations. I think we can have as good a season that we had last year, and if we have a better season than last year, that means we’ll win the championship,” he said. “So we’ll either be better than last season, or we’ll be just as good.”
