There is zero debate on how good the 2022-23 Munising boys basketball team will be. They’re the favorites to repeat as district champions and bring back 10 varsity players from last season. The question is how far can they go. Mustangs Head Coach Terry Kienitz believes they can make it all the way to East Lansing.
“I don’t want us to say that we need to be better than a district or a regional team. Let’s get good enough to beat who we will see in the final,” he said.
Kienitz made it to the finals as a player with the state runner-up team from Superior Central in 1994. It’s where Kienitz fell in love with his runand- gun transitional offense, which will be prominent in this year’s team.
With 10 varsity returners – nine of them seniors – the Munising bench will be deep. Everybody is playing hard in practice, looking for an opportunity to get playing time, but a deeper bench means fresher legs and lower risk of foul trouble late in contests. Kienitz said the depth translates to every position.
“I’ll play everybody, every game. It’s not quite five in, five out, but we’re deep in every position,” he said.
One concern for the Mustangs is a different kind of depth: the deep run in the MHSAA football tournament, with Munising playing an extra month on the gridiron. Some notable injuries occurred in the playoffs to some of the seniors, but Kienitz believes the team is healthier than past years.
“We’re relatively healthy coming out of football, more than previous years anyway, so I’ll take it,” Kienitz told the crowd at Meet the Teams on Wednesday.
Given the change in enrollment and district assignments, Munising will be heading to the Eastern Upper Peninsula for the playoffs this year. Similar to volleyball, the local district with the teams of Rapid River, Superior Central, Big Bay de Noc, Mid Pen and Munising will face teams from the Eastern U.P. and Northern Lower Peninsula at the regional level. Onaway and Rudyard were in the regional championship last year.
But the Mustangs will start off this season with a classic non-conference rivalry. The Mustangs will travel to Gwinn on Tuesday, Dec. 6 and stay on the road Thursday at Stephenson to start conference play. The first home contest of the year will be Engadine on Monday, Dec. 12.
