![\"Middletown’s](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/7HKHDAP2TFFCJPXKDYDVXIVM2E.jpeg\")
The Middies sit at 1-9 overall and 1-8 in the Greater Miami Conference, with their lone victory coming against Colerain in mid-December.<\/p>\n
But results aside, Edwards insists the story of this season is more about transition, timing and patience than the record suggests.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody was excited because football had a great year,\u201d said Edwards, now into his third season at the Middletown helm. \u201cThat\u2019s a great thing for our community. Coach (Kali) Jones and his staff did an amazing job. But it kind of put us behind the ball a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
With football extending deep into the fall \u2014 its first-ever trip to the state semifinals \u2014 Middletown\u2019s basketball program didn\u2019t fully come together until later than usual.<\/p>\n
Edwards said the delay affected every level \u2014 varsity, junior varsity and freshman \u2014 forcing the staff to compress preparation time while trying to bring players up to speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were a couple weeks behind starting in,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cSo we just tried to stay focused and keep the main thing the main thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Compounding the challenge was roster turnover. Middletown lost a veteran core that had been together for three seasons, leaving Edwards to blend new contributors into bigger roles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have seniors, but we don\u2019t have experienced seniors,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to replace those guys right away.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Middies believed they might be further along by this point, but continuity has been elusive. Edwards said Middletown has had only three games all season with its full roster available, as illness, injuries and athletes transitioning from other sports disrupted consistency.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor this crew, one of the biggest things is we\u2019re just not making shots, and then we\u2019re not guarding,\u201d Edwards said.<\/p>\n
Defense, particularly on the perimeter, has been a recurring issue. Edwards acknowledged a breakdown against Lakota East in a 52-36 loss on Monday, when Middletown surrendered its first 15 points on 3-pointers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing a bad job of taking away the 3-point line,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIt was like target practice \u2014 wide-open shots. We have to do a better job coaching them up defensively, and they have to do a better job effort-wise.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Still, Edwards has found encouragement in flashes, especially from younger players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was happy about how our younger guys started the game,\u201d the coach said. \u201cThey guarded well, I thought. There were some bright spots, some things we can build on.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of late, leading the way for the Middies are seniors Mario Rose and Keith Daniels, who average a combined 25.8 points, 8.8 rebounds and 2.6 steals a game.<\/p>\n
But a consistent obstacle has been consistency \u2014 particularly in second quarters. Edwards pointed to multiple games where Middletown held its own for three quarters, only to be undone by one extended stretch.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second quarter has killed us all year,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cYou look at Lakota West \u2014 we tied every quarter but the second, and it was 19-6. Same thing with Sycamore, same thing with East. One quarter kills us, and we never recover.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat might be on me and our coaches. Managing the game a little better with our timeouts, trying to settle those guys down during runs. You\u2019ve got to play a complete game.\u201d<\/p>\n
With less than a dozen games remaining, the Middies are shifting their focus away from immediate results and toward long-term growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt this point, our goal is to try to be playing our best basketball by February,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to take it day to day.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll figure it out. We\u2019ve got the staff, and we\u2019ve got the young men who are going to keep going in there and working hard. We\u2019re going to get this thing figured out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Middies sit at 1-9 overall and 1-8 in the Greater Miami Conference, with their lone victory coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-425099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}