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Sports

Boys Hoops: Pasadena Looking to Finish Summer Schedule

Bulldogs face a number of roster holes, but coach Tim Tucker says team not in rebuilding mode.

It hasn’t been a summer that longtime Pasadena boys basketball coach Tim Tucker will want to keep stored in his memory bank for a long time.

The Bulldogs have had quite the success as in the past. But Tucker is confident things will work themselves out.

Wednesday the Bulldogs rallied to defeat La Canada 61-52 in the consolation bracket of the elite Nike 25th Annual Fairfax Summer Basketball Classic.

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“We’ve been losing up and down. We’ve had some things happen this summer that make things kind of hard,” Tucker said.

One big blow was the loss of 6-foot-5 guard Simon Erza, who moved back to Sweden.

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“The family chose not to stay another year,” Tucker said. “He was a guy we expected a lot from, so we’re in disarray this summer not knowing who we have.”

Tucker has lots of talent, but said he is struggling to find a floor general to replace .

John Hayward, who scored 15 points against La Canada, has been pushed into the role.

“Hayward hasn’t been with us every game,” Tucker said. “We’re having a hard time playing Hayward out of position. He’s not really a point guard, so we don’t have a true point. We’re talented but we’re not showing it right now.”

One player who is looking very strong is Blake Hamilton, a returning first-team All-Pacific League pick. He had 19 points against La Canada.

“Hamilton is a good player,” Tucker said.

He appears to be a safe bet to be a team leader.

“(We) want to find out who can play and who can’t,” Tucker said. “I don’t look at wins and losses this summer. I wouldn’t say we’re rebooting or in a transition year. Every year you’ve got to take what you have and work around with what you have. Right now we’re trying to work out to see who can do what and what offense and defense we can run to be successful.”

One player Tucker is keeping his fingers crossed for is Brandon Porter, who has faced an injury-plagued career.

“He broke his leg last year,” Tucker said. “He’s cramping up and hasn’t been able to get through a full season yet.”

Tucker is also excited about 6-foot-4 freshman Kevin Scott.

“He’s going to be a monster. He’s a freshman and a big body out there,” Tucker said. “He’s another kid that hasn’t learned the offense yet. When we get everybody on the same page, we’ll be back to where we were. I’m real confident about that.”

Another thing that Tucker likes is the development of some of the younger players in the program.

“Everybody on that bench are freshmen and sophomores,” said Tucker, whose team lost to Crespi in its first game in the Fairfax tournament. “Usually we’ve had a couple of juniors sitting there.

“We’ll be fine. We’re a successful program. We’ll go back to work in August. We lost a tough game to Crespi that we should have won. A lot of games that we should have won, we haven’t. So we have to turn that around. We beat Alemany a few weeks ago. We’re a hit and miss right now.”

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