CORONA – Corona Centennial boys basketball coach Josh Giles is not superstitious, at least when it comes to mentioning the prize that is within his team’s reach.
When the Huskies face St. John Bosco in the CIF Open Division championship game Saturday night at Honda Center, they have a chance to win three consecutive CIF Southern Section boys basketball titles. That would be only the second time it’s been done since 2006 and the first time ever in the Open Division, which has been around since 2014.
Pressure? Bring it on. Three-peat? As long as nobody has to pay royalties to Pat Riley to say it, it’s not a forbidden word.
“We do talk about it, because I don’t ever want to lie to them, and we want to know exactly what we’re getting into,” said Giles, who has been Centennial’s head coach since 2004 and has a shot at his fourth CIF title at the school. “And nobody in the Open Division era has ever three-peated, so we’re trying to do something historical, and to do something historical it’s going to take a historical effort.
“We’ve talked about it and my thought process – and I don’t know if this makes me smart or stupid – but I’ve said, ‘Guys, you chose to come to Centennial. We’re going to play in the best events. We don’t duck anybody. We’re going to go play the best competition that we can possibly play. If you were afraid of pressure, you wouldn’t have come here.’ So saying, ‘Oh, doing something historical or oh, three-peat,’ if that puts pressure on you, you shouldn’t come here.”
You can assume, then, that the athletes will embrace the moment as an opportunity rather than a burden. It starts with three seniors who have been mainstays of the two previous championships: guard and Duke commit Jared McCain, forward and Loyola Marymount commit Aaron McBride, and 6-10 center and UCLA commit Devin Williams.
They were part of maybe the strangest season in Southern Section history in 2021, which didn’t begin…
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