Significant improvers: Saling, Holman earn SJ-R Boys Basketball Players of the Year

The State Journal-Register's Boys Basketball Players of the Year had a similar theme for their junior seasons: a need to raise their games.

For Williamsville’s Brayden Saling, the Bullets needed someone to step up after the December season-ending injury to leading scorer Blake Shoufler.

Lanphier’s JaiQuan Holman, already a star for the Lions before the 2023-24 season began, needed to find a way to have more of an impact on both ends of the floor.

Both players exceeded their coaches’ expectations.

Saling, the SJ-R's Small School Boys Basketball Player of the Year, and Holman, the newspaper’s Large School Boys Basketball Player of the Year, both helped their teams improve throughout the season.

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Saling steps up

If Williamsville had dreams of a run to the Class 2A state tournament during its 8-0 start, it’s understandable if those were seemingly lost when Shoufler broke his ankle in the Bullets’ final game before the Christmas break. At the time, he was averaging 15.9 points per game.

It wasn’t just Saling who raised his game. It was a team-wide effort. Seniors Brecken Thomas and Carson Kohler, Saling and fellow junior Reid Bodine and sophomore Garrett Timm ultimately coalesced into a stable — and winning — starting five.

“This has got to be my time,” Saling remembered thinking after Shoufler’s injury. "I’ve got to step up, I’ve got to be that guy. I just went out there and I played my game, and we were successful.”

Williamsville coach Nick Beard said there was no overnight formula to success, but a series of trials and errors. But ultimately, Saling was the player who handled the ball more and finished with averages of 13.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game.

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In his first nine games, he had less than 10 points four times. Over his final 28 games, he had less than 10 just four more times.

“He went from being more of a just a catch-and-shoot, 3-point guy — that's what a lot of people thought of him coming into the season,” Beard said. “His game improved and evolved so much in season more than any player I've ever had.

“He started handling the ball some, he was a great defender, he ended up being at the bottom of our 1-3-1 (defense) and he rebounded the ball well for his size. He was the guy on the scouting report that everybody circled.”

The Bullets lost to Calvary in the Williamsville Holiday Tournament title game and dropped a Sangamon County Tournament semifinal game to eventual runner-up New Berlin. Even a three-game losing streak in February — to Pleasant Plains, Fairbury Prairie Central and Maroa-Forsyth — didn’t seem to indicate what was on the horizon.

In the Class 2A Athens Regional title game, the Bullets got a measure of revenge for a Jan. 19 loss to Riverton by winning 59-42. Five days later, Williamsville once again got payback for a regular-season-ending loss to Auburn by winning the Beardstown Sectional semifinal over the Trojans 53-40. On March 1, Williamsville survived Alton Marquette 48-47.

The coup de grâce was a comeback win over Macomb to win the Springfield Supersectional 36-32 to advance to the state tournament semifinals for the first time since 1991. He scored 43 points in the two state tournament games as the Bullets finished fourth.

“In the postseason, we just all were playing well,” Saling said. “We played as a team. There's not many teams out there that play with the same chemistry; like we all knew our strengths and weaknesses, and we all just play together really well.”

Next season will be filled with even larger hopes as Saling has turned into a star and with Shoufler’s return to health, plus the natural maturation of players who were asked to do even more in Shoufler’s absence.

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Holman rounds into form

It’s not an easy assignment to drive into the paint when most of the opponents are bigger and stronger, stubbornly protecting the basket at all costs.

Lanphier coach Blake Turner remembers when a younger Holman shied away from contact. The biggest leap Holman made between his sophomore and junior years was knowing he could get back up off the floor after a collision.

“I thought that he got stronger, he finished through contact a lot better,” Turner said. “I thought that he improved on his shooting selection, which in turn improved his percentage and I think the game was slower for him, so he was able to pick his points and get there when he wanted to.”

Taking contact allowed Holman to go from shooting 36.9% overall (133-for-360) as a sophomore to 42.4% (177 of 417) as a junior, despite a dip in 3-point percentage (34.9%-32.9%).

“I was missing easy layups that I know I can make,” Holman said. “All I had to do was get to the gym, because I was getting bumped off coming to screens to get me off my game — little stuff that can be fixed. That offseason, I stayed in the weight room.”

Holman also found his voice during the season.

“I became more of a leader and even like the people around me — the coaches, my teammates — they (saw) I was in-tune and wanted it more,” Holman said.

Jessie Bates III, the 2023-24 Lanphier senior captain, said he saw enough evidence that the Lions will be in good hands next season under Holman.

“From his leadership standpoint and his defensive standpoint, he really grew,” Bates said. “Without me leading next year, I feel like he’s going to be a better leader for the team and he’s going to push them where they need to be.”

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Holman also expanded his range on his 3-point range, even pulling-up from beyond the volleyball line.

“He’d be shooting volleyball-line 3s (in practice) and I’d stop and say, ‘That’s not a good shot ... and to shoot five of them,’” Turner said. “He’d make the first three or two of the first three and I’d be like, ‘All right man.’” 

Holman was disappointed by the loss to Sacred Heart-Griffin in the Class 3A Lanphier Regional title game. Next season, he wants to get back to the Lions’ “chasing titles” mantra.

“I feel like next year is going to be real fun,” Holman said. “Everything we wanted this past year, I think we’ll get it next year. I think everybody is on the same page and we know what we need to do to win these type of big games.”

Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: IHSA basketball: Lanphier's Holman, Williamsville's Saling rise to challenges