Boys Basketball: On Oswego team short on experience, third-year starter Max Niesman is clear leader

Max Niesman is accustomed to waiting for his time.

After watching his two older brothers, Jake and Joey, become basketball standouts at Oswego and Waubonee Community College, the younger Niesman bid his time until his time came.

That time is now.

The Oswego senior guard is preparing for a big finish in his final season wearing the navy blue and orange. He’s set to become the focal point of the offense — and team — following the decision of Deakon Tonielli, a Michigan football recruit, to focus all his energy on football and Jordan Brooks transferring to West Aurora.

“I’ll be a three-year starter, and am now the only player on the team with that much experience,” Niesman said. “Everyone looks up to me when things get bad, so I have to stay composed. I feel a lot more comfortable this year. I know I need to be the guy this year. It’s my senior year. I’ve been here the longest. I need to show what I can do scoring wise and step up defensively.”

Oswego coach Chad Pohlmann said he plans on utilizing Niesman in a different capacity this season to offset the Panthers’ lack of size in the frontcourt.

“Max did a much better job leading in practice, and did what he was supposed to do in terms of effort and intensity and being more vocal and showing much stronger leadership skills,” Pohlmann said. “He’s so crafty, can handle the ball and get to the rim and shoot the three. He can do so many things. Fortunately this year, we have more guards to help Max, so we can do more things off the ball with him.”

The 6-foot-1 Niesman is a crafty and tough player with a solid perimeter shot who can take over a game with his expanding skill set. He admitted his new role entails more than just adding to his statistics. Niesman said he’s been spending a lot of time in the gym this summer preparing for the season. His goal is to finish each shooting session with “200 makes.”

“Offensively, I feel we can do a lot better as a team moving the ball,” he said. “We’re pretty small this year, with a lot of guards. The guys cut and get more open more and our offense was more fluid. It’s a lot more fun. We’ve got a new back cut system. Everyone knows how to get open. I’ve been working on my finishing moves and shooting a lot.

“We lose a lot without Deakon. He was a big help, so now we don’t really have any big guys. I might be the tallest guy. It will be a lot harder. We have to be quick moving the ball and everyone has to crash the boards.”

Pohlmann said his players played aggressive and competed during June. He saw growth in several players, such as Josh Nelson, Bryce Woods, Armani Hunter and Jeremiah Akin. Nelson, a junior guard, won the Class 4A IHSA 3-Point Showdown in March.

“It was actually very positive and productive, a lot of fun,” Pohlmann said. “It was nice to be back to a normal situation, where the kids were playing free and not anything holding back. Everything felt like a traditional summer was supposed to be. We had some really good moments. For the most part, the team itself showed it has some positive attributes moving forward to next season.”

“We’re not very big, so the way we asked them play, they executed well. We played with a five-out guard system. With our players this year, it’s really a much more five-out motion offense. We’re trying to get guys to move and spread out, pass the ball quickly, share the rock and make defense work.”