Buffs’ boys take WAC basketball with 8-0 mark

Garden’s Steinmetz chosen Player-of-the Year

In his first season as Head Coach of the Garden City Buffaloes’ boys’ basketball team, Jeff Williamson had experienced the challenge of going through the double round-robin schedule.

Playing each of the other four Western Athletic Conference teams in a home-and-home rotation in the months of January and February presented its own set of challenges.

First, quality of the competition and second, having to play in tough environments when on the road.

“I think the challenge is the first time around you’re feeling out teams with who they have returning from the year before,” said Williamson, who guided the Buffs to an 8-0 mark during the 2023 campaign en route to the WAC title. “There’s always going to be movement of kids and you feel out your opponents. 

“The second time, you’ve got one game film and you see everyone making adjustments. You see where everybody’s at.”

In the 2022 conference race, it was Hays that swept through with an 8-0 mark while the Buffs went 3-5 in Williamson’s first year on the bench.

“I think you learn that the first tests are always going to a place where the set-up is dependent upon where you play games,” Williamson said.

In the case of 2023, the Buffs had two of their first three games on the road against what would prove to be the toughest opponents of the season in Great Bend and Hays. In those match-ups, the Buffs prevailed at Great Bend (58-55) and at Hays (60-54) while hosting Liberal in between of an 86-59 rout and then capped off the first round with a 66-37 breeze over rival Dodge City at home.

“The early wins at Great Bend and Hays took a big load off because home games should be easier and I thought the boys did a fantastic job of handling all the challenges we faced,” Williamson said.

The December non-conference schedule had seen the Buffs win a three-day, three-game tournament at Coronado, Colo., take all three games of their home Roundball Classic and defeat Wichita East on the road in a game just before the holiday break to finish off 2022 with a 7-0 mark.

“I think with the players we had returning and the experience they had gained last year, I felt we would be much better,” Williamson said. “I’m not sure I would have totally predicted the kind of record we ended up with (20-2), but we achieved everything we wanted except making it to state.”

Indeed, the Buffs had all the stars aligned in the postseason with two home sub-state games only to fall 46-43 to Junction City in the championship game on their home floor.

“Worst time of the year to play your worst game,” Williamson said days after the disappointing ending to an otherwise historic season. The Buffs won 12 consecutive games to start the season, a school record, and the 20 wins is the second most in program history. Only once, back in the early 1990s, had the Buffs gone 8-0 to win the WAC.

The second half of the double round-robin saw the Buffs win at home against Great Bend (56-47) and Hays (56-48) while escaping an upset bid at Dodge City with a 49-45 win. They finished the regular season at Liberal with a 74-50 triumph. In all, of the eight WAC contests, five of them were decided by less than 10 points. The other three were runaways against the bottom two teams.

“I think understanding tendencies of your opponents, you find ways to make those adjustments for the second games,” Williamson said. “My staff did a great job of scouting and making halftime, in-game adjustments and communicating that to the players.”

Williamson admitted that there were times when the Buffs looked like world-beaters and other times where it was a monumental effort to produce a win.

“At times we made it look easy but then you look at the WAC scores and we had to buckle down,” Williamson said. “The team did some special things and they had a great season. When you look at everything they accomplished, it’s hard to be disappointed. But it was heartbreaking not to make it to state.”

Williamson earned WAC Coach of the Year honors for guiding the Buffs to the 8-0 record.

JACE STEINMETZ, GARDEN CITY, 6-3 G/F, SR. – WAC BOYS’ PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Even though he was the leading scorer on the WAC championship Garden City Buffaloes’ boys’ basketball team, Jace Steinmetz was surprised when his coach, Jeff Williamson, informed him that he had been voted WAC Player of the Year.

Perhaps he should not have been surprised after leading the Buffs to only their second perfect WAC record since the league was organized in 1984. It had been four years since the Buffs last won the conference, that year of 2018-19, the Buffs went 7-1.

Steinmetz averaged 18.32 points for the 22-game schedule in which the Buffs went 20-2 and in the eight games of the WAC, averaged 17.25 points. In the opening four games of the double round-robin schedule, Steinmetz, a 6-3 combo guard/forward, averaged 19.75 points and in the final four games dropped to 14.75 points per outing.

“I think I gained a lot more maturity in how to handle things better,” Steinmetz said when assessing his improvement from his junior year (11.1 ppg) to his senior campaign. “There was a time I didn’t take basketball too seriously, but I worked a lot more on my shooting and getting into the weight room to get stronger.”

Steinmetz was a strong 3-point shooter, hitting 50-of-145 for 34.5 percent while nailing 57.4 percent from inside the arc (93-of-162). Overall, that calculated to 46.6 percent.

One aspect of his development came in knowing the system that was implemented by Williamson prior to the start of his junior year. He had seen limited varsity action in just 11 games as a sophomore.

“I knew adjusting to a new coach might be tough,” Steinmetz said. “But I thought we adapted well and Coach (Williamson) understands his players and we loved playing with each other. We’re all brothers and we had a great season and I’m grateful for that opportunity.”

Among the highlights for Steinmetz was the sweep of the WAC schedule, considering that he had not beaten Hays at all in his sophomore or junior seasons, and had lost twice to Dodge City in his junior campaign. Winning a sub-state semifinal against Topeka High was also a first for Steinmetz.

“A lot of good things for the season when you take a step back and see the big picture,” Steinmetz said. “Just disappointed not to be playing at state. We just didn’t get that job done.”

Steinmetz will be continuing his playing career next year at Doane University in Crete, Neb. It is an NAIA school and part of the Great Plains Athletic Conference whose makeup is 12 schools from Nebraska, Iowa, South and North Dakota.

“Even before our season starts next year, we have a trip to London (England) for several games, so that will be exciting,” Steinmetz said. 

Steinmetz finished his senior year with 403 points, ranking him No. 5 all-time for a single season and his 668 career points in 54 games puts him at No. 11 for the Buffs.

Joining Steinmetz on the all-WAC first team was teammate Caleb Wiese, Jack Weimer of Hays, Isaiah Taylor of Dodge City and Ian Premer of Great Bend. 

Second-team selections included Chason VanDerWege of Hays, Jake Underwood of Garden City, Tyler Stuhlsatz and Braylon Council of Great Bend and Tochi Okoro of Dodge City.

---

2022-2023 All-Conference Boys Basketball
First Team

	PLAYER	YEAR	SCHOOL
1	*Jace Steinmetz	12	Garden City
2	Caleb Weise	12	Garden City
3	Jack Weimer	11	Hays
4	Isaiah Taylor	12	Dodge City
5	Ian Premer	9	Great Bend

Second Team

	NAME	YEAR	SCHOOL
1	Chason VanDerWege	12	Hays
2	Jake Underwood	12	Garden City
3	Tyler Stuhlsatz	12	Great Bend
4	Tochi Okoro	11	Dodge City
5	Braylon Council	12	Great Bend