Throne thrives in senior year

Published 3:40 am Saturday, March 27, 2010

Chris Throne burst on to the scene last season as a junior for the Lake Mills boys’ basketball team, but his experience didn’t leave him satisfied.

After averaging 16.4 points per game and becoming one of the most dangerous offensive players around, Throne committed himself to improving. The results from that offseason dedication became impressive.

In his senior season Throne averaged 21.8 points per game and ranked 20th in the state of Iowa in scoring. He became just the second player in head coach Kyle Menke’s 11-year tenure to be named to the Iowa Newspaper Association’s first team all-state team. Throne also made the Des Moines Register’s all-state second team.

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Throne was named the 2008-09 Albert Lea Tribune boys’ basketball Player of the Year after he went from the ninth man on the Bulldogs to their leading scorer. His continued improvement makes him the 2009-10 Albert Lea boys’ basketball Player of the Year.

“Basketball’s a sport where if you commit to it in the offseason you can make tremendous strides,” Menke said. “Chris definitely did that.”

The all-state honor was quite the accomplishment for Throne, who didn’t even crack an all-substate roster last season.

“(It’s) very rewarding for all the work I put,” Throne said. “This year getting first team all-state is just kind of a dream come true.”

Throne’s offensive exploits are lengthy, especially this past season as he helped lead Lake Mills to a 16-5 season. Throne scored 37 points in a game twice, set a school record for 10 3-pointers in a game, finished fourth in the state in 3-pointers made and seemingly could hit from anywhere on the court.

Offensively, Throne is about as skilled as high school players come. At 6-foot-3 with broad shoulders and a thick base, Throne has the ability to post defenders up, rebound tenaciously, hit from 3-point range and he added the ability to accelerate to the hoop. He’s the rare blend of speed, strength and brawn that made him difficult to defend.

But he’s weakness fueled him during the offseason. His biggest weakness after his junior season was defense and getting quicker.

Throne’s focus during the offseason involved getting faster and stronger, especially defensively. Mechanically he’s shot has been sound since an early age, but Throne knew he had to improve dramatically on defense.

“He’s always been a smart defender,” Menke said. “He understands help defense and he’s always been a good rebounder, but what I think I was most impressed with was just his lateral quickness and he was able to stay in front of quick players better this year. Again that’s due to recognizing in the offseason that that might have been one of his weaker areas in the past.”

Throne spent more time in the gym, at team camps and was invited a junior nationals camp during the summer where he played against top players from Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

“That definitely helped playing against higher-level competition,” Throne said.

Throne paid attention to the flaws in his game and sought to fix them. Throne worked on his quickness and went to the weightroom three days a week during the summer in the desire to play at the next level. Throne’s looking at playing at North Iowa Area Community College next season.

Being a third-grade teacher, Menke gets a chance to see who might suit up for him on the basketball court in the future and nine years ago Menke took notice of Throne.

“As you can probably guess I knew Chris is a good little player from watching him on the playground,” Menke said.

Menke held a free throw contest for elementary-aged students and Throne participated. Throne made 21 of 25 attempts and won three of four competitions. The one competition he lost, he showed up late and wasn’t able to participate.

“That was one of those things where anybody who would have walked into the gym that day would have guessed that little guy will go on to be a pretty good ballplayer,” Menke said.

Later Throne played for Menke on the court and a teacher’s assistant in the classroom for Menke. He also became the most complete player Menke has coached.

“Chris is a very humble player, but he’s the best player I’ve coached just as far as being a complete player and I’ve coached some very good ones in the last 11 years,” Menke said.