ADM boys basketball head coach Aaron Mager considers himself a defensive-minded coach. That made this past season particularly difficult on the 16-year coaching veteran.

The Tigers allowed the third-most points in Class 3A this season at an average of 67.5 per game. The result wasn’t pretty, as ADM limped through a 3-19 season, the Tigers second three-win season in the past three years.

Mager said seeing where his team ranked in terms of points allowed “made him want to puke.” The most troubling aspect of the team’s defensive struggles he said, was not the number itself but the way in which the points allowed average climbed so high.

“If great defense and great offense are head to head, great offense will win sometimes. In other words, that guy made a shot that I contested great – kudos to him,” Mager said. “A lot of times we were giving up easy bunnies, put backs, things that the blue collar guy in me, it makes me sick – thht we don’t work a little harder to stay in front of a guy, we don’t box out consistently after a shot, we didn’t help and recover when a teammate got broken down. The individual on the ball can break down sometimes, but the help can’t when you’re a good defensive team. And we just never got to that level consistently.”