Leeton junior Mack Phillips attempts to turn the corner on a defender as coach Rick Mills looks on during practice Monday at Leeton High School. The Bulldogs finished 24-4 a year ago, and Mills likes the talent of this year's team as well.

Editor's note: Each weekday, digitalburg.com will look at a different girls or boys basketball program in Johnson County until all are profiled. Coming Wednesday: Knob Noster girls.

LEETON, Mo. -- Perhaps with four of the top five players in scoring from the 2008-09 Leeton boys basketball team gone to graduation, outsiders will have low expectations for the 2009-10 edition.

Perhaps they will be surprised.

Coach Rick Mills sees no reason why this year’s team can’t continue the winning tradition after the Bulldogs finished 24-4 a year ago.

“The thing is that these guys are used to being around good basketball teams,” Mills said. “It’s a good tradition we’ve got going on here at Leeton. So they bring a very good work ethic to practice. We do make some mistakes in practice right now, but each practice, each game as we go through the season we’ll start to minimize those mistakes. There’ll be no question we’ll make a ton of mistakes the first week of the season, but by mid January those mistakes should be gone.”

Although they are young, with just one senior and two juniors among the top six players, the Bulldogs have talent. Mills likes the way his team shoots the basketball. He likes his players’ intelligence, and he likes their quickness.

Junior Derrick Stoneking (left) drives as sophomore Tony Colburn defends during Monday's practice. Stoneking, who averaged 8.8 points per game last season, is the Bulldogs' lone returning starter.

The lone returning starter is 6-foot-2-inch junior Derrick Stoneking. Stoneking averaged 8.8 points and 4.1 rebounds last season.

“He will be a force inside,” Mills said. “He has really developed an excellent post game. He has gotten stronger.”

Cameron Elwell, a 6-2 sophomore, has great upside, as evidenced by the performance he had a year ago as the Bulldogs’ sixth man. He averaged 5.2 points, 2.5 rebounds and connected on nearly half (15 of 32) of the 3-pointers he shot.

“Cameron did something unique,” Mills said. “He led the team last year in field-goal percentage, 3-point percentage and free-throw percentage. He can shoot it, he can score inside, outside and for a freshman (to do that) …” Mills said. “So even though we lost four starters, we’ve got two young men back that are just an outstanding foundation to start with.”

The Bulldogs’ JV finished 11-1 last season, and Mills sees several players from that squad who are ready for substantial varsity roles.

Derrick Stoneking follows through on a shot as junior Roy McCallister defends.

Mack Phillips, a 5-10 junior, will play both point and shooting guard and is a nice outside shooter.

Sophomore Alex Anstein brings his 6-4 length to the post.

“Extremely quick, good footwork, highly intelligent,” Mills said. “He is a very good defensive center, rebounds well, runs the floor very well. He’s quick as a cat.”

Matt Thompson, the lone senior in the bunch, just moved into the district in April.

“He’s 5-11 but he plays like 6-3,” Mills said. “Great jumping ability. Also extremely quick, very, very fast. He’s going to play high post and wing. He’s got the quickness to go outside, but he’s also got the leaping ability to go to the high post and shoot over people.”

Brandon Little, a 6’ sophomore, should be the Bulldogs’ best defensive player and can play either guard or forward, Mills said. Little is also “extremely fast,” a solid rebounder and a decent shooter.

After manning the middle at the JV level a year ago, Brett Ditty projected as the Bulldog’s starting post this season. But a torn ACL will keep him out until late in the season.

Sophomore Cameron Elwell played in all 28 games last season as a freshman sixth-man for the Bulldogs. Here he goes up for a shot as Tony Colburn defends.

A year ago the senior quartet of Brad Ditty, Clint Corson, Zach Dady and Nick Pickard all averaged between 8.0 and 13.6 points per game. Mills expects a balanced attack again this season, even without those players.

“I think that’s been the way we like to do things,” he said. “We don’t like to depend on just on one player. We’ve always taken pride in the fact that if a team wants to take one scorer away from us, we’ve got some other players that can score.

A year ago Leeton won the Mid State Conference Tournament, and Kingsville won the regular season conference crown. Mills expects those two teams to be at the top of the heap again this season.

“I’m picking them (Kingsville) to win the conference,” Mills said. “They’ve got three starters back. Right now I’d pick us No. 2.”

Both schools reached the Class 1 playoffs last season. Leeton bowed out with an overtime sectional loss for the second straight year.

“Leeton and Kingsville have a really nice rivalry. One of us two has either won the conference tournament or the conference the last two years,” Mills said.

“Out of 16 1A schools, two teams from our conference were district champions, so that says a lot about our conference.”

Leeton opens its season Dec. 1 when the Bulldogs travel to Ballard. The Leeton boys and girls will host the Mid State Conference Tournament this year, Dec. 7-12.