Last year’s Lincoln team wasn’t this year’s Lincoln team.

Thanks to the graduation of a few key role players from last year, there was less depth — and that meant that head coach Wydell Henry was going to need more minutes out of his starting lineup, which was one of the best groups of five players any school in the state had — if not the best.

He knew exactly how to do that. And Henry knew his strategy wasn’t going to be a popular one.

But as a one-time state champion with a second one within reach, he didn’t care.

The Lincoln Abes were going to run.

“We run, we condition,” Henry said after the Abes defeated the Romulus Summit Academy Dragons, 58-51, on Saturday, March 15 to become the first team in Macomb County history to repeat as state basketball champions.

“You know, they don’t like it. No more 55s fellas, but we run. We run a lot in practice because I knew we wasn’t as deep this year. We got great young guys, group of guys coming back. But I told these guys — they used to frown, like, why we running so much? But now they understand the reason for us running every day.”

The “55s” Henry mentioned? They consist of lining up the players under the hoop on the baseline, having them sprint to the opposite baseline, then backpedal back to their starting spot. That’s 188 feet, or just over one half of a football field.

Repeat that as many times as Coach Henry chooses.

There were no breaks, either — they even ran the day before their state semifinal game.

Well, almost no breaks.

“Matter of fact, I should have got them running this morning (before the state championship),” Henry said. “We went through our walk-through, but I didn’t. I messed up on that.”

Da’Marion Bozeman and Chris Morgan specifically bemoaned their hill runs.

“You got to go up a steep, steep hill, and then you got to come back down the other side and go back,” Bozeman said.

Bozeman’s growth was imperative toward the Abes’ success in 2024-25. He came off the bench at times in their first state championship run, but he was a solidified starter this season.

His game grew through his intentional work in ball handling, defense, shooting and, of course, conditioning.

“I just really feel like my game in total, like, I just really feel like it matured,” Bozeman said. “I got more comfortable. Comfortability was a big thing for me. I got real comfortable being uncomfortable. And then, like, as far as me, just like playing. I just, like, really, just started playing way harder, just doing stuff that I knew I could always do.”

Bozeman scored 12 points in the state championship and averaged 13 and nine rebounds on the season. His energy on defense was contagious, as he used his length and athleticism to guard any position, any time.

He grew mentally, too. During the state championship game, Bozeman missed a rebound and could’ve been in danger of losing his cool — but Henry and his staff continued to challenge him, and it brought out the best in Bozeman.

“We ain’t yelling at you,” Henry told him. “We need to get the rebounds. And then he came out and had two or three great rebounds and a put back, so they played for each other. They knew what was going on. And I’m just so proud of these guys.”

Chris Morgan, another lanky but explosive athlete, was specifically not a fan of the two mile runs that came after their 55 runs. Sometimes it would be around the school, sometimes it would be around all of 8 Mile.

But it helped Morgan blossom from a role player in their first state run into being the go-to big on the team this year. His ability to block shots was unrivaled on the roster, and his ability to step outside and knock down 3s at as good a clip as anybody on the roster, not to mention the powerhouse energy creation with his monstrous dunks always helped keep Lincoln’s fans and energy in the game.

“It’s probably the best senior class in the state,” Bozeman said. “Like, we got the best team, regardless of class, regardless of any of that. I feel like we got the best team.”

The Lincoln players weren’t always very receptive to Henry and his practice plans.

One time, they even staged something of a basketball mutiny and left practice entirely in a form of protest against conditioning.

“The team walked out on me. (We were) running stairs and jumping chairs and I said, ‘we’re going to keep on doing them.’ The whole team walked out. … Whenever you come back, we’re going to finish what we started.”

And they did. Because Henry knows that with a great team comes great expectations, and when there are great expectations, they aren’t going to lower them for anything.

And why should they?

“And them guys came back, apologized. We talked about it, and we was able to move on forward.”

Lincoln’s already thin depth would’ve maybe been too much to overcome had they not gotten lucky and had a really, really good basketball player move into the Lincoln neighborhood from Oak Park.

Geon Hutchins’ reputation preceded himself. They knew what they were getting when the Northern Iowa basketball commit, a 6-foot-3 guard, walked into their practice. And if he never had, there might not be a second ring.

“When I met with him for the first time, I told him, I said, ‘Man, with you, that almost guarantees us going back to the Breslin if you buy in,” Henry said.

“I know at his former school he had to take a lot of shots and do a lot of things and sometimes he did that out here, takes some crazy shot, like ‘what are you doing?’ But you got to live with it because he plays so hard, and he goes so hard. He’s an ultimate competitor. I think Northern Iowa got a steal.”

Hutchins watched his teammates receive their rings during a ceremony back in December. Back then, he said it was his goal to be part of the next one — to help the Abes go back-to-back.

Mission: success.

“Lincoln means everything (to me),” Hutchins said. “It’s a very loving community, and they welcome me. So I really love Lincoln a lot.”

“(Winning a state title), it feels great, man. When you set a goal like this and you complete it, this is a good feeling. Man, I give myself like a little pat on the back, because I really don’t try to reward myself much. But you do something like that, you gotta reward yourself a little bit.”

Hutchins took some time to integrate into a roster that already had a group of seniors who had already played together for years. But after some summer ball games and a few regular season contests, his fit became seamless.

He ended up averaging 16 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks per game.

So, you know, we lost a lot of seniors last year,” said point guard Moses Blackwell. “Lost a lot of size, so him rebounding and him stepping up (was) big.”

Moses and his twin brother, Markus, might be the ones who symbolize Lincoln the best.

The two of them were brought into the program as freshmen. People knew they were good, but they didn’t know they’d go on to be all-county for four years, that Markus would be county Player of the Year twice and, of course, that they’d be back-to-back state champions.

“We always talked about states,” Moses said. “And that was, that was a big accomplishment. We always — ever since I was a freshman — we talked about winning it that year. After we lost my 10th grade year to Michigan Collegiate, we kind of snapped out of it. Ever since then, it’s been up.”

The Blackwells, Hutchins, Bozeman and Morgan leave Lincoln as one of the greatest teams to ever lace them up in Macomb County. In the senior class’ last two years, they went 47-8 with two MAC championships, two district titles, two regional titles and, of course, back-to-back state championships.

After being told they couldn’t win the first one and that they definitely wouldn’t repeat, the noise is going to be even louder next year. The senior class is gone, and zero state championship minutes will start for Lincoln in 2025-26.

But they have never once entertained the doubters. If anything, they entertain them.

And Wydell Henry and Lincoln will be back.

“Year after year, I want people knowing that about our program,” Henry said. “Guys get better. You come to Warren Lincoln, we’re going to push you. We’re going to make sure you get stronger. Your confidence is going to hold your head high, and they get better year after year.

“So I’m so proud of that senior class for all the things that they did and accomplished. And we got a young class that’s coming back. It’s going to be pretty good too.”