Summer hoops sessions that will continue throughout this week at Birmingham Groves High School means more opportunities for coaches to find answers.

Groves and West Bloomfield, who finished last year on opposite ends of the OAA Red, both began searching for improvements starting last week at the DC Elite Summer League.

Experience is key at this time of the offseason for everyone, but paramount especially for teams like the Falcons, who graduated a quartet of seniors that helped Groves win the OAA Red for the first time in program history last winter.

“This summer is about having guys experience being in different roles, because all of our guys are in a different role,” Groves head coach Marc West said. “So the talks that we’ve had is, as you’re going through these games, you’ve got to find where you’re having your successes and where you’re having the failures, and really try to build on those success and find what strength you can bring to us that’s going to help win basketball games.

And then on the other side of it, obviously, if something’s keep causing turnovers gets us in trouble on the defensive side, we’ve got to work to fix it. So it’s been nice.”

Maximizing looks allows the staff to work through those scenarios best, which meant in the case of last week keeping one team on the Falcons’ home floor, while another competed elsewhere in Detroit.

As of June 16, Groves had gotten in a collective 13 games in a four-day span.

“Just having that chance to go out and compete in a bunch of different games (allows us) to kind of reflect and see what we can do better and what we can fix,” West said. “But the impression is we have a lot of guys that want to play basketball, and that’s a good spot to be in, so that part, we’re really happy with.”

David Upshaw and Beau Kennard are both returning guards who will be seniors heavily counted upon heavily in their final season.

“David, the energy that he brings each and every time he steps on a court, he’s going to be the guy that sets the tone for us,” West said. “From a defensive standpoint, we could put him on anybody in the OAA (last season), and that was a huge weapon. He’s kind of developing the offensive game a little bit right now, so I’m really looking forward to seeing how he grows.“Beau shot it really well for us last year, he’s going to continue to shoot it. Obviously, David (Jones) underneath, we’re hoping for a big jump from him that sophomore to junior year where his role is going to expand. And then, some of our senior guards, Mark Brown and Nolan Davis, are starting to figure some things out.”

Meanwhile, West Bloomfield beat out Pontiac by two points on the first day of action last week in Birmingham. The Lakers were coming off action at Wayne State as well, along with games at Bowling Green.

“My young puppies played well today,” Lakers head coach Arnette Jordan said of the win over the Phoenix. “I only have two seniors, one of them didn’t play, so I was able to see our young guys. We’ve got like six or seven guys that have come off JV and they were out there, you know, proving it.”

After finishing 2-10 in the league this past year, Jordan believes that next year’s team will be better defensively, and expects the group to shoot the ball better. It’s a squad he anticipates will be reminiscent of the one that split the title of OAA Red champs with North Farmington two years ago.

At the same time, Jordan talked about what needs replacing with the graduation of Brendin Jones and Corey Pittman.

“Leadership from Corey, and Brendin, he was always commanding the paint,” Jordan said. “Whether it’s defensively blocking shots or scoring in the paint, and they both rebounded the ball, so that’s going to be big for us. We’re not a super duper big team, so we’re going to have to be great (at rebounding as a team). We played Grosse Pointe South at Wayne State, and they’re huge, and we actually outrebounded them and ended up winning at the buzzer, so I was happy with that because the kids are understanding what it takes for us to win.”

Curtis Britton will be a big part of the Lakers’ success in his senior season.

“I expect big things from (Curtis),” Jordan said. “We’re talking about a guy who’s a four-year starter and been a leader. He’s now accepting a role as the leader, and you see him as he’s playing, taking command, talking on the bench. I expect him to average somewhere between 17-to-20 points, a couple rebounds and assists (each) and to lead us.”

“It’ll be (about) growing this summer, but I like my team, I like the energy.”