{"id":28282,"date":"2026-01-21T10:39:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:39:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=28282"},"modified":"2026-01-21T10:39:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T16:39:56","slug":"90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-4-altamont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/28282-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-4-altamont\/","title":{"rendered":"90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview &#8211; #4 Altamont"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p><strong>#4 ALTAMONT INDIANS<br \/>\nCoach: John Niebrugge<br \/>\nRecord at Seeding: 12-7, 2-2 NTC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>by DUSTIN WHITE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>No Class 1A boys basketball team in the state of Illinois has played a tougher schedule than Altamont High School as the Indians get set to host the 90th Annual National Trail Conference Tournament.<\/p>\n<p>That isn\u2019t conjecture. That isn\u2019t hyperbole. That\u2019s straight from the hallowed spreadsheets of Aaron Britton, proprietor of nestohoops.com and widely regarded as the state\u2019s unparalleled resource for all things IHSA boys basketball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI like to say we\u2019re the best 10-7 team in the state,\u201d said Altamont Coach John Niebrugge after his Indians hosted and defeated Woodlawn, then the top-ranked team in 1A, by a 53-42 final. Since then, Altamont has added wins over Central A&#038;M and at North Clay, the latter a 65-64 overtime doozy.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are all 6-foot-2 and taller,\u201d continued Niebrugge. \u201cWhen we shoot the way we\u2019re capable, we can play with anyone in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s hard to argue with what the 14th year Altamont coach is saying. The Indians played Waltonville, currently the No. 5 team in Class 1A, to five points in the semifinals of the Sesser-Valier Holiday tournament and lost to DuQuoin by just three in the third place game. An overtime loss to Cumberland (votes in 1A), along with competitive defeats at the hands of Newton, Tuscola (state-ranked in 1A), Teutopolis (state-ranked in 2A) and Dieterich (votes in 1A), dot the Altamont schedule.<\/p>\n<p>Still, at a certain point, the success of a season hinges on not just competing with those top teams, but knocking some of them off. The Woodlawn and North Clay victories are evidence that perhaps the corner is being turned by Niebrugge\u2019s boys and a good showing as the No. 4 seed at the NTC tournament would strengthen the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe mental focus and intensity needs to be on point every game,\u201d said Altamont\u2019s coach, who has presided over championship runs in 2014, 2022 and 2023. \u201cA 5-0 run at any point could determine a game. Execution and knowing the scouting report needs to be brought to the playing surface or a good player will hurt you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Three Indians average double figure scoring so far this year, led by senior Kade Milleville\u2019s 14.3 per game. He\u2019s also the team\u2019s leading rebounder and the guy on Niebrugge\u2019s roster most capable of flat-out taking over a game. Look no further than the win at North Clay to support that assertion: Milleville led Altamont in scoring (21), rebounding (14), assists (3) and blocked shots (3). He\u2019s a three-year varsity player and recently eclipsed 1,000 points for his career.<\/p>\n<p>Junior Zaine Miller (10.7 ppg) and sophomore Cooper McManaway (11.3 ppg) are also double-figure scorers for Altamont while sturdy senior Jacob Johnson contributes a handful of buckets and boards each game, classmate Cooper Pals guards the opponents\u2019 best player and chips in timely buckets here and there, and junior Parker Bell is the first man off the bench to the tune of more than eight points per game.<\/p>\n<p>The test will be immediate for Altamont on its home floor: the Indians take on fifth-seeded North Clay in a Tuesday quarterfinal. Both teams are or have been regarded as top 25 1A teams in Illinois and one of them is going to have to settle for playing toward a consolation championship. If that\u2019s not a compelling sales pitch for this year\u2019s NTC tournament, maybe basketball just isn\u2019t your thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>#4 ALTAMONT INDIANS Coach: John Niebrugge Record at Seeding: 12-7, 2-2 NTC by DUSTIN WHITE No Class 1A boys basketball team in the state of Illinois has played a tougher [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview - #4 Altamont - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/28282-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-4-altamont\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview - #4 Altamont - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/sports\/basketball\/28282-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-4-altamont\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-21T16:39:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dustin White\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dustin White\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/28282-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-4-altamont\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/sports\\\/basketball\\\/28282-90th-annual-ntc-tournament-preview-4-altamont\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dustin White\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.thexradio.com\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/84d6bcbb44fc2a58f28a9ae6aacd570e\"},\"headline\":\"90th Annual NTC Tournament Preview &#8211; 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