Men�??s basketball shows improvement

October 13, 2010

It is still early in the year, but the men’s basketball program at UNB is nearing the light at the end of the tunnel.

A team that has struggled in recent years is starting to show positives in what has been considered in poor regard after five years of missing the post-season.

Playing host to St. Francis Xavier, Cape Breton University, and Lakehead University for the Eric Garland tournament, the Varsity Reds were an injury-plagued team looking to put up a good fight.

They came out of the weekend with a 1-2 record, but head coach Brent Baker was pleased with his team’s showing in their first competition of the season.

“I was really happy with what we did,” said Baker. “I mean once we got the idea we were going to play basketball this weekend we were fine. It was tough to gauge where we were going into the weekend because we had trouble getting a full practice together over the last few weeks. Overall I thought we played well. It was just tough to build any consistency just because we’ve had so many injuries.”

The Reds opened up the weekend against Lakehead Thunderwolves losing 80-62. UNB went into halftime trailing by ten, but a third quarter push by Lakehead opened up the lead as they keep the Reds from making a push.

UNB struggled to get offensive boards attaining eight, while Lakehead had 31 defensive rebounds. This caused trouble for the Reds, but the significant struggles came from the Thunderwolves ability to get their own offensive rebounds.

Coach Baker said it was hard to gauge the team’s success after this game as Lakehead plays an odd style.

“Lakehead is a very quirky team,” he said. “You have to have to throw out your measuring stick sometimes when you play them. I think the most threes taken against us in a game in my three years with UNB was 26. Lakehead took 39. With the three point shots they give up longer rebounds and we struggled with being able get to the ball.”

They followed their opening night loss up with a matchup against StFX. The Reds struggled against an experienced X-Men team losing 92-68.

Baker was pleased with his teams showing as the rebuilding UNB squad improved their offensive rebound numbers against a larger team.

“They are a very athletic club and also very experienced,” said Baker. “I mean not too many teams in this conference can sport five fifth year seniors, plus they are very deep. Our team competed very well, we just we got killed in transition in the third quarter. They went for quick strikes throwing it over our heads and we didn’t really know what we were doing at that point.”

The host Varsity Reds team was not done improving there. Their final matchup against CBU is when the Reds put it all on the table.

UNB opened up the game with an amazing first quarter. The Reds put 30 points on the scoreboard, with the Capers being held to 17.

After taking the second quarter the Varsity Reds took a 52-35 lead into halftime.

The strong first half performance by the Reds was nearly overshadowed by CBU winning the second half, but the Reds were able to hold on for an 80-73 win.

Baker believes their second half struggles were due to their offense being predictable.

“Our offence is really stagnant right now,” said coach Baker. “We haven’t really had a chance to put anything together with a five man play. Over the past few weeks we have really restricted ourselves to two and three man plays due to the injuries. It is tough to build on that or get any momentum when you’re so predictable at the offensive end. That’s the main focus to get our offense on track is get more men involved and it should come from there.”

Although the struggled down the stretch Baker was excited to see first year player, William McFee have a strong performance.

“I think he had 14-16 points in about a nine minute span in the first half,” said Baker. “It is kind of fun to watch when someone gets in the zone like that. It was nice for him being a first year to breakout and get a confidence boost like that and get himself going.”

The tournament finished with StFX in first, Lakehead in second, UNB in third and CBU in fourth.