The University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds hope to rebound when they face the Dalhousie Tigers and Acadia Axemen in Atlantic University Sport Men's Basketball Conference action on home court this weekend, among other things.
"Our game rebounding is negligible right now," UNB head coach Brent Baker was saying as he considered the challenge which lies ahead Friday and Saturday night at 8 p.m. at the Main Gym.
The Tigers are in Friday with the Axemen making the trek here on Saturday.
The respective women's teams from each school will meet Jeff Speedy's V-Reds at 6 o'clock preceding the men's game each night.
"We have to rebound a lot better and we have to defend a lot better,'' said Baker. "Those things have to be addressed. Three things we harp on constantly are 'Let's defend, rebound, and take care of the ball."
V-Reds did none of those things adequately in Charlottetown last Saturday night, and thus dropped an 89-69 verdict to the University of Prince Edward Island Panthers, their first loss after three wins to start the schedule.
"Our team, our coaching staff A through Z, we'll take the blame for the loss on Saturday," he said. "Full points to PEI, because they played very well. But our effort, our energy level...we didn't bring enough to put ourselves in a position to win."
Complacency, "is one of our deficits, and it's something we've got to work on," said Baker.
Baker recognizes the good start is due at least in part to the structure of the schedule: two wins on home court against Memorial, the team which has been sharing the shallow end of the sandbox with the V-Reds for the past five seasons, and an 88-75 win over UPEI, a team also in rebuilding mode.
Odds are, they won't get a chance to enjoy a feeling of complacency this weekend. Dal and Acadia are big kids in the AUS both physically and historically.
Acadia's men's squad is off to a 1-3 start on the season, but they offer a vertical challenge to the V-Reds in the form of six-foot-10 inch Owen Klassen, the rookie of the year in the Conference last season, tops among rookie rebounders with 7.6 per game and fifth in the Conference this year with 8.8 per game.
Six-foot-six inch sophomore Justin Boutilier is also big on the boards, second in the Conference with 10.5 per game in the early going. The Conference leader is none other than UNB veteran Alex DesRoches, with 10.8 per game to date, but the Axemen provide that 1-2 punch on the boards and kick it out to Anthony Sears, third in the conference in scoring with an average of 20.2 points per game.
Dal, 3-1 and second in the conference, provides similar challenges. Three players: Simon Farine, Joseph Schow and Peter Leighton, average in double digits in scoring, with Schow and Farine providing a potent 1-2 punch on the boards as well. Like the V-Reds, the Tigers got off to a 3-0 start but are coming off a loss, a 92-86 defeat at the hands of the Saint Mary's Huskies last time out.
Baker knows there will be some difficult days ahead, perhaps beginning as soon as Friday night, but the goal this season is to make the AUS playoffs.
"Our mantra, our goal, what we want to do here is make the playoffs," said the third-year coach who has already matched the win total -- three -- from each of his first two seasons. He believes there are more to come.
"We felt, with the schedule we had, it was a good chance to get out early and make some hay and put ourselves in a position to achieve that goal. We want to make the playoffs, get to the (Halifax) Metro Centre and see what we can do. Our goal is for our kids to improve each day. That's all we can ask for. We're realistic about where we are. If we do that, we're going to have a good chance."
Meanwhile, the UNB women are 3-1 and coming off a road sweep of UPEI, look to keep it going against Dal and Acadia.
Rookie Claire Colborne leads the AUS in scoring with an average of 24.3 points per game. Amanda Sharpe averages 14.3 points per game and Leah Corby a dozen points per game for the V-Reds. Sharpe is UNB's top rebounder, pulling down seven boards per game.