2008 Woodie Awards
Re-evaluation of Men's basketball season
Kate Ambrose
Issue date: 2/18/05 Section: Sports
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As the Assumption Men's basketball team approaches its last three games in the 2004-2005 season, they enter with a record of 4-20-0. As the season opened just a few months ago, the team and coaching staff clearly had higher standards set for their season.
In an interview earlier in the season, Coach Ackerman had commented that he thought his team would be playing their best possible basketball by February. Looking at their record one might not think this, but an insider's view is different.
"I believe that the team has continued to improve throughout the season," said Ackerman. "I'm not sure that people outside the program can see it, but they have."
The team has faced an uphill battle since the beginning of the season.
"Because of injuries and inexperience early in the season, we struggled through some early games and never got the confidence that we needed to play well as the season went on," said Ackerman. "Had we won a couple of the early games that we had a chance to win early, there is a pretty good chance that this season would have been much different."
Injuries led to different opportunities and different configurations of players on the court. Freshman Leroy Byron had to step up and make a difference in a new position, learning as he went and making contributions to his team.
"Greg Twomey had an opportunity to be a very good player when he got hurt," said Ackerman. "We had to play Leroy Byron out of position most of the year and in many games, we had to play several players too many minutes."
From their outset, the team and coaching staff had hoped to finish strong and in a good position to enter the play-offs. Again, things changed for the team and which players that would take the court.
"As the season went along, we started to look to try to give the younger players some more playing time and tried to look to the future a little more," said Ackerman.
While planning for the future, the injuries, and the position changes seemed to be more than the team could handle at times.
In an interview earlier in the season, Coach Ackerman had commented that he thought his team would be playing their best possible basketball by February. Looking at their record one might not think this, but an insider's view is different.
"I believe that the team has continued to improve throughout the season," said Ackerman. "I'm not sure that people outside the program can see it, but they have."
The team has faced an uphill battle since the beginning of the season.
"Because of injuries and inexperience early in the season, we struggled through some early games and never got the confidence that we needed to play well as the season went on," said Ackerman. "Had we won a couple of the early games that we had a chance to win early, there is a pretty good chance that this season would have been much different."
Injuries led to different opportunities and different configurations of players on the court. Freshman Leroy Byron had to step up and make a difference in a new position, learning as he went and making contributions to his team.
"Greg Twomey had an opportunity to be a very good player when he got hurt," said Ackerman. "We had to play Leroy Byron out of position most of the year and in many games, we had to play several players too many minutes."
From their outset, the team and coaching staff had hoped to finish strong and in a good position to enter the play-offs. Again, things changed for the team and which players that would take the court.
"As the season went along, we started to look to try to give the younger players some more playing time and tried to look to the future a little more," said Ackerman.
While planning for the future, the injuries, and the position changes seemed to be more than the team could handle at times.