Basketball season is officially here, as the men’s team opened with their first match in the Lone Star/Rocky Mountain challenge at Metropolitan State University Of Denver this past weekend, unfortunately coming back with two tough fought losses.
The team is eager to get their season started and with conference games right around the corner, so The Lions’ Chronicle caught up with Matthew Wilson (2), and Braden Boyer (33) to discuss what's to come for the Men’s Basketball team this year with leading seniors
Last year unfortunately didn't go as planned for the Lions by finishing the season off with a record of 5-11, but these two seniors are determined to make it a year to remember.
“The biggest strengths we are going to have will be the experience we have on other teams in our conference,” Boyer stated, The majority of our team have been in the system anywhere from 1-5 years already and we also have depth in every position which is helpful because we constantly apply pressure where other teams will have gaps and lulls.”
When it comes to preparing for the season, Wilson (2) claims “We’ve been coming in since late August and getting in some court time. We don’t do a lot of conditioning because most of the guys are good about coming and being in good shape already. So we can spend more of our allotted hours on the court working on actual basketball stuff then just running. We’ve also been hitting the weight room pretty hard this year.”
With staying ahead of the game, this hopefully will lead the lions to success by doing everything possible to be prepared for the 2021, 2022 season.
As the season is right around the corner, game time is quickly approaching and the most beneficial thing for these men this year is having a plan for game days.
“We primarily focus on what the other team is going to do when it comes to preparing for games,” Boyer elaborated. “Since we have our rules and schemes ingrained in our brains from day one, it is expected we guard everything the same from day one. We may tweak some things for certain teams in order to keep any defense/offense advantage we already have.”
This season the Men’s UAFS basketball team has a chance to make this an exciting year for the program. Although for some it may be the last time they see the court ever again, they are determined to make it as fun and memorable as possible.
“This being my senior year I’m most looking forward to going out there with my guys every night and playing basketball,” Wilson concluded. “This will be the last time I get to be on an actual sports team like this so for me it’s really about going out there and having fun with it. Really trying to enjoy the little things with my brothers whether that be team meals, bus rides, or nights at the hotel. I’m just going to try to make the most of it because I know I’m going to miss it down the line.”
With COVID-19 making the season only a brief 16 games last year, this year brings us back to the full 25+ game schedule with the conference beginning on December 31st at the Stubblefield Center versus West Texas A&M University. The Lions have their home opener this Thursday against University of the Ozarks at 7:30 PM.
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