By Kyle Taylor
Phoenix Correspondent
November 06, 2009 12:51 am
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Last season the Bacone Warriors men’s basketball didn’t start out the year quite like coach Alan Foster wanted as the squad began at 1-5 in the first semester before rebounding to finish at 12-17 and 9-9 in the Red River conference.
One of the factors that hampered the success for Bacone was incorporating a new batch of players into the fold according to the Warrior coach.
“We had Ronnie Battle and Chad Tyler back but we still had a lot of new people that were new to the program,” he said. “I think that was part of what caused us to get off to a slow start, we were good but we weren’t good enough.”
Another thing that Foster hopes to correct this upcoming season is last year’s squad inability to close out tight games. The Warriors had nine losses decided by six points or less, with five of those being three points or less.
“In those games we had a few possessions, whether they were offense or defense that we didn’t do what we needed to do to come out with victories,” the coach said. “You’re going to have close games in the conference and that’s what separates the better teams in the conference, are those that find a way to win those close games.”
Battle said those losses could be reversed this year by the squad playing up to their potential.
“A lot of the stuff was little mistakes, not making free throws, not playing defense,” the junior said. “We did good, we just couldn’t play the whole 40 minutes like we could. We’re going to fix the mistakes this year.”
All those lessons learned, coupled with the experience, should boost Bacone this season, Foster said.
In addition to the return of Battle, who made 3rd team NAIA All-American while averaging 23.5 points, the squad also brings back Tyler, who was their second leading scorer at 15.8 points a season ago.
Also returning this year include guards Josh Elix, Milen Brown and post players Marcus Logan along with Jonathan Weekes. Foster also brought in more depth, adding Terrance Roby, Rashad Danzy and Dallas Juneil to the squad.
“It’s not just Ronnie and Chad that are back it’s also a core group of six people that are back,” the Warrior coach said. “What’s really been nice is we’ve added recruits at key spots. I feel like we’ve not just added bodies but added the right people at the right spots that give us depth at every spot on the floor.”
For Tyler this season with the returning experience and the addition of some talent recruits he thinks they can go deeper in the post season.
“I think we’ll start off playing well at first,” the junior guard said. “We’ll get better as the season goes along and go further and actually win the conference this year.”
The squad’s goals don’t end there with winning the RRAC conference, when asked about where this team can end up both Tyler and Battle answered, emphatically and without hesitation, to make nationals.
Foster said he thinks the talent level of his squad is the best he’s had in about four or five seasons but realizes there is still work to be done before they can talk about winning conference.
“I’m excited about this season but we have to get better defensively,” the Warrior coach said. “I can go to bed at night knowing this team will score points. My job is to make sure this team buys in and commits themselves defensively.”
Lady Warriors:
New players, new system
On the other side, the Lady Warriors were unable to get any kind of consistent rhythm going last season largely due to new players and a new system coach Robbie Shay was implementing as they finished the year 12-17, 6-14 in the RRAC.
“We weren’t quite as successful as we wanted to be,” Shay said. “But we ended the season winning six out of our last eight. So we finished the season pretty positive.”
This year the squad returns five players who all saw time throughout the season in Janice Davis, Kevelle Harmon, Marlana Robinson, Priscilla Roel and Brittany Howard which will give the Warriors some much needed experience.
And in a similar fashion as last season Shay will be going with a different look for his squad as he scraped last season’s system for a quicker, up-tempo style this year, that he says fits better with his players.
“We went in a different direction, it’s a new system that’s going to take a little while for the players to get it down,” the Lady Warriors coach said. “The difference is most coaches are playing 8 to 9 players, the rest are on the bench. This system is playing 15, you can’t just rely on 8 or 9 kids.”
Through two scrimmages the squad is starting to pick it up according to Shay, which he describes the system as up-tempo, press the entire game style.
“They’re getting there, we’ve improved from the first scrimmage to the second one,” he said. “It’s a system that as the year goes on, we’re just going to look better and better at what we’re trying to do.”
Newcomer Amberly Haus, a transfer from Neosho Community College in Kansas, said at first she didn’t know how she would fit in to the new system but is getting used to it.
“I’ve never actually played this up tempo,” the junior said. “But playing this way I like it because we’re getting a lot more shots, we’re getting a lot of good things accomplished. ”
Jaclyn Rhoades, who used a medical redshirt last season due to a knee injury, added that the new and old players have to build chemistry, which takes a while but they’re starting to come together as a team.
“We’ve progressed a lot,” the junior said. “I really like it because we’re trapping everywhere and it’s constant movement. If we do it right, it’s going to work.”
Shay added that the sky is the limit for this squad but it all depends on how bad they want to play and buy in to the system.
“A part of it is to continue to work hard everyday and get better in practice. It’s not easy going into practice everyday going 100 percent,” he said. “A lot of it’s going to be a time will tell type of thing, but everybody’s excited and optimistic.”
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