Men’s team struggling, looking for answers

2/7/08

By Andrew R. Koch
Sports Editor

The Lyndon State men’s basketball team has been a streaky bunch all season. However, most of their streaks have been bad ones, including the stretch they’re in right now.
The team has lost their last five games, as well as several of their top players as injuries and illnesses have hit the team hard late in the season.

“Injuries have been a huge problem with playing consistent basketball,” Head Coach Randy Rathburn, said last week. “Consistency has been directly related to injury problems this year.”

According to Rathburn, at one point last week he had only seven and five players dress for practice on back-to-back days. He said he had more players who were sick or injured on the sideline than players who were actually practicing.

“It’s tough for us as coaches,” Rathburn said. “I’ve never been in this position as a coach.” He added that forward Noah Fink and guard Ryan Somers have been shut down for the rest of the year due to injuries. He said there was a slight chance that guard Andrew Longley might be able to play in the last two games, but only if he was completely healthy.

However, the struggles have been going on long before this recent bout with the injury bug. The team has been unable to put together a winning streak of more than two games all season long. This is in spite of some players having great seasons, such as sophomore forward Joe Visker, who’s consistently scoring 15 to 20 points per game and junior center Kali Stoddard-Imari, who’s averaging a double-double for the season.

“The talent we have hasn’t played together very much,” Rathburn said, adding that this includes returning players such as Somers and newcomers such as Fink and guard Cesar Martinez. “Playing together will help them for next year and the rest of this year.”

One problem that Rathburn says has been plaguing the team all season has been at the point guard position.

“We haven’t had a true point guard all year. Cesar and Ryan have done as good as they can given their now positions,” Rathburn said.

Rathburn believes that his team can win the rest of their games this season by and putting in a consistent effort into every practice and game, and by competing hard in every game.

“Myself and the guys are very excited about what we can do. If we compete every game like we competed against Eastern Connecticut State, we can go 6-0 in our last six games,” Rathburn said.

Senior captain Mike Paul feels that the team’s struggles this year have come down to simply finishing games strong.

“We just can’t finish. We’re in a lot of games until the last two or three minutes, then the other team goes to the line,” Paul said on the team’s road trip last weekend to Maine. “We’ve lost a lot of eight or ten-point games. A lot of the games we couldn’t finish were against North Atlantic Conference teams.”

Paul also discussed how the way the team plays affects the way it practices, as well as how the team needs to go into each game mentally ready to play.

“We practice the way we play. When we come mentally ready, we play really well, and when we don’t come mentally ready, we don’t,” Paul said.

According to Paul, he believes the new players have meshed well with the team, and that most of them will be together for two to three years.

“The inconsistencies will work themselves out. I see this team doing really well. I think they can do some damage in the (North Atlantic) conference,” Paul said.

As for the rest of this year, he believes that there’s only one thing the team can do to try and make the USCAA tournament.

“Win out,” he said with a laugh.