Men’s Bball ready for MWC Tournament Action

It was a rough start to the season for men’s basketball, as the team graduated nearly the entire starting lineup from a season ago. In addition to the loss of experienced players within the program, the Scots had an influx of transfer players, most notably Will Carius.

“Early on we were mixing a lot of guys that had never played together and had never played under our coaching staff, so there was definitely a growth period there. But since January 1st we’ve been playing much better basketball” said Skrivseth.

As for what specifically has resulted in Monmouth racking up the wins in the back half of the season there are a “number” of areas that improvement has been seen. Skrivseth says, “We started to consistently defend and rebound. We made some changes offensively that better suited some of our guys. We started taking care of the basketball better, turnovers were a huge issue for us early. We’re getting productive possessions consistently which has translated into better results for us as a team.”

There’s confidence from the coach that they can repeat their championship from a season ago and Skrivseth stressed the importance of momentum. “We’ve beaten every team that’s in the tournament, so there’s no reason to think we can’t go up there and win it all. I’ll be honest with you, momentum at this time of the year is really important and nobody’s got more momentum than us.”

Playing St. Norbert in the final game of the regular season is an opportunity that Skrivseth believes helped prepare the team heading into the rematch on Fri.

“Because of their style of play, we should be ready for it. They play a very physical style. I thought in the first ten-minutes [of Sat. game] we had to adjust to that a bit and there shouldn’t be that adjustment period in this game because we know exactly what to expect from them.”

“We talked after the Cornell loss, that it’s time to get in playoff basketball mode. Playoff basketball there’s a little different sense of urgency, the intensity level, the stakes get raised. The guys embraced that and that’s been how we’ve been playing for over two-weeks and we just need to continue with what we’re doing.”

Tate Heiple
Sports Editor