(Originally ran in the Alestle, print and online)
SIUE men's basketball Head Coach Lennox Forrester said a successful season in sports is often marked by wins and losses.
By those standards, the 5-23 season posted by the SIUE men's basketball team was unsuccessful, but Forrester thinks about it differently.
He said 2009-2010 was a year marked by progress, as the program has now completed two of four probationary seasons mandated for reclassification into NCAA Division I.
"If you are not playing at 110 percent every night, you are going to be embarrassed like we have. That's a part of it," Forrester said. "There were some nights we lost by 20-something points [to more established schools], and I thought our guys did a pretty good job."
During the course of the season, SIUE was handed its share of blowout losses. The Cougars lost 12 games by more than 20 points and four by more than 30 points, including two against Murray State University, a member of the Cougar's future home, the Ohio Valley Conference. SIUE ended the season ranked No. 318 in the Ratings Percentage Index, out of 347 D-I schools.
Putting aside their record, sophomore forward Mark Yelovich, a preseason first-team All-Independent player and the Cougar's rebound leader (5.9 rpg) and leading scorer (16.3 ppg) said there are positives to take from what was, in a small sense, a championship season: a Drake Hy-Vee championship season.
"We beat a really good Drake [University] team and a good team in [the University of Texas at] Arlington and won the tournament," Yelovich said. "I really don't know what happened to us that weekend."
Following a 10-day break in the schedule and a 57-50 loss at the Vadalabene Center to the University of North Dakota, Feb. 7, the Cougars played well down the stretch, aside from a 78-40 loss to Indiana-University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne Feb. 23.
In the final leg of the schedule in which the Cougars logged 5,800 miles of travel, SIUE knocked off North Dakota by 15 points and came within four points of California State University at Fullerton, their opponent in ESPN's Bracketbuster series. Following the loss to IPFW, SIUE defeated Hannibal LaGrange College to round out the season.
"[Down the stretch] we played really well. We shot the ball and executed," Yelovich said. "We played a good Cal State Fullerton team, and made some shots, but it didn't go our way. Despite that loss, you can't be disappointed with it. IPFW was a struggle."
Yelovich said the amount of traveling during the final four games and throughout the season took a physical toll on the team.
"Not to make an excuse, but we did a lot of traveling, and not everyone was on their game against IPFW," Yelovich said. "We let it slip away from us."
According to senior guard Stephen Jones, the Cougars lacked the focus they needed toward the end of the season.
"It's tough going through what we have been through. Losing the games that we did, and we played some close games, but it's a grind," Jones said. "We kind of got worn out and almost use to losing."
Jones, who was depended upon in the starting lineup by Forrester throughout the season for defensive purposes, was one of four seniors on SIUE's roster. The others included guard Aamir McCleary, forward Denycko Bowles and Dane Church, a role player off the end of the bench.
McCleary will graduate as one of SIUE's top 10 career assist leaders and averaged 11.3 points per contest this season. His average 4.7 assists per game is currently good for 63rd in the nation.
After his final game as a Cougar, McCleary said he has seen improvement from the beginning of the season in some of the team's younger players, a group that includes players like freshmen LeShaun Murphy and Zeke Schneider.
"The younger guys showed a vast amount of improvement, and there are nothing but good things to come in the next couple years," McCleary said. "I expect good things from the young kids coming in as well."
SIUE has signed on three freshmen for next season, in Michael Messer and Gerald Jones of St. Louis and Alex Brown of Herrin. Forrester said he is also recruiting at junior colleges to round out next season's roster.
Forrester said it is too early to tell how big of an impact his new recruits will have on SIUE's success in future seasons because of the transition from high school basketball to D-I competition.
"We have a couple freshmen coming in, and you just don't know how they are going to do," Forrester said. "It's a big adjustment, but we should be improved."
Recruiting during the transition to D-I is a tall task for Forrester because of SIUE's ineligible postseason status.
"Going through the years of the transition, recruiting will get easier," Forrester said. "It will still be tough, but it's hard to tell a young man that watches basketball on TV and the tournament, 'hey, come play for four years and not play in the post-season.' As we go through the years it will still be a challenge, but get easier."
Jones said the possibility of post-season play for future SIUE teams can play a motivating factor, which can dictate success.
"Once SIUE can play in conference tournaments, in conference play and in the NCAA tournament, better players will start coming in and it will give the team something to play for," Jones said.
Forrester also said this season's team had little more to play for than pride.
"Every night we are the underdog, and that will come easier in conference play," Forrester said. "It's a motivation when you can look up at the standings. There is a goal. These guys are playing for nothing. All they have is the challenge and the pride they have to play for every single game."
Toughness, concentration and basic fundamentals such as shooting, will serve as focal points for Forrester as he tries to address this season's problems in order to improve upon the next.
"There are a lot of words you can use to define our team, but toughness sums up a lot of things like concentration and execution," Forrester said. "Concentration is following the game plan night in and night out. We got better, but not fast enough."
Concentration for Forrester's team boils down to the fundamentals, and he said next year's SIUE team needs to be better mentally at shooting the basketball. On the season, SIUE averaged 39 percent shooting from the field, with opponents shooting 47 percent. SIUE shot 51 more three-pointers than their opponents on the season, averaging 31 percent.
Rebounding was also a problem for SIUE, especially early in the season. The Cougars' average rebounding margin for the year was negative seven. The Cougars' starting center, junior Nikola Bundalo was third on the team with 3.7 rebounds per game, behind Yelovich and McCleary.
SIUE's crash course in D-I continues next season, and once again, Forrester is not shying away from power-conference competition in the early going. The Cougars will play at Indiana University and current No. 25 Northern Iowa University as part of preliminary play in the Las Vegas Invitational. Following those games, the Cougars will travel to Nevada to play two neutral court games against yet to be determined opponents.
Forrester said he is a proponent of in-season tournaments, because they give his team something to play for. Aside from winning the Drake Hy-Vee Classic this season, the program earned its first win of the D-I era at last year's Charleston Classic against Western Michigan University.
"With the experience we had this year at Drake and last year at Charleston, I think it's great to go somewhere and hopefully be able to get some wins," Forrester said.
Other notable road games Forrester said will be on the Cougars' 2010-2011 schedule include a return trip to Illinois State University and a game against the University of Iowa, of the Big Ten Conference. The Cougars will get a bigger look at the OVC, with home and away meetings scheduled against the league's top two teams, Murray State and Morehead State. Southeast Missouri State University and the University of Tennessee at Martin will play return games at the Vadalabene Center.
California State University at Fullerton will not make their return trip to the Vadalabene Center required for participating in Bracketbusters until 2011-201, because of previous scheduling commitments.
Forrester said a number of nationally recognized programs have been calling him trying to schedule SIUE in order to fulfill guarantee games on their schedules.
"Coaches pull out the RPI and look to the teams at the bottom because they think it will be an easier win," Forrester said. "We are getting the big dogs. I have been called by [the University of] Michigan, Michigan State [University], Gonzaga [University], you name it."
Yelovich, who will be relied upon heavily next season, said the ultimate goal of moving forward is to get better, and eventually win.
"We really didn't have a great season, but D-I is tough and you have to be a good team to compete with all these great players," Yelovich said. "Hopefully we learn from our mistakes and come out next year a little more focused and have the confidence to be in every game."
2.26.2010
SIUE basketball season wrap
Friday, February 26, 2010
Allan J. Lewis
