A lot of questions arose for the 2011-2012 season with the The Wave’s men’s basketball team. With new leadership at the helm in Head Coach Marty Wilson stepping in, the announcement that leading scorer Keion Bell would be transferring to the University of Missouri, and that the teams second leading scorer for the 2010-2011 season Lorne Jackson, would be out for the season after knee surgery, the Waves would be looking at an uphill battle for the entire season.
Despite these obstacles the Waves got off to a pretty good start, winning their first two games of the season and getting off to a 5-3 start for the season with two of those victories against an athletic University of Hawaii and an impressive victory on the road against Pac-12 participant Arizona State.
A lot of this early season success can be attributed to veteran leadership from returning players like senior Taylor Darby who lead the team in scoring all year averaging 12 ppg and junior guard Joshua Lowery who increased most of his statistical categories from his last year.
However, as the season grew on and injuries to players like senior guard Dane Suttle Jr., sophomore center Jan Maehlen, and forward Moriba De Freitas began to accumulate all within the first few weeks of the season the effects seemed to take its toll and the Waves season began to take a down spiral.
The teams struggles reached an all time low during its eight game losing streak to start conference play. Despite the struggles it was very apparent that the Waves did not lack effort throughout their games as they continued to hustle and battle in every game it was obvious that something else was missing throughout the season for the team. As senior guard Lorne Jackson admits “our team could of used another facilitator on the court, another veteran leader.” Guys like Lorne Jackson who would of been a returning starter and senior leader and forward Moriba De Freitas who could of brought depth to the Waves front court were truly missed throughout the season.
Despite the adversities and struggles encountered throughout the season some positives did result. Young talent like Ramon Eaton and Jordan Baker, who may of received a lot more play time this season then they may of gotten had injuries not effect the team gained a lot of experience throughout the season. At times these young guys showed shades of brilliance and can be confident that they will make a big impact next season if they learn from the mistakes they made this season.
However, as departing senior guard Lorne Jackson noted, “individual players have to have an identity of wanting to be the best.” It appears that is exactly what the team is deciding to do with returning players like Jan Maehlen admits that “he wants to build on some skills in order to have an impact next year.”
With guys like Taylor Darby (leading scorer) and Corbin Moore (leading rebounder) leaving after this season every player on the team must takes on this mindset and works hard this off-season. If this is done and new recruits like Stacy Davis and Atif Russell can make some type of impact then the 2012-2013 season could be a very successful one for the Waves.
The Waves will look to get their first season sweep of the season against the Santa Clara Broncos The team will then head to Las Vegas for the West Coast Conference tournament which starts on Feb. 23. Expect the Waves to be the No.7 or No.8 seed in the tournament.
