“Not much went right,” reflected Dinos men’s basketball Assistant Coach Wayne Thomas on last weekend’s games against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
Indeed, with losses of 88-82 Fri., Jan. 9 and 78-52 Sat., Jan. 10, it would appear that things went from bad to worse on the Dinos’ poorest weekend of the season.
"They were ready to go," said the Dinos’ Brad Summers, whose six points Saturday were tops on the team. "They have a new gym, and they played well."
Other words were less kind, but not of the Huskies.
"We’re extremely disappointed," said Thomas. "We turned the ball over 20 times [on Friday], we were out-rebounded, the team wasn’t together. We were very unimpressive on defence."
Summers noted the significance of the games as important to the start of the season’s crucial last leg.
"The heart of the season is coming up," he said. "We needed to beat them. If it comes down to a wildcard draw [to determine playoff participants], that could count against us."
Despite the importance of the weekend’s games–the first back from the Christmas break–winning was not necessarily the most important outcome in the eyes of the team’s coaching staff.
Following Friday night’s poor performance, four of five starters were benched for what Summers termed "disciplinary" action. While Thomas declined comment on the details of the situation, he stood behind the decision to play only Jon Salgado of the original five, despite losing the game by over 20 points and sliding two points in the standings, leaving the Dinos in second place behind the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
"The guys on the floor deserved to be," said Thomas. "[This team] needs a new attitude. We need to get refocused and give more. [On the court] our big concentration is defence, more intensity."
The Dinos are in for a long week of hard work and hard thought about the team’s priorities. The men host the University of Victoria Fri., Jan. 16 and the University of British Columbia Sat., Jan. 17. Hopefully a week of preparation and reflection will be enough to return the Dinos to their pre-Christmas level of play.