Just halfway through the conference season, the women’s basketball team has a 9-4 conference record and the men’s team has a 10-3 conference record as of press time.
With the NCAA tournament in March, both teams said they are preparing to finish out the season strong and work through different challenges. Junior Weston Jameson said the season has gone very well for the Bison basketball team.
“We are exactly where we want to be,” Jameson said. “We are first in the conference, avoided the injury bug and still have several areas we can improve.”
Sophomore Arielle Saunders said the season so far has been great even though they have played against some tough teams.
“The most rewarding part of the season so far has been seeing our team grow closer, get tougher and get one step closer to achieving our goals with every game,” Saunders said.
Men’s head basketball coach Jeff Morgan said that the most rewarding thing this season has been the team’s chemistry.
“We have a great group of guys,” Morgan said. “Our upperclassman are giving us great leadership, our freshman are doing a great job. So, throughout the lineup and throughout the team, I think our chemistry is great and to see these guys have the kind of year they are having, that’s pretty special for them. Hopefully we can finish it off and it be a special occasion.”
According to the women’s head basketball coach Tim Kirby, each season presents different challenges because of the long conference season. He said the team just has to stay in the moment and not dwell on the past.
Morgan said the biggest challenge during the rest of the season will be the traveling that comes with playing on the road.
“I think our biggest challenge is going to be the next couple of weeks being on the road and playing and because of the position we have played ourselves into,” Morgan said. “We’ve had a great season so far but we know that every night that we go play in this conference, we are playing against really good teams and it’s just really difficult to get wins on the road.”
There are still two chances to see the Bisons and the Lady Bisons play in the Rhodes Field House this semester: Feb. 21 and March 2.
Kirby said he believes that students are valuable to the basketball team’s success.
“When you compare our crowds to other schools around the country, no matter what level, our games in Rhodes Fieldhouse blow them away,” Kirby said.
