Basketball season is in full swing and 16 games into the season; this young team has been putting in a lot of work already.
“This group of guys has done a great job of being about the process regardless of the results,” head coach Jeff Morgan said. “They’ve been great about the process of trying to be better every day and coming in here with great attitudes, great work ethic and really investing themselves in the process.”
Leading that process has been sophomore guard Will Francis, who has made the challenging switch of moving from the post in 2014 to the role of point guard this year.
“I have just been working on what I can control,” Francis said. “That is giving great effort and having a great attitude. I think one of our strengths is that we are a very unselfish team and we really do not care who takes the shots. That’s the way we beat people.”
Senior forward Mak Boskailo, a new addition to this year’s team said encouraging each other and being selfless have been hallmarks of the team this year.
“Coach tries to tell us two positive things per minute,” Boskailo said. “That has really set the tone for us in staying positive in each other. Everyone is really about the team and roots for each other.”
Francis, Boskailo and Morgan all agree that a strength of this year’s team is their support of one another, but they also know there are areas they need to improve. Boskailo said that defensive rebounding and cutting down on turnovers have been aspects that the team has continually worked on so far this year.
Growing pains, however, are only natural for such a young team.
“It is a very unusual year for us to only have one senior,” Morgan said. “Most of the time we will have maybe three or four, but Mak has handled it unbelievably.”
Boskailo is the team’s only senior and a transfer from Colorado State University-Pueblo.
“I am happy that I am here for this year with this group of guys and with our coach,” Boskailo said. “It is really rare that someone could find something like this. It is a really good environment.”
As for the rest of the season, the team is taking it one game at a time.
“Coach always says that it is not a sprint, it is a marathon,” Francis said. “There are still a lot of games left. It is just a matter of taking care of them now.”
Many tough games remain for the Bisons, but Morgan said he knows that in order to be standing at the end of the season once again, they will need to take things one game at a time.
“I think the hardest game is always your next one,” Morgan said. “In this league, there is tremendous balance, so to me it is always your next one.”
The Bisons play University of Arkansas at Monticello tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Rhodes Field House. Results of the Arkansas Tech game on Thursday, Jan. 22 were unavailable as of press time.
