The Suffolk University men’s basketball team has gone through a lot of changes since last year. There are many new names on the roster with legendary names like Pepdjonovic and Halpin no longer on the squad. These two skillful players will be greatly missed this year, especially when it comes to the offense of the team. Pepdjonovic and Halpin were major forces for the Rams last season and both scored more than 1,000 points in their four-year careers. It is going to be interesting to see how the team will do without these two titans this year and with the recent recruiting’s things are looking more than bright for the Rams.
Watching practice, it is clear what coach Adam Nelson has brought in this year that was missing in some parts last year: physical strength and size. Several of the new recruits are around 6’5″ and muscular enough to be UFC-fighters. Having these kind of guys on the team does not only intimidate the opponents, but it also useful for improvement in both defense and offense. With the physical strength and structure of this year’s team, the guys could easily pass as a football team. Of course strength is not the only thing you have to have in your team to win matches – pure talent and motivation is as important. The team showed all these three elements in their season opener against Division I school University of New Hampshire.
In this game we saw that the Rams have what it takes to challenge a DI team. Last year the guys lost this game while this year the score was much closer. Suffolk lost 70-94 to the Wildcats to the strong New Hampshire. Suffolk played an outstanding match and gave all they had out on the court. Especially in the first half the Rams were doing very well as they only lost the half by 8 points. In the second half Suffolk was close as well as the Rams lost it 32-48. A couple of players stood out for the Rams. Two of them were Matt Powers who scored 19 points and newly recruited Sam Nwadike who got 15 points and five assists. Also last year’s Suffolk rookie of the year Caleb Unni had a great game with 10 points and one assist. After the game junior forward Adam Kaplan praised his team: “Our team is really good. We have a young team and it should be exciting to watch how we will do this season.”
Next match for Suffolk men’s hoop is on Saturday Nov. 16 against Western New England College in the Connecticut College Tournament.
