Coming back from winter break can be tough for any team, but that did not seem to be the case for the Suffolk men’s team this winter. In 2014 the Rams have posted a 4-2 record and showed everyone that the team is a serious contender for a top four GNAC playoff spot.
With Tuesday’s Lasell game cancelled because of the snow storm, the next game on the Rams schedule is against Emmanuel on Jan. 25. If Suffolk wins this game, the goal of reaching a no. 4 position in the league will be much more realistic.
Head coach Adam Nelson spoke about this year’s team and how much the team has improved since the beginning of the season.
“We are a pretty young team,” Nelson said. “We don’t have any seniors. We start two freshmen, two sophomores, and a first-year junior transfer, so we are a very young team. The last two games were really great wins on the road. In both of them we were down and came back and won in the end. Against Norwich we were down by 18 points and came back and won the game in the second half,” he said.
“Against Rivier we were down by nine points and turned it around again. A couple of weeks ago we beat Anna Maria here at home at the buzzer. Jake Meister hit a three-pointer in the last seconds of the game.”
“Comeback” has been the key word of the season so far, and the guys have shown an incredible will to fight for every point and win the games no matter how bad the score is. The will to fight is incredibly important for an athlete and it seems like the Suffolk team is a group of athletes who do not give up easily and fight to the very end. Besides being fighters, the Rams are also very talented.
Freshman Frantz Pinard has been playing outstandingly and was honored rookie of the week three times already this season.
“We’ve got very talented players and they make big shots at big times and a lot of different guys have stepped up. We get different contributions from different guys every time. There is a lot of talent in this team. The depth of the team is great” said Nelson.
Having no seniors on the team might have seemed like a disadvantage at the beginning of the season, but as fans have witnessed, a young team can achieve great results as well, and the future of men’s hoop has not looked this bright in a long time.
“When you have such a young team as we have, without any seniors, you are gonna go through some rough patches and we did. But we came out of that and I have to give the guys a lot of credit for that,” said Nelson. “It’s a really good group of guys, and that helps us in the fight for that fourth place in the conference that is very important, because the first four teams get to host the first round games in the playoffs.”
Men’s basketball has certainly turned around its season in 2014 and seem to be back in business. Now the team has to make sure it stays on the right track and secures a top four spot in the GNAC tournament.
