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After winning 19 games last season, the men’s basketball team believes they can keep improving to finish above that mark while they contend for a possible conference crown.
“Getting more than 19 wins means we will be a 20-win ball club and we could get national recognition,” said sophomore guard Chase Hallam. “We want to win a conference championship and we have a chance to do that this year
The Pioneers are coming off a season that ended with a 63-56 loss to North Texas in the Sun Belt Conference semi-finals.
The team knows that it will have to go farther than that if it wants to reach the ultimate goal of the Divisional I national men’s basketball tournament—a feat the team has yet to accomplish.
“One thing I love about the system is that our principles are always the same, but every year the intensity goes up along with the expectations to play better,” said captain Kyle Lewis.
Denver returns seven of its eight top scorers from last season and four of five starters. However, they do lose former captain Nate Rohnert, the school’s No. 9 leading scorer of all time.
Despite his absence, Scott feels the team is bringing back enough experience to continue growing and adding to what it accomplished last year.
“When you have the guys coming back that we do, the guys we believe are right for our system, then it makes things a lot different,” said Scott.
While replacing Rohnert’s talent on the court won’t be easy, the team does boast three guards in Hallam, Lewis and junior Brian Stafford who all bring lots of experience to the table.
As a freshman last year, Hallam started all 32 games, while finishing seventh in the conference in field goal percentage.
Stafford has started all 63 games since joining the program in 2008.
As for a potential loss in leadership from Rohnert’s departure, the team is unified under the concept that every individual player can be a leader on the court.
“Coach is asking everyone to bring leadership to the team,” said Lewis. “A good team doesn’t have one leader, it has to be 10 or 11 or 12 guys who can help the team battle through all 33 games this season.”
The Pioneers will implement two new players this season, redshirt sophomore center Trevor Noonan and freshman forward Chris Udofia.
“Trevor can contribute in a lot of different ways; he is a big body in the post that can push around the other teams bug guys,” said Scott. “We need guys like him, Andrew Hooper and Justin Coughlin to crash the board constantly.”
The two new faces, as well as all the returning players will be challenged right away, beginning this Friday night when they travel to Eugene, Ore., to participate in the BTI Invitational.
First up is reigning Big West champion UC Santa Barbara, who Scott says the Pioneers will begin preparation for this week.
On Saturday, the Pioneers face Pac 10 member Oregon and finish the weekend Sunday by playing North Dakota State.
The schedule doesn’t ease up much for Denver as they face several top mid-major teams, including Colorado State, Utah State, St. Mary’s and Portland.
“Our out-of-conference schedule this year is a huge indication for where we think this program is and where we are headed,” said Scott.
The most important component to the season is how the Pioneers fair in conference play, according to Scott.
“What we want to do is be playing our best basketball in the last nine weeks of the season, starting on Jan. 1,” said Scott. “Last year we played our best in the final five weeks. This year we are hoping to make the improvement to nine weeks, which is our entire conference schedule, because playing well in conference is what extends your season at the end of the year.”
In the preseason conference rankings announced two weeks ago, the Pioneers were picked to finish third in the SBC’s West Division behind Arkansas State and defending conference champs North Texas.
In addition, DU failed to get one player on any of the conferences three preseason teams.
“If we are the fifth or sixth best team, then the Sun Belt must be a really good league,” said Scott. “In our program the ‘we’ comes before the individual and that’s the way we want it. If we win, then individuals begin to be recognized.”
As for expectations, they have been set and announced them clearly—conference championship and 20 overall wins.
“We don’t want to look too forward, but we know we have an opportunity to win a lot of games this year,” said Stafford. “We want to take it one step at a time, but we want to win a conference tournament and that is pretty clear to us.”
The last time the men’s basketball program won 20 games was during the 2004-2005 season where they finished 20-11 and lost in the first round of the National Invitation Tournament. The Pioneers joined Division I in 1998-1999 and have only won 20 games once.
