Photo by: Michael Furman
The men’s basketball team (7-5 SBC, 14-9) goes on the road this week in an attempt to end an eight-game road-losing streak and conquer a problem that has plagued the team over the past three seasons.
“When you go on the road, you got to play well. That’s the only way to win,” head coach Joe Scott said. “We have yet to play well on the road and that is why we have not been able to get it done.”
The task of winning on the road does not get any easier this week for the Pioneers. Both of the week’s opponents are ranked in the top four of the Sun Belt conference.
On Thursday, DU will travel to Murfreesboro, Tenn., to take on the Blue Raiders of Middle Tennessee (9-4 SBC, 14-11).
The Pioneers will have to shut down forward Desmond Yates in order to have a chance. Yates, a 6-foot-7-inch dynamic forward, is currently averaging 14.4 points a game and has not shot less than 10 points a game in his four years at MTU.
Following the game on Thursday, the Pioneers travel to Denton, Texas, to take on North Texas (8-5 SBC, 15-8). The Big Green are coming off a season in which they fell in the final round of the Sun Belt conference tournament. The Texas team has four leading scorers, who have chalked up an average of 74.6 points per game.
This week is critical for the Pioneers’ season. With only six games remaining before the start of the SBC tournament and coming off a disappointing month, DU is looking for much needed momentum.
“We are in February and college basketball is all about February. That’s what it all comes down to,” said Scott. “February is about the players making themselves get better and improving individually. We need to see that maturity in our players now.”
Senior captain Nate Rohnert, the team’s leading scorer and only starting senior, started February on a high note when he scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds in last Saturday’s 73-63 victory over Florida Atlantic in Magness Arena.
“We need to go back to playing DU basketball by being both strong and aggressive,” Rohnert said. “When we go on the road, we want to take the game to them more and try to control the game a bit more and not let it get away from us.”
With the win over FAU, the Pioneers extended their home win streak to 13 consecutive games.
The victory came at the right time for the Pioneers, who had lost four of their previous five games and needed a conference win to stay alive and get one of the top seeds in the post-season tournament.
In order to continue the early February success, the Pioneers will need to have consistency from every player, Scott said,
“Our program is at the point where it’s the players’ responsibility to take over and it’s their drive to get better and improve that is going to make us get rid of this position where we are just that close but not quite there,” Scott said.
