Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – The leap of progression the MacEwan men's basketball team took from their first game of the season last Friday to their second on Saturday was sizable.
In less than 24 hours, they went from being on the wrong end of a 102-71 blowout to a tight 88-81 defeat where they were within one point of UFV in the fourth quarter.
Now, the Griffins (0-2) head south for matches at Mount Royal University (1-1) on Friday (8 p.m.) and Saturday (7 p.m., both Canada West TV) looking to take the next step in their development.
"So far in practices, we've gotten better, so that's one of the things we wanted to do," said head coach Mike Connolly. "Right now, our only focus is Friday night. With this group of guys, we're not worried about records, we're not worried about winning, we're just worried about playing well Friday. If we play well Friday then that's going to give us a better chance to win."
Playing well is controlling the boards and coming out with the requisite defensive intensity that forces opponents into mistakes.
"We want to get after it defensively," said Connolly. "We have a goal that we want to get 10 defensive touches a quarter. That's what we're going to try to do – just to get a hand on the ball.
"Offensively, it's going to come. We're just going to be patient and keep working on it. We don't want the offence to be a stress, we want the defence to be stressed."
To have success, they're going to have to find a way to shut down MRU's dynamic duo of Holt Tomie and Keivonte Watts, who combined for 67 of the Cougars' points in a 94-75 win over Saskatchewan last Saturday.
And after that, it's about following the process.
"Right now, with young guys it's about not letting them worry about things they can't control," said Connolly. "You can't control winning. You can control the things to win – playing defence, rebounding, getting after it. So, that's the stuff we focus on.
"It's a process and it's hard to keep patient because guys want to win," he added. "But it's understanding we can't cut corners. I think we're feeling pretty good, and we'll go compete and see how it is."
