Jefferson Hagen
MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – With the team slowly returning to full health, MacEwan Griffins men's basketball head coach Mike Connolly is close to being able to run the lineups he envisioned when he first put this team together.
Job Janda and Cornelius Glasgow didn't play in the first week of the season as they nursed injuries, but they'll be joining the squad for this weekend's road trip to Saskatchewan.
The Griffins have matches against the Huskies on Friday (7 p.m. MT) and Saturday (6 p.m. MT, both Canada West TV).
"We're just missing Joel (Seke) now or we'd have everyone healthy on our team," said Connolly, who hasn't had a full lineup yet since training camp began in August. "But we're getting (healthier) and that helps our depth.
"Last weekend, we played hard, we had a close game, but at certain times of the game we had to play some rookies who weren't used to it, and there were some mistakes made – to be expected. Now, we have a solid eight guys that we play, and we'll rotate. I think we have better quality of depth now."
That issue was particularly seen in their home opener loss to Mount Royal last Friday as the Griffins had five players foul out – including three starters – hampering their efforts in the final minutes of a 101-90 loss.
MacEwan also lost 87-79 in the second game of the series to the Cougars, but ultimately finished the weekend showing signs they're not going to be an easy out for team across the conference.
"It's going to be a tough league," said Connolly. "There's no clear favourite in our conference and I think you're going to see teams beating each other every time. So, we've just got to go out, be prepared to play every game, not worried about what happened in the past and only worried about what goes on in the future."
And that's the task at hand, looking for success against a Saskatchewan squad that split with the Alberta Golden Bears last weekend.
"I think they're very athletic," said Connolly. "They defend very well. It's going to give us some challenges dealing with their ball pressure. And they crash hard.
"We can play with them. It's going to matter of whether we match their intensity and their urgency."
