{"id":1770,"date":"2015-02-19T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/?p=1770"},"modified":"2015-02-19T09:00:30","modified_gmt":"2015-02-19T14:00:30","slug":"mens-basketball-steamrolls-the-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/2015\/02\/19\/mens-basketball-steamrolls-the-competition\/","title":{"rendered":"Men\u2019s Basketball Steamrolls the Competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JOHN WYATT – SPORTS SECTION EDITOR<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Men\u2019s Basketball is a strong athletic tradition at Centre College, and this year\u2019s team is playing like a well-oiled machine. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Colonels are coming off a strong season from last year, where they went 24-5 (13-1 in conference play), before losing to the Emory University Eagles in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Junior<\/a>
Junior forward Tyler Wesley goes up for a layup at the team\u2019s recent game against the Millsaps Majors. Wesley recorded five blocks during this game as part of the Colonels strong defensive outing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

This year, the Colonels started their season off strong, receiving only one loss in the first half of the season to the John Hopkins University Blue Jays during the Washington & Lee University Tournament in December. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The team was highly confident when entering conference play in January, but the Colonels struggled early on, losing two games to the Sewanee University of the South Tigers and the Birmingham-Southern College Panthers. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost confidence in ourselves after those couple of early losses in conference,\u201d senior guard\/forward Josh Karsner said. \u201cBut once we got that back, we have been a difficult team to take down.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Karsner is right. After losing to the Rhodes College Lynxes near the end of January, the Colonels won their next seven games. This includes a close win against the Millsaps College Majors this past Sunday, where a strong defensive effort helped them squeak by with the win. Junior forward Tyler Wesley made five of the teams six blocks. They also managed to hold Millsaps shooting to only 44 percent (22-50).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Colonels are playing well above their competition, but the top spot is still up for grabs. They are tied with the Rhodes College Lynxes for the number one spot in the Southern Athletic Association (SAA) conference, each with a 9-3 record. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game from here on out is vital,\u201d Karsner said. \u201cWe are still fighting for the top position in the conference, making every single game a \u2018big\u2019 game.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll three of our games left are very important,\u201d first-year forward Drew Burns said. \u201cIf we want to host the Conference Tournament at home, we need to win these next [two] games to have the best chance.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Looking forward, the Colonels are feeling optimistic about the remaining season. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur team is feeling relaxed and confident,\u201d Burns said. \u201cAny nerves that our team feels motivate us to work harder.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe are really excited about the remainder of the season because we know that we are capable of going out and winning every game, it\u2019s just a matter of rising to the challenge.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While the team set several goals at the start of the season, there are two that seem most important and the first one is just within sight. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat goal is the conference championship,\u201d sophomore guard Brett Jones said. \u201cCentre has won several conference championships in the past few years and we look to keep that trend going.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Karsner agrees with the goal of winning a championship, but points to something even more important \u2014 brotherhood. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOur desire is to win conference and make a run in the NCAA tournament, but those are more like destinations,\u201d Karsner said. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe goals we set were more about daily things we needed to do to become a better team in order to give ourselves the chance of winning conference and playing in the NCAA tournament. One big goal we had as a team was to become a family … and I can say without a doubt we have accomplished that this season.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This goal of the team\u2019s is the biggest source of their recent success. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing I would attribute to our success this season would be our team chemistry. We consider each other family and we genuinely enjoy being around on another,\u201d Jones said. \u201cI think that is an important factor in how a team plays.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of the outcome, Men\u2019s Basketball put on one heck of a performance this season, and it will be exciting to watch the remainder of their season as they look to dominate the conference and make a solid run into the NCAA tournament. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JOHN WYATT – SPORTS SECTION EDITOR Men\u2019s Basketball is a strong athletic tradition at Centre College, and this year\u2019s team is playing like a well-oiled machine. The Colonels are coming off a strong season from last year, where they went 24-5 (13-1 in conference play), before losing to the Emory University Eagles in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1771,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cento.centre.edu\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}