Copyright Anchorage Daily News
The University of Alaska Anchorage men’s basketball team is coming off its second losing season in the past three years with some new talent, key returners and “a lot to work on,” according to head coach Rusty Osborne. But Osborne said NCAA rules governing practices mean it’s been a relatively slow start to that process. “Unfortunately, with the way the rules are now, we have 25 practices in 35 days before Nov. 14, the start date of the NCAA Division II season unless you’re playing in exempt events,” he said. The issue with that setup is that every game played during that time counts toward a practice, so the Seawolves have had to space out their practice sessions, with only a few over the past several weeks. Their lack of time on task was reflected in their performances at the Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic last weekend, where they suffered a pair of double-digit losses to nationally ranked opponents. “We’re way behind in practice, and it showed there along with our injuries to two of our main guys in Jeremiah Coleman and Sylas Williams,” Osborne said. “We’re just not prepared enough because we haven’t had enough practice opportunities.” Facing a pair of elite teams — No. 2 Daemen and No. 15 Florida Southern — right out of the gate reminded the team that “Division II basketball is different,” senior forward Bishop Tosi said. “It takes a lot, we have a lot of things that we have to clean up, but I think we’ve recognized those issues and we’re going to keep building on our way to March,” he added. The Seawolves will see their first home action Saturday when they host Evergreen State at 1 p.m. at Alaska Airlines Center. Tosi’s fellow senior and longtime friend, Hasaan Herrington, echoed similar sentiments about their first non-scrimmage live experience of the season and shared that the Seawolves fully intend to turn their weaknesses into strengths. “We’ve got places to grow,” he said. “It was good to play people that good. … We knew we had some errors, but they showed us where our faults are at and we came back ready to work.” Importance of leadership during last ride As leaders and local products in their final year of eligibility, Herrington and Tosi took it upon themselves to make sure everyone was getting along and coming together off the court so their bond on the court would be that much stronger. “I think we have a good group of guys,” Tosi said. “Everyone is excited to play and we’re hopeful that we can build what we want and be successful.” Being the best defender in the GNAC remains a major goal for Herrington, but being a great teammate and veteran leader is even more important to him now. “I’m embracing every day, learning everything I can even though I’m a fifth-year senior, I just want to be a sponge to the game,” he said. “All the knowledge I do have, I want to give it to the transfers and the younger guys.” Leadership of seniors like Tosi and Herrington is going to be “huge” for the Seawolves this year, according to Osborne, because they have a lot of players who haven’t had to travel as often or as far to competitions when it comes to away games. “It takes some maturity and discipline to understand that we’re on a business trip and even though the sun is out and we got a little bit of free time during the day, we still have to remain focused on the task at hand, and that’s trying to win basketball games,” he said. While their 10-day trip down to Florida didn’t result in any wins, it still served as a valuable team-bonding experience that brought them closer together. “Everyone has been locked in and having good togetherness and we’re ready to go,” Herrington said. “We’re gelling together really well from the first day.” Most of the team-bonding activities have included them “just being guys” says Tosi. The players like to hang out, play video games, watch movies and especially enjoy hitting up Costco for dinner on a regular basis. “I just started getting into the little turkey melt thing but a lot of the guys go pizza and hot dog,” Herrington said. “They have a really good chocolate chip cookie and Jesse (Stines) likes to get their sundaes.” Tosi believes that doing everyday activities such as sharing meals and spending their downtime together build camaraderie. “It makes it a lot easier for us to get on each other on the court and push each other to be better,” he said. As a team, they’re taking a game-by-game approach and using each contest as a learning experience that can be applied to the next time they step on the court. “It’s hard to put an end goal on it, knowing that you have to get a lot of small wins to get that big win so we just want to be better the next day than we were the day before,” Herrington said. Replenishing the ranks The Seawolves lost a handful of seniors from last year’s team to graduation and had other players leave the program via transfer, as was the case with starting guard Tyler Burraston. Former Grace Christian standout Sloan Lentfer decided to stop playing basketball altogether and focus on other aspects of his life outside of sports. Despite those key departures, Osborne is happy with the size and athleticism of the new recruits they brought in this offseason. “It’s to be seen how well we shoot the ball as a group, but I like the pieces we have and I think that we’re a little bit more balanced from position to position,” he said. Two new young pieces familiar to the Alaska hoops landscape are freshmen guards Muhammed Sabally and Marek Hajdukovich, who both Tosi and Herrington have known for years. “Marek is still coming off surgery in the springtime so he’s very limited in what he can do so just conditioning,” Osborne said. “Muhammed has fought some minor injuries since we’ve been in practice so he’s behind a little bit but he’s talented and the more reps he gets, the better he’s going to get.” While Coleman and Williams are injured, Osborne expects the newcomers to play major roles on the team. Other new faces include junior guards Cole Johnson and Elijah Mobley as well as Akok “Cookie” Machar, who led the team scoring with double figures in each of their first two games. “Obviously we didn’t win very many games last year so we addressed those issues in some recruiting,” Tosi said. “Once we really get meshed together, it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
