McMaster basketball is on the rise

The tip-off of the 2013-14 OUA season marks 2786 days since the McMaster Marauders last saw the CIS Final 8 tournament. That’s seven years, seven months, and 15 days. The only drought that was longer was from 1970 to 1985.

This year is looking like the one where that all ends. With a roster so deep that some reserves would be starting on other OUA teams, McMaster has a shot to get back to the national tournament. Head coach Amos Connolly insists that this is the goal, but not because of the drought.

“We want to get to nationals because we’re fed up of watching it. We feel that this is the level we should be playing at. History is not the motivator,” says Connolly.

Entering his fourth year as the bench boss for the Marauders, Connolly truly owns the program now. While in past years, there has been hold over from the Joe Raso era, there is only Nathan Pelech remaining from that era. Pelech is a team leader and one of the players Connolly says he has the best relationship with.

It’s been a turbulent four years, but there is a palpable optimism surrounding the team this year. What has fostered that optimism has been the team’s decision to move towards building a culture of family and accountability. Through pre-season road trips to Laval, Que. and the University of Calgary, Connolly says he sees an increased intensity in the team.

The core of the team is experienced now; Adam Presutti, Joe Rocca, Nathan McCarthy and Aaron Redpath all have two years under their belt, Taylor Black made the leap to being a top player in country in his third year and Pelech is providing the veteran mentorship that a national contender needs (see: 2013 Lakehead Thunderwolves, who had six fifth-year players and grabbed a CIS silver medal finish.)

“There’s a maturity there now. You can see it in the way the guys communicate with each other and with the young guys,” says Connolly of that 2011 rookie class. While those players have stepped into leadership roles, Black has also taken on the responsibility of leading this team to nationals.

In 2012-13, Black finished fourth in the country in Player Efficiency Rating, a sabermetric that boils every statistic down to one number to gauge a player’s effectiveness. The players ahead of him? Phil Scrubb, Tyson Hinz and Clinton Springer-Williams – all starting players for the CIS champion Carleton Ravens. The Stoney Creek, Ont. native also rebounded at an impressive clip, grabbing 22% of Mac’s defensive rebounds. All of the on-court pieces are in place for Black, but for this team to reach its potential, it will need Black to get more out of his teammates.

“You can see it now. You can see the way he commands himself in practice and the way our guys trust him. This is a break-out for him and we’re just working on him simplifying his game,” Connolly said of the Marauder’s lead power forward.

The path to nationals runs through arguably the toughest conference in the CIS. With the Oct. 29 CIS top-ten rankings having four of the top six teams hailing from Ontario, Mac cannot afford a slow start.

Last year, McMaster finished the interlock portion of the season 2-5. If the team wants to make a serious run this year, they’ll need to do a much better job against their OUA East counterparts. That’s a tall order, as Carleton, Ottawa and Ryerson are No. 1, 3 and 4 in the CIS rankings respectively.

With Carleton hosting this year’s CIS basketball championships, they receive an automatic berth. That means three teams are coming out of the OUA. McMaster should no doubt be a team competing for that spot and end the Final 8 drought.

Women's team looks to take next step

New year, same mantra: it’s all about the process. After seeing Danielle Boiago and Hailey Milligan put the OUA notice with simultaneous breakout seasons, McMaster finished fourth in the conference after losing to Ottawa in the bronze medal match.

With those players back in the lineup and having another strong offseason according to head coach Theresa Burns, McMaster needs to pay extra attention to detail in order to take the next step. This is something familiar territory, as last year the team did just that. Mac stumbled out of the gate, going 3-4 in interlock play, but recovered in the second half to make their way to the bronze medal game.

That bounce-back didn’t surprise Burns. As the team followed the process and the young bench began to round into form, McMaster thrashed teams like Laurier and Brock who had beat them earlier in the year.

“This year, we need to get to a peak quicker and maintain it through November. Then we need to get to a higher peak in the second half,” says Burns.

Getting to that peak earlier in the season is going to be very difficult, as the Marauders are without two key members of the rotation. Isabel Ormond had shoulder surgery over the summer. The jack-of-all-trades wing player suffered a shoulder injury in a game against Carleton in November 2012, popped it back in and played through discomfort all season. Burns says there were multiple times after that where Ormond would have to pop the shoulder back in throughout the season. The timeline for her recovery is to get “Izzy” back on court in January.

The anticipated debut of top-recruit Jelena Mamic is going to be delayed for a year, as she tore her ACL before even graduating high school.

Burns will rely on Vanessa Bonomo, Boiago and Milligan as the “engine” of the squad, and if any of them have an off night, McMaster could struggle. Last year, Mac had deep rotation, with nine players averaging double-digit minutes per game. Expect more of the same this year, as the veteran coach looks to employ a unique strategy.

“We don’t want players to pace themselves. We want them to burn out, grab a second on the bench, and then go back out and burn out again,” says Burns.

In order to do this though, players need to adhere to the process put in place. They have to trust their teammates to do patchwork while the starters rest. Burns is confident in the strategy, and points to the preseason gold medal game against the University of Saskatchewan for proof.

“In the Sask game, in the second half, we had five people on compare viagra prices the court who absolutely went bananas and gave it everything they had and were absolutely gassed. But they brought a ten-point deficit back and tied the game,” says Burns. “Then, we put fresh legs in and they went for about a minute and we went back to the ones that had turned it around, and they were recovered.”

Burns admits that it’s tough to condition players to ask for substitutions, but believes that the group will change their mind once the results are there.

McMaster is in a tough conference again, as the Windsor Lancers opened the season as the No.1 ranked team in the CIS. The Lancers returned all of their major contributors from last season and are a lock for a medal finish at the CIS championships.

But since the Lancers are hosting the Final 8 tournament this year, there is another berth on the line. If McMaster finishes anywhere in the top-three in the OUA playoffs, they will earn a Final 8 bid – something that a team with three fifth-year players will be eager to do.

It’ll take a top to bottom effort over the long season, with little margin for error. But with a solid system in place, a trip to nationals is within grasp.