Article by Zach Rudeen. Photo by Zach Rudeen.
After a quick visit to Texas, the St. Cloud State Men’s Basketball team kicks off a new season. The Huskies beat Lubbock Christian University convincingly Saturday afternoon 69-55. They lost the next day to Missouri Western State University 80-73. The team showed signs of what’s to come this season.
There’s a lot of optimism surrounding the St. Cloud State Men’s Basketball team despite coming off five straight losing seasons. A young team consisting of just freshmen and sophomores in totality provided excitement and flashes of good basketball last season and early this year.
Head Coach Quincy Henderson and his staff have put together this young, talented roster of great recruits with players coming from five different states, and three from Australia.
The Huskies had three of their current sophomores start in 90% or more of the games last season. The team saw six members of last year’s freshman class start at some point in the season. Some of those players were team leaders in categories like scoring (Jammir Allen, 10.2 PPG) rebounding (Wyatt Hawks, 5.8 RPG) blocks (Lucas Morgan, 0.6 BPG), and steals (Jammir Allen, 1.1 SPG).
The roster is young and will present some unique challenges and things the team is ready to improve on already heading into this season, one of those being efficiency.
“I think efficiency is the biggest thing, we weren’t terribly efficient last season. Taking care of the ball and being more efficient is something we’re really hammering on over the next month,” said Coach Henderson.
The team ranked 2nd to worst in the conference last year from an efficiency standpoint. The team shot 42.3% from the field, 34.3% from three-point range, and 73.4% from the free-throw line.
The freshmen of last year had to adjust quickly to a new level of basketball due to their already large roles.
“Once you get to college everybody’s way bigger, way stronger,” said big-man Wyatt Hawks.
Hawks saw a large improvement as the season went on. Hawks started the year off the bench and eventually found himself in the starting lineup by year’s end.
There’s a flashinesses and effectiveness to the guard duo of Jammir Allen and Anish Ramlall. Allen, despite being a freshman last season, led the Huskies in scoring at 10.2 points-per-game. Allen provides elite shot creation ability, someone who’s hard for defenders to stay in front of. Allen also made an impact on defense leading the team in steals with 1.1 per game. Anish Ramlall started all 27 of his games played for the Huskies last season. Ramlall finished second in assists on the team averaging 2.2 per game. He provided point guard play with the ability to take three’s, and took them at a high clip at 4.9 attempts apergame, making 34% of his attempts.
The frontcourt is also loaded with talent, anchored by big-man Wyatt Hawks. Wyatt is a talented paint scorer and capable rim protector and rebounder. His development since high school is very clear, adding to his frame a lot. Lucas Morgan is a do-it-all wing who can play defense on and off the ball, run in transition, drive to the basket, and shoot threes. New freshman Kynan Phillipe has made an early impression averaging 13 points-per-game in the team’s first two contests, shooting an impressive 45% from three.
The team is far from a finished product, but the culture and system being built have a chance to be great. Look for the Huskies to make some noise this season in the NSIC, and rise in the standings.
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