Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

Photo by Eric zitz

Basketball is Back

By katie norland

kmnorland@vwc.edu

For the past few years, the Virginia Wesleyan men’s basketball team has been a strong force to be reckoned with—both in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and nationally. Especially after winning the 2005-2006 Division III National Title and being runner-up in the 2006-2007 season.

This year is expected to be no different. The Marlins head into the 2007-2008 season ranked No. 2 in the ODAC and in the Top 10 nationally.

“We have changed some things up and tweaked our system,” said head coach Dave Macedo. “We lost Brandon Adair but gained a lot of fresh faces—and still have a good core group of guys and good nucleus that we’re going to rely on.”

Though Adair was one of four graduating seniors from last year’s squad, Macedo is confident that his seven returning veterans and eight rookies will step up.

“We are going to fill his shoes by committee,” he said. “And give a lot of guys the opportunity to fill that role. I’m excited to see how good we can be.”

Four of the seven rookies have already seen minutes and are striving to reach Adair’s level.

“We are expecting immediate contribution (from the freshman class),” said Macedo. “We already have a few freshmen in the rotation and need them to mature quickly. They are going to be a big part of what we do.”

As the freshmen begin to make names for themselves, veterans for this year’s team include senior All-American TonTon Balenga as well as seniors Tyler Fantin and D’Juan Tucker, juniors Terrell Dixon and Norman Hassel, and sophomores Stephen Fields and Tim Weyant.

“They are a very talented, very talented, very smart group of players for us underclassmen to learn from,” said freshman forward Jonathan Reed.

And though this freshmen class has a lot to learn from the veterans, Reed believes the entirety of the squad’s bench is more talented than other team’s starting five.

“We are incredible,” he said. “Every last one of us.”

Though Reed sees much talent, according to Balenga, this season is going to be based a lot on leadership.

“We have players that can show the younger guys this level of college basketball,” he said. “As a team, the older guys need to step up and be leaders.”

The Marlins have begun the season with an undefeated record of 3-0, beating the likes of Newport News Apprentice and North Carolina Wesleyan, which crowned them the Cox Communications Tip-Off Tournament Champions. Their third win came at Christopher Newport University’s arena in a non-conference game.

“This is our best start in two years,” said Tucker. “It is a good start to give the younger guys some needed confidence.”

Though the men are undefeated, Macedo is a coach who holds high standards for his team and, in his opinion, “with a good collection of talent,” sees much room for improvement.

“We are a very athletic team and have the ability to be a very good team as the season goes on,” he said. “We have a lot of short-term goals and are trying to get a little bit better every day, but we have a long way to go still.”

The Marlins seek to improve on their 3-0 start as they travel this weekend to Roanoke College and Washington and Lee University in the first two ODAC games of the season. On Dec. 5, the Marlins will return to Forsyth Court and face Apprentice School.

“We always have high expectations,” Macedo said. “And for us, we just want to make sure we’re making progress every day.”