By Michael Del Genio
The Stars of men’s basketball have struggled throughout the season, posting a 2-21 record with a most recent overtime win on senior night against Wisconsin Lutheran College. Their record puts them at the bottom of the Northern Athletic Collegiate Conference (NACC).
Dominican men’s basketball has yet to post a winning season since the 2007-08 season, when they went 14-12.
The Stars season was quickly derailed by a plethora of injuries most notably sophomore guard and captain Lucas Underwood going down in the first game of the year with a leg injury that would sideline him all season.
Coach Tonsil describes the impact, “You don’t want your point guard, captain, best player going down first game of the year…We needed guys to step up, grow up, however you want to put it, a lot sooner than we had hoped.”
With already having such a young roster featuring twelve underclassmen with a total of seventeen roster spots maturity and growth was a necessity.
Sophomore forward Frank Paszkowski and center Braydon Murphy seized their newfound opportunities and increased roles to the best of their ability.
Paszkowksi sits among the top scorers in the NACC featuring a lights out three ball going in at a staggering 37%. Murphy on the other hand has displayed dominance in the paint leading the conference in blocks and among the top three in rebounds per game with 9.1.
Murphy comments on his individual success, “A lot of offseason work and mindset, rebounding and blocking shots isn’t really a skill but just a will to do it. I think it’s all mindset based and wanting it more.”
The mindset was on full display in the most recent win over Wisconsin Lutheran where Murphy notched another three blocks under his belt with six rebounds.
With the increased playing time and role came more expectation on the young stars as mental and emotional growth was needed.
“I had to become more of a vocal leader, I knew I was going to start and play good minutes and be a top three option both offensively and defensively. My leadership role had changed and I had to really mature and grow up and use my voice to guide a very young team,” Murphy says.
The young Stars of men’s basketball battled their way throughout the year regardless of the outcome with seven losses coming from games with a margin of six or less points.
Paszkowski says, “I just feel like it’s the lack of experience that we had on the team. We have a really young team, and obviously we knew that coming in before the season. There was a lot of games that we could have came up with the win, but it was just in the last final minutes where we just blew the lead. That’s where the lack of experience and just maturity on the court made us lose the game.”
Murphy adds to the comment, “We don’t know how to play cohesively at times, and we don’t know how to play mentally and physically engaged for an entire 40 minutes.”
A lack of maturity and the necessity for personal growth has plagued the Stars but their intensity has always remained on the court.
Coach Tonsil says, “There are still different things that you can aim towards, whether that’s winning on your home court on senior day for Dom (Crapia) and Adrian (Pelszysnki) or beating your arch rival next week down the street or finishing the year with a win. There’s still a lot to play for to give you that momentum into the offseason so we can forward at a high level.”
Paszkowski praises Tonsils leadership, “Before every game he always has a positive mindset and tries to motivate us as much as he can. He knows were young, so he kind of focused on the players to lead and not as muchthe coaches. He always emphasizes improving 1% better everyday.
The Stars youth provides a positive outlook for next year and the the seasons down the line.
“Guys have to get better. They have to understand that what I did this year isn’t good enough. That doesn’t make you less of a basketball player, that just means that you’re not there as a basketball player just yet,” Coach Tonsil says. “You got to take that into the offseason, understand that if you don’t want the same situation to happen to you again next year, you got to do something about in the offseason. Come with another level of focus, a different level of effort, a different level of mentality.”
Dominican men’s basketball finishes their season with two road games, February 18th, at Concordia University Chicago followed by their final game at St. Norbert College February 21st.
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