by Joe Geni
Men’s basketball coach David Arseneault had a good idea what was coming, but he also knows that, even now, there’s no telling how the 2004-2005 season will unfold.
“For the last three years, I have had a reasonable idea of what was going to transpire in the upcoming season,” he said. “[But t]his year any prediction would be pure conjecture. I think we are deep but, as yet, untested under fire. How quickly some of our first-years can come up to speed and how our upperclassmen react to their new roles will determine how quickly we come out of the shoot.”
Grinnell, which opens its 2004-2005 campaign tonight against St. Ambrose University in the Mount Mercy Tournament in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, graduated one of the greatest senior classes in team history last year. It included Steve Wood ‘04, the school’s all-time leading scorer; Steve Nordlund ‘04, who once averaged six three-pointers a game for an entire season; Nick Malinowski ‘04, who scored over 1000 points for his career despite missing nearly a full season with injury; role and rebounding specialist Patrick Choquette ‘04; and Ken Heiser ‘04, one of the team’s best slashing scorers and distributors.
Many things changed in the off-season, but one thing that will remain constant is Arseneault’s manic bombs-away full-court press, which has carried the Pioneers to three MWC titles in the last nine years, four straight playoff appearances and, in the last two years, national publicity compliments of ESPN. But even this year the offensive attack will be somewhat different.
“We’re a lot more team-oriented this season,” said co-captain Matt Brown ‘05. “Last year we had guys to lean on, like Wood and Nordlund. We could give them the ball and know we’d be okay. We don’t have that this year, but we can have a lot more team play, so it will even itself out.”
“We’re looking to get offense from a lot of places,” added co-captain Cole Robertson ‘05. “Hopefully that will be one of our weapons. Teams won’t be able to key on one guy.”
True to the system, these Pioneers look to run at least 15 deep off the bench with their usual mass-substitution system. The number of new names among those 15 hasn’t prevented Grinnell from meshing in practice.
“Practice has been good,” said co-captain Eric Walsh ‘05. “We’ve had rough spots due to the incorporation of younger players. We’ve got four first-years who will have an impact, and the sophomore class must step up. We’ve kind of been riding last year’s seniors for three years now, so juniors and seniors will have to step up into bigger roles.”
“We’re looking pretty good,” said Robertson. “We’ve got a lot of young guys, so there’s a bit of a learning curve, but we’ve had flashes that look really good.”
Of course, Grinnell fans won’t get to see them until January. Grinnell opens with 13 consecutive road games (the closest at a neutral site in Marshalltown) while Darby Gym is completed, not exactly the most ideal schedule for a team with a lot of rookies in the mix.
“The schedule doesn’t help,” said Walsh. “The young guys will have to learn to play strong on the road.”
“It’s always tough to play on the road, and that many games in a row will make it difficult,” said Robertson. “We just have to be mentally tough, block stuff out, and play hard every night. Once we make it through that stretch, we’ll have our fans behind us in a new place, [and] hopefully get big crowds.”
The schedule aside, the Pioneers are upbeat, both about their first-years and the new opportunities for the returning players.
“The new guys aren’t filling the roles that were left, they’ve been creating new roles,” said Brown. “Steve and Ken created their own roles when they came. They changed the system to fit them, and the first-years are doing the same thing.”
“The freshmen class should become one of the better ones we’ve recruited,” said Arseneault. “Mike Schmidt is outstanding and there are four others who have the potential to be solid players in our league.”
Alongside Schmidt, who Brown describes as “a shooter and a penetrator, which we haven’t had in the past,” the team welcomes a first-year class that includes tall forwards Keith Chamberlain (6-8) and Aden Stinebrickner-Kauffman (6-5) and a batch of promising guards.
Meanwhile, a number of returning players who didn’t get as many touches last season look to be more involved this time around.
“The returning guys, a lot of guys have a chance to expand their games,” said Brown. “Paul Nordlund [‘06] has been big for us in the past and will be again, and Toby Carlson [‘06], who’s been overlooked in the past, really has a chance to step up and expand his game.”
The team will also be bolstered by the arrival of multi-sport standouts Trey Raney ’05, Nate Wineinger ‘05, and Sean Pfalzer ’07, who can start practicing with the team now that the football season has come to an end.
Overall, though he’s cautious to make a strong prediction for this year’s team, Arseneault remains optimistic.
“I do think that by mid-January we have a good chance of being among the top teams in the MWC,” he said.
Throwing the season in gear Lance Little ‘08 (far right) passes out of a double-team by Mike Schmidt ‘08 and Chris Mitros ‘05, (both in white) while Paul Nordlund ‘06 and coach Dave Arseneault look on. |
Lineups 2004Head coach: David Arseneault (15th season) Assistant coach: Emil Malinowski
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