The WCU men?s basketball team is on their way to their 15th straight winning season under Coach Dick DeLaney, but are on the bubble on making their 10th straight playoff appearance. This year?s team is currently 15-9 overall and 5-4 in league play. They have lost five of their last 11 games, but don?t count them out of the playoff hunt. With a very strong defense, ranked first in the conference and fifth nationally, look for the Rams to come up with a strong push towards the playoffs. Defense wins games and hopefully this will ring true for the Rams.
However, while the defense is very strong this year, the offense has been a bit shaky. “This year?s team is a young team that has played very well at times and at other times a bit inconsistent, especially on offense,” said DeLaney.
Leading the Rams? offense is their only senior, co-captian Matt Kurtz. Kurtz and junior pointguard Brandon Long are the only players returning with more than one letter earned. Kurtz and Long will have to lead this young team into the playoffs. Both players are having a good season, with Kurtz leading the team in scoring (14 points a game) and Long having a strong season in assists and steals.
Sophomore big man Aaron Williams is having a great season, leading the team in rebounds (8 per game) and in blocks (1.3 per game). Other contributors to this season?s 15-9 record are freshman forward Lenwood Greenwood, junior guard Mark Gerhard and freshman guard Shawn Werdt.
The next few years are looking very bright for the Rams with all players returning except for Kurtz. They also have two players red-shirting and are recruiting some other players. Hopefully these young players will gain enough experience from this year to help them in future years.
But enough with the future, they still have to finish out this season and make a strong playoff run. Currently fourth in the PSAC Eastern conference, the Rams will have to play hard in their last four regular season games to make the playoffs. All of these games are against conference opponents with three of them at home. They are 4-0 against conference opponents at home.