Coming up in the next couple of weeks is the start of a new season for your West Chester University Golden Rams men’s basketball team.
They first tip off on Nov. 10 and 11 in the PSAC/CIAA Challenge. This is a short tournament which is hosted in Ettrick, Virginia where West Chester will be matched up against both St. Augustine’s University and Virginia State University. This looks to be a good ramp-up period for the team to get back up to game speed, before their first regular season game of the new campaign. The new campaign will be taking place the following week on Nov. 15.
The Golden Rams are looking to improve off of their previous year’s results where they finished with an impressive 21–8 record and 16–6 record in conference play. This record resulted in them having a share of the Eastern Division title.
The hallmark of that team was their prowess on the glass, which was reflected in their rebounding numbers. They led the entire PSAC in the following categories: rebounds per game, offensive rebounds per game, offensive rebounds and rebounding margin (these statistics are all found on the West Chester University athletics page, published under the men’s basketball section). All of these extra second-chance opportunities allowed the Golden Rams to get more shots up and control the tempo of the game.
But if they hope to improve on last year’s results, they will have to do so without the help of their First Team All-PSAC East guard and second-leading scorer with 14.5 points per game, Kyle McGee. McGee also led the team in minutes played and assists — those are going to be some big shoes to fill.
It appears that they already have the right man for the job in the form of guard Robert Smith. Smith led the team in scoring last year with an average of 15.6 points per game. Smith is striving to improve on his sophomore campaign, where he was named to the Second Team All-PSAC East squad for the second consecutive year. He is probably going to have a bump in his assist numbers, where he only averaged 1.6 points per game last year, as he assumes more playmaking responsibility with the loss of McGee.
Even with that loss, the Golden Rams are projected to finish second in the PSAC East, only behind East Stroudsburg University, according to the preseason poll voted on by the coaches. They received three out of nine first place votes compared to the five that East Stroudsburg received. This is sure to motivate West Chester, as their prior season ended in an unfortunate fashion in the quarterfinals against that same East Stroudsburg team.
Overall, this is a very young team with lots of room for growth and improvement as the majority of the roster consists of underclassmen. There are four incoming freshmen making their debuts for the Golden Rams, and five sophomores looking to build off of their prior campaigns. The rest of the team is composed of six juniors serving as the veterans of the locker room.
At the helm of the Golden Rams is Head Coach, Damien Blair, who is entering his 16th year here in the program. He has established a run of success over those 16 years, with a very impressive .648 winning percentage, and he looks to continue that trend this upcoming season.
Colin Bradley is a fourth-year English major with a minor in Journalism. CB953277@wcupa.edu