Men hit the court with a new coach and high hopes
Brian Moser
Issue date: 11/16/06 Section: Sports
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Lakeland looked poised to take the Lake Michigan Conference last year with an impressive 20-5 regular season record. After cruising past Maranatha in the first round of the LMC tournament, Edgewood sunk Lakeland's shot at the NCAA playoffs with a huge 76-70 victory.
Last year's loss was disappointing considering what they did during the season, but this is a new year with many new experiences.
First of all, the Muskies have a brand new head coach, Kyle Brumett. He replaced Gary Grzesk, who went to St. Norbert.
Brumett was the top assistant at DePauw University for the past seven seasons. DePauw made it to the NCAA Division III tournament last year, but lost to UW-Whitewater in the first round.
Lakeland is also competing in a new conference, the Northeren Athletics Conference, which has added tough teams like Aurora, Benedictine, and Concordia-Chicago. In the NAC Men's Basketball Coaches' Preason Poll, Lakeland was picked to take second with three first place votes. Aurora was picked to win the NAC.
Although the new conference has grown to 11 men's basketball teams, the NAC doesn't have an automatic bid into the Division III Tournament like the LMC.
"With no automatic bid, that makes the non-conference games as important as the conference," said Brumett. "It makes it really tough for us now because we feel we need to be ready for the first couple of games."
The Muskies graduated main man Germayne James, who led the team last year in scoring with 14.6 points per game. Lakeland also graduated Nick Howard, who was a big player in the middle who snagged 111 rebounds.
Kris Saiberlich is going to be a huge part of the team this year with his big shots from behind the arc. Matt Rogers will also need to step up. Last year, he came off the bench and tied for second on the team in scoring with 13.1 points per game.
The big men in the middle will be Tyrone Coleman and Danny Ehnert, who both tallied double digits in rebounds.
Lakeland will be looking to remain a dominant force as they enter the new conference.
"We are excited that the coaches in our conference recognize that we have a solid core group of returning players," said Brumett. "Our second place pick is due to their hard work and past performance, but the poll is about past performance. It is about what we are going to do now that matters."
Last year's loss was disappointing considering what they did during the season, but this is a new year with many new experiences.
First of all, the Muskies have a brand new head coach, Kyle Brumett. He replaced Gary Grzesk, who went to St. Norbert.
Brumett was the top assistant at DePauw University for the past seven seasons. DePauw made it to the NCAA Division III tournament last year, but lost to UW-Whitewater in the first round.
Lakeland is also competing in a new conference, the Northeren Athletics Conference, which has added tough teams like Aurora, Benedictine, and Concordia-Chicago. In the NAC Men's Basketball Coaches' Preason Poll, Lakeland was picked to take second with three first place votes. Aurora was picked to win the NAC.
Although the new conference has grown to 11 men's basketball teams, the NAC doesn't have an automatic bid into the Division III Tournament like the LMC.
"With no automatic bid, that makes the non-conference games as important as the conference," said Brumett. "It makes it really tough for us now because we feel we need to be ready for the first couple of games."
The Muskies graduated main man Germayne James, who led the team last year in scoring with 14.6 points per game. Lakeland also graduated Nick Howard, who was a big player in the middle who snagged 111 rebounds.
Kris Saiberlich is going to be a huge part of the team this year with his big shots from behind the arc. Matt Rogers will also need to step up. Last year, he came off the bench and tied for second on the team in scoring with 13.1 points per game.
The big men in the middle will be Tyrone Coleman and Danny Ehnert, who both tallied double digits in rebounds.
Lakeland will be looking to remain a dominant force as they enter the new conference.
"We are excited that the coaches in our conference recognize that we have a solid core group of returning players," said Brumett. "Our second place pick is due to their hard work and past performance, but the poll is about past performance. It is about what we are going to do now that matters."
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