The Bucks men’s basketball
team has finished their season
with a 9-16 record.
The Centurions’ season officially
ended on Feb. 11 in
Philadelphia in the first round of
the Eastern Pennsylvania
Collegiate Conference playoff
tournament to the Community
College of Philadelphia.
The Centurions were led this
year by first-year Head Coach
Steve Coyne, who took over the
program from Coach Gaeton
Curione. The Centurions lost six
games last season by a margin of
six points or less.
Coming into this season Coyne
had high expectations, since last
year’s team was very competitive.
“As a coach you always have
very high expectations,” Coyne
said. “We would have liked to
have done significantly better
than we did. As for my self it
being my first year and for a lot
of the players first year, we did
very well. We had a few games
that we let get away. Those
games certainly would have
made our record significantly
better.”
Even though the Centurions
were often times inconsistent in
their play, the season was highlighted
by some big wins.
The Centurions defeated
Thaddeus Stevens College of
Technology on Nov. 19, 44-30 on
the road, and knocked down
MontCo on Dec. 6, 85-82 at
home.
However, inconsistency and
missed opportunities seemed to
plague the Centurions. Coyne
emphasized the importance of
converting your opportunities.
“The core of our existence this
year has been missed easy shots,
too many easy shots missed
when the opportunities were
there,” he said.
Missed opportunities and
defense were the key elements
that needed to be corrected if
Bucks was going to make a late
season push toward the playoffs.
And the Centurions did just that,
by winning four of their last six
games to finish out the season,
and earning them the 8th seed in
the EPCC playoff tournament.
Coyne mentioned some adjustments
that he and his team made
toward the end of the season to
help spark the late success.
“We made a nice run at the end
of the season,” he said. “I believe
the players finally understood
what it meant to play good hardnosed
defense. In almost any
sport, whether it is basketball or
football, defense always prevails.
We increased our defense pressure
and we started to focus better.
We had better concentration
once we stepped in between the
lines.”
The season will ultimately be
judged by wins and losses. But
team Co-Captain Chris Shaffer
thought that the effort and heart
was definitely present in the
team throughout the season.
“It was a good season at most
points. We had a lot of freshmen
come in, and four returning
sophomores. We came in thinking
we might not have as much
talent as we did last year, but we
made the playoffs. We lost in the
first round but the fact is we
made a playoff run, and got in. It
was a good season and a good
output by all the players,” he
said.
Moving forward for next season,
Coyne knows that his team
will need to improve on some
key areas such as defense and
rebounding, in order to take the
next step toward the ultimate
goal, the EPCC championship
crown.
“We will be implementing a
different style of ball next year
and improving on the defensive
side. We were not non-competitive
this year. And as I told the
team, I don’t think there is any
team out there that was that
much better than us. We need to
work on improving our concentration
and focus especially on
the defensive end for next year.”