After much success in years
past, the Bucks men’s basketball
team experienced quite a
rough season, going 3-19.
Now, Coach Steve Coyne
reflects on the season to make
next year better.
“We had a couple players
more concerned about their
individual accomplishments
than the accomplishments of
the team,” Coyne said. “They
didn’t have the confidence
within each other which
caused them not to play well
with each other.”
Coyne has stressed the
importance of defense and
team cohesion. Both of these
issues blended together in his
mind.
“The issues on defense were
a lack of helping out your
teammates,” Coyne said. “If
you were dribbling the ball,
and you start to get past me,
someone has to step in and
help out. We didn’t get enough
of that.”
Coyne said there’s an attitude
about defense – teammates
helping each other and stopping
the opponents from getting
an easy shot.
While the team’s defensive
play did keep the team in contention
during games against
Stevens, Montgomery,
Luzerne, Delaware, Lehigh
Carbon, and Johnson, it was
ultimately an issue.
In losses during the season,
their defense gave up an average
of 86 points per game,
while their offense averaged
72.
“We played numerous types
of defenses to combat the
different teams we played,”
Coyne said. “In practices,
we played good defense, but
we just didn’t transfer that to
a game situation.”
The problems with cohesion
on both ends of the floor most
likely added up to many of the
team’s losses.
“We saw that here in
Philadelphia with Allen
Iverson,” Coyne said. “You
look at successful teams
whether they are higher collegiate
teams or professional
teams, one guy does not do it
all.”
Success did not come easy
for the Centurions, starting
with a seven-game losing
streak in December and a 10-
game losing streak in January.
“I’m the one who needs to
take responsibility,” Coyne
said. “I don’t like to make
Andy Reid-isms because he
always says, ‘I got to put my
players in a better position to
make plays,’ but I have to
make my players work harder
so they understand that they
can be successful.”
However, it is not as if the
2009-2010 season went without
any successes. There
were certainly some positive
points in the season.
Of the team’s
three wins, two of them came
against Johnson, averaging a
21-point margin of victory in
those two outings. Also, Bucks
averaged 87 points per game
against Johnson.
During the beginning of the
season, Coyne was been very
pleased with the leadership of
center/forward Dave Durkin
and guard/forward Tim
Respass.
Both players were sophomores
and captains. During the
season, they provided help for
the team not only on the court,
but off of it as well.
“There are no cliques; I think
that is due to the leadership,”
Coyne said. “They have taken
these guys under their wing
and showed them how to act
and how to be teammates.”
Another positive point is that
next season, the
team’s roster
will have many
of the same
players, and
they’ll be
more
experienced.
Of the
13 players on
the roster last
season, 11 were
freshmen.
“We all have to
do a better job,”
Coyne said, “from the last guy
on the bench all the way up to
me.”
Next season Coyne wants to
focus on helping the players
understand that they need to
play as a team and that they
need to play stronger on the
defensive end.
In December, Coyne said
that he emphasized defense
because, in any sport, defense
is what will give you the best
chance to win. He continues to
emphasize this into next season.
Defense may be the easier
thing to fix in comparison to
the team’s cohesion issue.
None-the-less, Coyne does
have a plan to improve that
problem as well.
“(To improve chemistry
we’ll try) some things like
team building activities and
skills
so that these guys can develop
a better court relationship
with one another,” Coyne
said.
“It’s been proven that those
things work and have some
success.”
On Coyne’s expectations
for the 2010-2011, he said,
“better than a three-win season.”