Pacific men’s team saw some changes in preparation of the 2010-2011 basketball season. Starting fresh with a new coaching staff and a freshman and junior transfer as the starting point guards, the men’s team hopes that those changes will pay off in the season.
Currently the men’s team is 2-4 in conference with a close loss to Linfield, which took place on the 14. The game went into double overtime.
“Overall, we were faced with some tough competition in the preseason, which in return prepared us more for conference,” said head coach Tim Cleary.
Cleary said this season is a building one, with the goal of bringing back a winning program to Pacific.
“We will be light years ahead of where we have been come next year,” said Cleary.
Freshman Cameron Hayes and transfer Andrew Beatty are the new faces of leadership for Pacific basketball, starting as the two point guards for Pacific.
“Andrew has a high basketball I.Q with experience in the higher level while Cameron has had a positive transition from high school and with his good skill, he has had brought a competitive edge to the team,” said Cleary.
Cleary is confident in what both players bring to the court.
“Beatty and Hayes have great leadership qualities. Beatty is a natural leader who is intelligent and has good verbal leadership skills. Hayes is a good player and is gaining vocal leadership. Both have non-ego, non-selfish personalities and have meshed with the returning players very well,” said Cleary.
For Beatty, the transition from community college ball playing in the Northwest Conference is hard and much quicker. Although the crowds at the games at his previous school were much larger, he said he has noticed the crowds are starting to become bigger at every game.
As for the coaching, Beatty said that the coaches are organized and extremely dedicated to giving their players the best opportunities for success on and off the court.
For Beatty, winning is the ultimate goal for himself and the Boxers this season.
“One thing I would like to see our team accomplish is to be able to finish games. I want to see our team come together and pull through in the end of hard games,” said Beatty.
Hayes also noted a difference from high school and college ball. He said the transition was not an easy one.
According to Hayes the level of play, off season workouts and time put in for game preparation is a lot more than what he had to do in high school. Luckily for Hayes, on his recruiting trip he knew that he would fit in well with the team and decided to continue his education and play basketball at Pacific.
Hayes said that the off season work outs, watching film and all other game preparation is a lot more than what he had to do in high school. Having committed before coach Cleary was hired, Hayes was shocked, but once he met the new staff, he was confident that the season would be in good hands.
“As a team I see us improving on consistency and work ethic. I also think we will be able to respond to adversity much better because we have been in a lot of close games that haven’t gone our way and I think if we keep working harder and harder we will win a lot of those close ones,” said Hayes.
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