It hasn’t been an easy season for the SFU men’s basketball team, and that’s putting it lightly.
The season was almost derailed before it even got going — the number of freakish injuries suffered by key players was, well, freakish. From cysts on the brain to torn knees, the Clan were behind the eightball from the get-go.
Despite all the pre-season adversity, the Clan opened the season strong, winning four of their first six games. That total alone actually surpassed their record from their inaugural GNAC season. Newcomers Javari Williams and Matt Ravio were quickly winning over the hearts of the fans with their chemistry and flash (particularly in the case of Williams), but that’s about when the good times stopped rolling.
Even more injuries befell upon the Clan — most recently a significant knee injury to forward Ibrahim Appiah, one of the team’s top rebounders — and the Clan have since gone 3–12 since November, with only two of those wins coming against GNAC opponents. The proverbial dagger to the heart has not been injuries, however. A number of Clan athletes — only a small handful, but still more than one would ever hope — have been forced to watch from the sidelines as a result of poor academic performance. The academic ineligibles, out for the remainder of the season, left their team with only eight players to start the new year — but that was before Appiah went down with his own injury.
With only seven available players at the moment, the team is having a tough time refraining from losing their breath, let alone games.
That’s not to say that the team hasn’t been competitive, however. The team has lost more than a fair share of blowout losses, but there have been a few defeats that sting more than most. In mid-December, when the team was mostly intact, the Clan lost a heartbreaker to the Academy of Art Universtiy, 84–83. And when the New Year rolled around, the Clan lost another one-point game, 74–73, when a last-second three-point attempt didn’t go against Western Oregon. A win on that January 5 game would’ve meant more than just a notch in the W column, as a win against the then-top-ranked team in the GNAC would’ve been a huge emotional boost.
News out of the men’s team could be more positive in the coming days, however. The Clan did defeat St. Martin’s University on Thursday. On a night where their female counterparts nearly doubled up on the Saints, the men’s side played, and won,
an incredibly close game against SMU. The Clan lead by just one at half time, and parlayed that into a 88–85 victory for only their second GNAC win of the year. Moreover, the Clan face the University of Alaska Fairbanks on Thursday. The Nanooks are the only other in-conference team the Clan have beat; they won that game on the road, but the rematch is in the cozy confines of SFU’s West Gym.
No matter how few players they dress, the Clan refuse to make excuses, and hopefully that mentality has started to turn the season back in the right direction.
