Coping with Unexpected Change

Coach Dick Shilts hopes the current basketball season will end much better than it has started.  After anticipating that at least nine of the top eleven recruits from one year ago would be back and playing better, the Cougars are now having to adjust to actually starting over.  A rash of injuries, unprecedented in Coach Shilts' 36 year coaching career, have ravished the Cougar program.  His own son, Ricky, suffered through a serious car accident this summer, an accident that required foot surgery and has resulted in a slow healing process.  Front-liner Justin Best, who red-shirted last year after transferring from Toledo Owens, underwent knee surgery October 19 and is expected to miss most of the first semester.  All Conference performers from last year, Nate Tagert and Dominick Melton have suffered early season injuries also.  Nate broke his shooting hand in three places just before the first scrimmage, and Dominick is on crutches after sustaining a severe ankle sprain on October 30.  Both players are expected to be out of action for several weeks.  Billy Collins, a promising swingman, also sustained a severe ankle sprain on October 30, and will be out of action for several weeks as well.  Returning point guard Ryan Cheevers missed the first two weeks of practice with a fractured vertebra.  This is a recurring injury that has plagued Ryan since his sophomore year in high school.  He is currently playing but not up to the level he was accustomed to last season.  His health status is week to week.  

Other than that, Coach Shilts says his Cougars are "ready to battle."  "All we can do as coaches and players is focus on doing the best we can to improve as a team each day that goes by.  We have a group of determined people who are working hard to become a good team.  While several of our key players are healing, it is important that we do not let the adversity get us down.  A lot of good things are happening every day, and we need to see these things and to build on them."

At the present time, it looks as if the top ten players will be as follows.  At the point will be Cheevers, backed up by A. J. Van't Hof and Ricky Shilts.  At the two guard spot, Ryan Dunning, Shilts, and Chris Stairs will handle most of the playing time.  The small forward position will be manned by Pat Makowski in the early going.  The post positions will go to Andre Gibson and Bret Stephenson.  Stephenson has improved immensely, and Gibson is an athletic front-liner that should get better steadily.  Coming off the bench in the early going will be Climax Scotts' graduate and foreign exchange student, Vladimir Temelkowski, and Rick Berning, freshman from Family Altar Christian High School in Battle Creek.

"The attitude is good and the guys that are healthy are eager to get started," says Shilts.  "We'll do the best we can to be competitive until all our players return.  We should be able to turn this situation into a positive by developing much needed depth early on.  I sure will be happy when all of our eligible players are healthy and able to play significant minutes."

 

[2001-02 Player Sketches]