THUNDER BAY – Coach Ryan Thomson says the Lakehead Thunderwolves turnaround began after a pair of back-to-back losses to the Guelph Gryphons.
Mired in a nine-game losing streak and plummeting toward another lost OUA men’s basketball season after a bitter four-point defeat, something clicked.
After stumbling through the first half, perhaps losing a few games they probably should have won, a team full of individual talents just couldn’t seem to put things together for 40 minutes on the floor.
What a difference a month makes.
Since the Guelph series the Thunderwolves have been one of the hottest teams in the country.
They’ve gone 7-3 and three times knocked off a nationally ranked opponent, culminating with last Saturday’s stunning 75-69 thriller over the No. 8 Laurier Golden Hawks, a game that landed the Wolves a spot in the OUA playoffs.
Guelph’s 77-75 win over McMaster on Wednesday night means the best Lakehead can hope for is a fifth-place finish, so a home playoff date is out of the question.
But the way they’ve been playing, the players and coaching staff aren’t too worried about who they’ll take on in the opening round.
Forward Davarius Wright said they’re just glad they managed to turn their season around in time.
It took a lot of work, but they managed to figure out how to play together.
“We’re now learning each other and learning how to play together. So I think that’s the biggest difference right now,” said Wright, a Minnesota recruit who’s averaged 10.2 points and 5.2 rebounds for LU in his first year with the team.
“We’re more comfortable with each other and each other’s game.”
Wright is well aware that most people didn’t give the Thunderwolves a chance after a 2-10 start.
But did they think they had a chance?
“I’m not sure. But I think we did,” Wright said. “We just had to pick up and connect with each other.”
Lanky first-year forward Lock Lam said it took a collection of players, all but five of whom were new to the program, to put coach Ryan Thomson’s playbook to full use.
“We definitely proved a lot of people wrong, because nobody thought we were going to make the playoffs. We started off so bad,” said Lam, who along with Isaiah Traylor had a double-double in the win over Laurier.
Being taken for granted was definitely a motivating factor.
“I feel like we can do damage in the playoffs, to be honest. I feel we can really make it to nationals,” Lam said.
Thomson said it feels great to get to the OUA postseason, though even he wasn’t sure it was going to happen at different points during the campaign.
“It certainly didn’t look great at the break, but guys kept buying in and doing what we were asking and it’s starting to pay off,” Thomson said.
The key is to not take a step backward this weekend when they wrap up on home court against the second-place Brock Badgers.
“It’s just two more regular season games, trying to play well and trying to keep some momentum here going into playoffs,” Thomson said, adding they’ll focusing on defending against the long-ball and take their chances inside.
Tip off on Friday and Saturday night is 8 p.m. The women play at 6 p.m. each night.
