Consider what eight points, timely scored, could have meant to the Lakehead Thunderwolves men’s basketball team.
Split evenly against Carleton and last Saturday’s loss to Laurier and the Wolves could be 12-0 and the No. 1 team in the nation. But while they hate to lose, the guys are more than OK with a 10-2 mark and settling for the No. 2 ranking, the highest in coach Scott Morrison’s tenure in Thunder Bay.
“That’s definitely true, but you can also say the other teams could have done better things. Obviously they made mistakes as well. It’s kind of the luck of the draw, I guess,” said forward Brendan King earlier this week before practice, as the Wolves ready for a pair of home games against the up-and-coming McMaster Marauders.
Teammate Ryan Thomson said the Wolves are trying their best not to put too much stock in the national rankings, as other than as a gauge of what the media thinks about your team, they have no meaning, at least not at this stage of the game.
“It’s a nice honour, but it’s not something we’re really paying attention to. Right now we’re a little more focused with other teams in our conference, who we have next weekend and who we have right away.
"So we can’t really focus too much on wherever our ranking is.”
But it definitely paints a nice, bright target on the back of their jerseys, something the hoopsters are getting used to after two trips to nationals.
“Any team that wants to play, when you’re playing a top team, you want to beat them. You want to use that as motivation. For a team to be able to say we beat the whatever number seed, it’s definitely motivation,” Thomson said.
Morrison agreed, but said it’s just another small step to what they hope to accomplish in what’s shaping up to be a possible third straight magical season at the Thunderdome.
“It’s not really all that solid of a step. If we lose two out of three or lose two in a row, we’re right down to eighth. But at the same time it’s a really good sign of where we’re going with the team. And we don’t have any fifth-year players, so I think it looks good, from fan’s standpoint and in terms of recruiting and things like that,” Morrison said.
Besides, he added, the important thing is the here and now, starting with the 9-3 Marauders on Friday night. There have been chinks in the armour, Morrison admitted, even though the Wolves are the third-highest scoring team in Canada.
The defense, which Morrison prides himself on, hasn’t been quite as dominant as it has been the past couple of years. Their among the bottom third in the CIS in rebounding and have given up 868 points in 12 games, middle of the OUA pack.
“Yeah, our defence isn’t quite as disciplined as it was at the end of the season last year. I guess we have five weeks to catch back up. If we can get our defence to where it was, we have a better offence, and all of a sudden it makes us a bigger threat,” Morrison said.
Tip off for the men’s game is about 8 p.m. The women go at 6 p.m.
