Thunderolves vets face final season

Ryan Thomson is a man on a mission. 

And unlike the past three seasons, the Lakehead Thunderwolves forward is getting a head start.

Thomson, who showed no signs Monday of a foot injury that sidelined him at nationals last spring, poured in bucket after bucket as the men’s basketball team opened their preseason against the University of Wisconsin-Stout Blue Devils.

Heading into his fourth, and possibly final year, with three failed Final 8 attempts in his rear-view mirror, the high-scoring Thomson knows this is his final chance to bring home that elusive title.

He’s not alone.

It’s also the end of the road for Yoosrie Salhia, Joseph Jones, Matt Schmidt, Ben Johnson, Brendan King and Greg Carter, the reigning CIS defensive player of the year.

“For the most part, yeah, there’s a lot of guys who are ready to win. If not, then there’s no more chances,” Thomson said. “But we’re looking forward to it, looking forward to the competition all year.”

It definitely gives the defending OUA West Division champions an edge heading into the season, said Thomson, one of the nation’s top threats from three-point territory, who certainly found his range in Lakehead’s 87-79 matinee loss to the Blue Devils on Monday.

“This should be the hungriest that all the guys have been,” he said. “In my first year we were really young. We had a lot of first- and second-year guys.

“Now we’ve all grown up together and this is it.”

Just being on the court is great, he added.

Thomson’s foot, combined with Salhia’s wonky back, derailed the Wolves in Halifax last March, and he’s looking forward to getting back into the flow of things as coach Scott Morrison tries something new with a week-long dual training camp with the visiting Blue Devils.

“It’s a treat being healthy right now,” said Thomson, who played a split squad scrimmage Monday afternoon against the Blue Devils, a game the Thunderwolves dropped 87-79.

“I feel better just getting back out there playing, having a nice little competition. We obviously wish we had come out on top in that first game today, but we’re learning. There are a lot of young guys out there trying to get better,” Thomson said.

For the first head-to-head competition of the pre-season, Jones said he was relatively impressed with what he saw, knowing errors made now won’t cost them in the standings.

“We made a few mistakes, obviously, but that’s what these games are for, to work on the kinks. I think we’re all right for the first game,” the Washington, D.C. native said. “I’d rather get all the kinks out now than later, because every team is going to make us pay.”

Jones, who stuck around Thunder Bay this summer to work on his game, doesn’t mind the earlier-than-usual start to the season.

“I think it’s going to work out in our advantage. I don’t think we’re doing anything much different. We’ve just changed a little bit differently on D, but it’s essentially the same look. And I think it’s going to work out.”

It was coach Scott Morrison’s first real chance to see what his off-season recruits could do. Neither British import Joseph Hart nor Hamilton’s Dwayne Harvey, expected to fill the role left by departed OUA MVP Venzal Russell, looked out of place on the court, a good sign of things to come. For Morrison, the week is all about evaluation.

“Basically we’re going to see where we stand with our general offence and defence and get a sense of what our goals are for the next month,” he said.