More explosive and energetic men’s basketball team has sights set on playoffs this season. The Wildcats are dedicated, hungry, and ready to surprise some teams. Returning eleven players, the men are preparing to be at the top of the Northwest Conference.

Coach Shanan Rosenberg is back for his fourth year as head coach. He said in his past three years as head coach he hasn’t had this much depth at each position. He is excited for the season and believes the team has a lot of potential to accomplish more.

“What I’m most excited about this season is the chance to be one of the top teams in the league, I believe we have the talent and capability to make the conference tournament,”Guard Kyle Maloof, ’17, said.

“The biggest difference [from last year] is that our entire core of the team is back this year besides Kevin Hurley. We didn’t have to get to know 10 new players like last year, we are all comfortable with each other and that made it easy to welcome in the five new players,” he said.

The Wildcats gained two valuable transfers along with talented freshmen.The team is excited about these additions to the program. Center Mason Rodby,’17, is happy with how some of the younger guys have matured and improved dramatically on the floor in order to prepare for this season.

“I am most excited about the potential we have as a team because we have the ability to be a very good team. This is the first year that I have been here where we have had a good number of returners and just overall experience on the court,” Rodby said.

Coach Rosenberg is excited about this team. “We have the best level of talent at all positions, the trust and accountability level this year is very exciting,” he said.

He suggested that any team, in any sport, trust and accountability is very important. He believes the Wildcats have something special this year with so many guys returning.

“As a team we are very close with each other; we do a lot of bonding activities. But we have also put in a huge amount of work this off season with working out and conditioning as well as on the floor scrimmaging too,” Rodby said.

Shooting-guard Riley Bruil, ‘19 said, “The culture of the program continues to be more positive.  The team continues to get to know each other, we get along and we continue to bond both on and off the court.  We are having a lot of fun together being around each other.”

In the off-season the boys have done self-led weight training, track conditioning and played in the gym in order to get prepared for the season. “They have been very dedicated in the off-season” said Coach Rosenberg.

“The biggest thing we did to prepare for the season was conditioning, the year before we didn’t condition, but this year we got together as a team and would go on runs and do other things to get in shape,” Maloof said.

“We are going to play really hard; we are going to be a fun group to watch. I urge everyone on campus to come support,” Coach Rosenberg said.