Last year, the Seton Hill University (SHU) men’s basketball team finished its season with an overall record of 17-8, and a conference record of 10-4, which put them in a three way tie for first place in the American Mideast Conference (AMC) North Division. This year’s team is looking to continue the success of last season into the 2006/2007 season, where the men will face a challenging schedule.
According to head coach Tony Morocco, �The team’s biggest challenge will be every single one of our away games, because seven of those games are against top National College Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II teams.�
By Amy Dugan,
Staff Writer
Last year, the Seton Hill University (SHU) men’s basketball team finished its season with an overall record of 17-8, and a conference record of 10-4, which put them in a three way tie for first place in the American Mideast Conference (AMC) North Division. This year’s team is looking to continue the success of last season into the 2006/2007 season, where the men will face a challenging schedule.
According to head coach Tony Morocco, �The team’s biggest challenge will be every single one of our away games, because seven of those games are against top National College Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II teams.�
To help the team face these challenges there are five freshmen joining the team this year, who according to Morocco, have been improving daily.
Among these freshmen is Cody Boone who is the tallest player on the team standing at 6�9. The men’s team has also added two transfers to this year’s squad, Igor Dutina a sophomore from Phoenix College, and Emmanuel Jackson a freshman from Norfolk, Virginia.
The team will also be returning four of its five starters from last season. This includes Zarko Kostic, a senior who was named to the All AMC North second team, Bojan Nikolovski, a senior who received Honorable Mention All Conference performer in 2005, Marcus Thompson, a junior who was second on the team in scoring with 16.1 points per game and led the team in rebounding at 6.6 rebounds per game, and Mateja Dicic, a senior who averaged 10.5 points per game and pulled down 5.6 rebounds per game during his freshman season.
In order to achieve success this year the team has been working hard in the off-season by focusing on strength training, running, and inordinate amount of fundamentals. According to Morocco, the team has also been working on three key areas of development; hand, eyes and foot.
�In practice we have really emphasized working on our timing on plays and defense,� said Boone.
There are three components of what Morocco is looking for in his student-athletes:
�To be a good person, one of whom graduates, and wins championships,� he said.
Morocco also stated that the team’s goals for this season were, �To be in class and be successful in the academic arena, as well as being a credit to SHU on and off campus.�
�This year’s goal are a little different seeing as we can’tmake the playoffs, so our goal is to win as many games as possible, so we can finish the season with the best possible record,� said Marcus Thompson.
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