SALEM, Va. – The Roanoke College men’s basketball team is taking everything in stride, including an offseason where the players were essentially alone.
“We just all worked on our individual games at home. Wherever we were, we were always trying to keep in touch and keep that team chemistry going,” junior guard Tripp Greene said.
The discipline and independence have translated to the court, now that the Maroons are back together with games set to begin at the end of the month.
“We’ve talked about it. We all understand that this is going to be a very fluid situation,” head coach Clay Nunley said. “We don’t always know what’s going to happen week to week, so we’ve got to be prepared to adapt and adjust when need be. Certainly hopeful and finger’s crossed we can do it in a safe and right way to the season and make it to some games.”
The young team in 2020 went 17-10 overall, and with a year under his belt, sophomore and Northside alum Kasey Draper has seen an improvement.
“We’ve added a lot of great skill players at the big, but we should get some more production as far as points from there,” the forward said. “And we should also be able to add some scoring from the guard position with shooting, so really looking forward to be able to score some points this year, hopefully, be able to put up bigger numbers than last year.”
The biggest test of growth, however, is with conference play, which the Maroons will begin on the 23rd.
“You know, it’s different, but what hasn’t been different about all of this,” Nunley said. “I think it’s just one more thing that you adjust to. It’s not the norm for us to go into league play, but at the same time, it will be exciting that right off the bat you will see conference faces.”
“We look at it as we always practice the same, as hard as we can. When we practice, we practice for the best and 100%,” junior Nick Price added. “We’re just prepared for everything that comes at us so we just have to adjust going straight into the hardest part of the season.”
The Maroons begin play on Jan. 23 against Hampton-Sydney.