The season is about to begin for the IUS Men’s Basketball team. The Grenadiers will play against St. Catherine College for their first game of the year on Nov. 2.
The recent past has been littered with successes for the Grenadiers.
Each of the last three years, IUS Men’s Basketball won the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship.
They have also made appearances each year in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics National Tournament.
Wiley Brown, Men’s Basketball head coach, was named the 2010 KIAC Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year for 2010.
Kevin Slaughter, junior guard, said he not only hopes the team will win the KIAC Conference Championship again, but they will also get a chance to win nationals.
The strategy to meet that goal is simple.
“Work harder than the other teams,” Slaughter said.
He said practice, hard work and dedication are what IUS Men’s Basketball is betting on to set them apart from the other teams this upcoming season.
Rick Bodiford, senior guard, said he agreed with Slaughter.
“The way we practice makes the games seem easy,” Bodiford said.
He also said the games this year will be no walk in the park.
“We have one of the toughest schedules in the nation,” he said.
Bodiford and Slaughter listed teams like Asbury College, Berea College, Georgetown College and University of Cincinnati as stiff competition between them and the championship.
IUS Men’s Basketball plans to win it all, but they’ll be working through a solid schedule on the way to accomplishing that goal.
They will have to face teams who are determined to bring them out of their winning streak, too.
“We’re everybody’s best shot,” Bodiford said. “No game is going to be easy.”
For Bodiford, it’s more than just trying to win again — it’s his last opportunity to be part of a championship team at IU Southeast.
“There are three seniors on our team, and they will settle for no less than the championship,” Bodiford said. “Since I am a senior, I want to go to the next level. I treat every game like it’s my last.”
A fourth senior, James Johnson, forward, is a transfer student from Union College.
Aside from the seniors, there are four juniors on the team, three of whom are new transfer students.
The Grenadiers have three freshmen on the active roster: Reginald Breeden, guard, and O.J. Bell and Joe Lawson, both forwards.
By MICHELE HOP
Staff
mhop@ius.edu