Dan SquireWith the loss of three senior starters, the men’s basketball team has a season of rebuilding ahead of them.
Between the help of junior captains Randy Reid and Greg Clifton teaming up with the stellar coaching staff this year, the Cavaliers are bound to forge ahead, straight to the top of the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference.
“This year is going to be a big year,” Saleem Brown, Asst. Men’s Basketball coach, said. “We have new players who are ready and willing to learn and who are happy to be apart of bring the winning tradition back to Cabrini but we have to rebuild the chemistry first.”
Working as a team, the men of Cabrini have welcomed seven new “brothers” to their basketball family.
“We have a lot of new faces this year and they are still adjusting to a new system that is new to them,” Reid said. “Progress for everyone has been great due to hard work.”
Even though they have welcomed freshman and transfer students to the team they will never fill the shoes of Anthony Bennett, Jim Good and Jim McMahon.
“With the seniors gone, we lost a lot of leadership and offense,” Reid said. “But, we have a lot of players, old and new, ready to fill those shoes.”
“Even though we lost three guys last year, this year we are bigger and faster,” Brown said. “We have more depth, more speed and most of all, more strength.”
This season will be a tough one, especially with the schedule that has been created. The season will open at home for the Cavaliers on Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. They will team-up against Penn State – Berks County. After that, they will face three of their PAC rivals later as they battle College of Misericordia, Marywood University and Wesley College.
Last season, as the Cavaliers fell to Arcadia in a devastating loss of 60-59 in the final seconds of the game, the missed the chance to go the playoffs by one point. This year, their goal is to get to the championship.
“I think this season is going to be tough because Cabrini is the most hunted team in the PAC,” Brown said. “No matter what our record is and no matter what we are ranked, every school always wants to beat the Cavaliers.”
“We have a very tough season ahead of us this year,” Reid said. “As a team we are focused on improving last year’s record and winning the PAC which gives us the opportunity to compete in the National Championship.”
This season the Cavs are looking to amp up the enthusiasm coming from the fans.
“This year when opposing teams come into the field house, we want them to come into a gym full of ruthless Cabrini fans, which will also help to motivate the guys on and make it feel like we have the sixth man advantage,” Brown said.
“This season we are on a mission,” Brown continued. ” We want to get Cabrini back on top of the PAC where they belong.
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