STORY BY AIDEN EISEL, SPORTS EDITOR
PHOTO COURTESY OF CYPRESS COLLEGE ATHLETICS
The men’s basketball team is preparing for their season to start, as they hope to return to the playoffs after missing out last season.
Last season, the team finished with a 13-15 record, going an even 8-8 in conference play, which was not enough for playoff contention. It’s easy to point out what went wrong last season for them, as they shot at just a 38.2% clip from the field last season and 29.4% from the three-point line, which ranked them as the 98th out of 100 teams in the conference in that department.
Head Coach Andrew Alhadeff spoke about what he’s looking forward to this season, he said, “[I’m] excited…our goal is always to make a playoff run, we’re in the toughest conference in the state of California, so every night is a dog fight”. He also added that he’s impressed with his team’s work habits, and trying to get the new faces acclimated to the program.
Regarding the message to the team entering the season, he’s been stressing toughness to his players by saying, “I’m a defensive-minded coach, so we need to be tough on defense…ball security, rebounding and staying tough when guys are fouling us.” Alhadeff also mentioned that he’d like his players to improve in the rebounding game, as they also struggled with that last year.
Alhadeff acknowledged that competition in the state this year has improved but he’s been happy with it and how hard his team has worked leading into the season. Alhadeff also mentioned some challenges that go along with players coming in and going he said, “We can’t worry about the past and can’t worry about the future of the program….it’s definitely hard with being a two-year school”. Another challenge he mentioned was the pace of the practices being too “slow” and sometimes it is difficult to keep players engaged.
Alhadeff assures he’s got the guys this year to compete for a championship, as last year was one of his worst seasons as a coach. The team will open their season on Saturday, Nov. 2 against Grossmont at 5:00 p.m. with the regular season spanning until the beginning of February. To learn more about the men’s basketball team visit the Cypress College Athletics website to view news, photos, and schedules.
