Wesleyan men ready to play for real finally
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By KEN HAMBLETON / Lincoln Journal Star
The freshmen who dominated the Nebraska Wesleyan basketball roster two years ago are juniors.
They have a winning season under their belts after the first back-to-back losing seasons in 26 years.
Dylan Aylward was one of three freshmen starting for the Prairie Wolves two years ago.
“We were young,” he said. “We’re still young as a team, but some of us have made the transformation from player to leader for this team.
“Practices are intense.”
That’s all Wesleyan has at this point because it belongs to NCAA Division III, which restricts the season.
While the rest of the Great Plains Athletic Conference teams, all NAIA members, have notched six, even seven games this season, NWU finally opens its season Friday and Saturday in games in the St. Louis area.
Third-year coach Cam Schuknecht is hoping for more this year with 6-foot-8 Aylward, a junior from Lincoln Southwest, and Ryan Thramer, a 6-3 shooter and returning leading rebounder. He will also count on the team’s lone senior, Brandon Arp; forwards Roy O’Neill and Preston Englund; and guards Lee Hullman and Jake Spurgeon.
NWU started 8-2 last year. The Wolves finished strong, too, and posted a 14-13 record, behind the leadership of Marcus Minzel, last season’s only senior and two-year leading scorer.
“There’s going to be a lot of candidates to fill in for Marcus,” said Schuknecht. “He was a team leader for so long … his work ethic, his very visible contributions to every thing we did.”
Aylward said that team leadership role is up for grabs. “Play some games and we’ll see,” he said.
Schuknecht is tight-lipped about newcomers cracking the lineup, but freshmen Nick Dinan (Ralston), Andrew Palmer (Waverly), Mitch Liberty (Falls City) and Jory Crouch (Grand Island) have all gotten some attention in practice.
“Last year, we were No. 1 in scoring defense in the conference last year and No. 2 in defensive shooting percentage,” Schuknecht said. “Those are the concrete things we can build on for this year.”
NWU opens at Webster University (St. Louis) on Friday and at Maryville University (St. Louis) on Saturday. The Wolves open the GPAC slate at Doane on Tuesday and play host to the Snyder Classic Dec. 28-29.
Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or khambleton@journalstar.com.
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