Four Keys for Morehouse Basketball
Here are my four keys to success for 2019–2020 Morehouse Basketball
In sports, whenever a season comes to a close, we automatically look to the future for the next season and what it may bring us. Will this be the year that your team makes it, who will be the surprise team, and most importantly who will win it all.
When it comes to basketball, fans are always looking for the upcoming rankings to help better get an idea of who to keep an eye on for the season. But before the championship game is played, there is a lot of groundwork that needs to be done. One of the most impactful tasks is getting to know your team from the inside out. So with that, I will break down my top four things to look forward to with the Morehouse College Maroon Tigers basketball team.
1. This years team will be more of a TEAM.
A couple of seasons back the Atlanta native Tyrius Walker, carried the team his senior year averaging 30 points a game and led the Maroon Tigers to a number one seed for division two and an overall best record for the college in the 2017–2018 season. Now removed from an offensive system centered around a star player, this years team will look to find its identity as it hunts down the NCAA National Championship.
Fast forward to this season, with another year under their belts without such a ball dominate veteran guard to carry the team through a long, vigorous season filled with highs and lows; the team will be more comfortable with depending on each other and playing as a unit. They will have to trust each other to reach their goals as an unit to see the best basketball from this squad, and they could click sooner rather than later and pull off a dominate performance both on offense and defense.
2. Experience over Youth.
We all know how important experience is in the world today, everyone wants someone on their team who has been in a situation before and knows how to handle it no matter what kind of obstacles may come their way. That feeling may hold no greater truth than when it comes to sports where experience can be the sole difference between a championship, losing in the first round, or not even making the post season.
Morehouse has arguably the most experienced player in Senior Guard Michael Olmert, who has seen significant playing time since his freshman year. Olmert finished his 2018–2019 season by being named to 2018–2019 All-SIAC second-team while averaging 9.6 points per same, racking up 162 assists, and leading the conference in assists per game (6.9).
3. Home is where the Heart is.
Another key point that could lead to much success for the Maroon Tigers this year is the home crowd factor, potentially one of the biggest factors in a game.
With a top home arena in the nation, Forbes Arena has been a miserable environment that visiting teams dread coming into. Students can cause havoc for the team from start to finish by making it difficult for opposing players to hear what plays to run from their coach, or even from each other on the court to make adjustments on the fly. All of these disadvantages add up and make playing in Forbes almost impossible to come away with a win for opposing teams.
4. Motivation from years past.
In my first point mentioned how Tyrius Walker led the team to the number one overall seed for the division two NCAA tournament in 2017. Although it was a historic season, they experienced a heart breaker by falling to Florida Southern 98–97 on a last minute shot in overtime.
But the Tigers were able to clinch a east division championship, last season building the teams chemistry and finding out more about themselves and what they are truly capable of going forward.
There are a few players remaining on the team from the days that Tyrius played, and even fewer from the team last season that won the east division in the SAIC(Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference). The Maroon Tigers are looking to get back to the tournament and even further in hopes of bringing back the first NCAA championship trophy in the history of Morehouse basketball.
Nicholas Lawrence Vaughn — Senior — Philosophy major Sports Journalism minor from Dallas, Texas.
