The Tommies men’s basketball team is one Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association season removed from a tremendous turnaround, and they are poised to continue their climb up the ACAA rankings in 2021-22.
In his first season with the Tommies, head coach John Hickey took a 7-14 squad and coached them to a 12-6 record in the regular season and a trip to the ACAA semi-finals, where they would lose to the eventual ACAA champions.
Returning from that 2019-20 team are Ted Braden, Zach Vautour, Ian Watters and ACAA All-Stars Almin Dervisevic and Geoff Lavoie, the latter being named a CCAA All-Canadian.
“They’re both veterans who understand what and how we’re trying to accomplish winning an ACAA, then a CCAA Championship. That is our ultimate goal,” said Hickey about his two All-Stars.
With only five returning players from 2019-20 the Tommies have eight new players to Hickey’s system.
Shamus Cormier, Ben Dool, Owen Amos, and Evan Valanne all come to the Tommies from New Brunswick high school play, while Vincent Lyttleton comes to the Tommies from Markham, ON. Gayo Isaya and Tyrese Paul have transferred to the Tommies from St. Francis Xavier University and Mount Saint Vincent University, respectively. That leaves Harrison Florean, who will be back with the Tommies for his third year after taking a year off.
“This year’s version of the men’s basketball Tommies are definitely different than a couple of years ago,” added Hickey. “We were always going to be a bit of a different team, as two years ago was our first year together. We’re going to be a very high paced team. We’re going to try to play the game in transition and we’re going to get up and guard and pressure the ball.”
Hickey has his team focused on one goal, and that is playing for an ACAA banner and then a CCAA banner.
“Our next game and our last game are the only two games this year that are circled on our calendar. It is going to take all thirteen players pulling in the same direction. It is going to take staying focused on what we can control and it’s going to take doing that every single day in practice.”
The Tommies will open their regular season October 29th at 8:00pm at home against the Mount Allison Mounties.