sports.mens.jg

If there was one absolute word to define the UC Riverside men’s basketball team’s 2015-16 season thus far it would be as follows: Welp.

Additionally, if there were a meme to accurately depict the outcome of their season it would likely be that of the infamous “crying Jordan.”

That word and image alone would serve well to capture just how disappointing this year has been for the Highlanders, who just recently suffered their third consecutive loss on Saturday, Feb. 13 at the hands of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. This loss capped off the Highlanders’ third losing streak of three games or more on the season and with an upcoming road matchup against the conference’s second-place team, Hawaii, the prospects of this one ballooning to four are relatively high. Nevertheless, as of now, the Highlanders sit at a losing record of 13-14 on the season with the Big West’s third-worst conference record of 4-7.

Where exactly the season went sour for UCR is difficult to pinpoint. There were the occasional slip-ups in the early portion of nonconference play, such as the one-point loss to the University of San Francisco or the six-point defeat at the hands of a previously winless Rice University team. In hindsight, these results seemed to foreshadow the inconsistency that has continued to plague their season to date. Yet, these perhaps went overlooked by the team’s few flashes of dominance. A 32-point victory over William Jessup in the season-opening Homecoming game and a 95-48 blowout of Life Pacific being chief among them. And yet, such showings seem ever so distant at this juncture.

Perhaps the best way to pinpoint what went wrong here is to direct the finger back in our own direction. It has been said that the greatest disappointment is only bred by the highest of expectations, and this could very well be the case for UCR men’s basketball. No, the vision for followers of the team wasn’t that they would be absolute world beaters, but the thought was that the senior seasons for stars Taylor Johns and Jaylen Bland would help ignite the team. That the acquisitions of talented transfers such as Secean Johnson, Malik Thames and Gentrey Thomas would add new wrinkles to their offense and incoming freshman center Menno Dykstra would be the finishing touch they needed to contest with the length of last year’s conference champion UC Irvine — who ousted UCR in their conference quarterfinals matchup.

Where it becomes difficult to assess their failures is when acknowledging that, for the most part, everything listed above has just about played out as expected. Johnson, Thames and Thomas have made a noticeable impact on the team’s offensive firepower and overall versatility; Dykstra has shown a great amount of growth in an ever-expanding role and, while minor injuries and brief suspensions from team play have somewhat hindered Johns’ senior season, both he and Bland have managed to have productive games on a weekly basis. In fact, Bland currently ranks third in the nation in three-pointers made on the season.

The players, on an individual level, have performed quite well.

When considering that most of this has fallen into place for the Highlanders, the fact that it hasn’t translated into wins becomes ever more disturbing. The year has been one of flashes. A brief stretch of dominance in the midst of a game here before a last-minute meltdown there. It would be easy to chalk it all up to a lack of chemistry, but a simple eye test will show you that camaraderie is the least of the Highlanders’ issues.

Perhaps, then, the inability to truly bring it all together falls beyond a player-related issue and is rooted structurally within the UCR coaching staff. I am not affirming that it is or is not, but merely speculating about what the crux of the Highlanders’ struggles are up to this point. What we know to be true is that the answer to solving their issues, like just about all else that has to do with this season thus far, seems lost.