If you were to ask UCR head men’s basketball coach, Dennis Cutts, if this is where he expected his team to be with two games remaining on the season, he would likely tell you no, if not scoff at the question entirely.
I mean, of course not. The team did an excellent job of recruiting over the summer, bringing in steady guards Malik Thames, D.J. Sylvester and Gentrey Thomas, versatile swingman Secean Johnson and seven-foot center Menno Dijkstra. The Highlanders also were coming off a season in which they attained their best record (14-17) in three years and had captured the attention of Big West Conference pundits as a team on the rise.
Though, as it currently stands, the Highlanders are two games below .500 with a meager 14-16 record and have an even more disconcerting 5-9 record in the conference. Furthermore, the team recently dismissed its star player and all-time leading rebounder in forward Taylor Johns with just four games remaining in the regular season and is now heading into mid-March’s conference tournament incredibly shorthanded.
Though in a surprise result, the Highlanders managed a win on the road this past Thursday over the conference’s top-ranked Hawaii. However this was followed by a turnover-ridden performance in a Saturday loss to Long Beach State. Granted, the schedule did the team little favors (the team travelled home from Hawaii all day Friday before a late afternoon tip-off in Long Beach the following day), but this turnaround represents the essence of the Highlanders’ 2015-16 season.
While UCR has had strong performances intermittently throughout conference play, it has been a season mostly marred by inconsistency, blown leads and failed comeback attempts. Traits which, in reality, show a team that is not quite ready to contend within the top of the conference.
However, the subversive fact surrounding all of this is that, at the start of the year, the Highlanders were projected by coaches and analysts to finish fifth in the conference come year’s end and their 5-9 record currently has them sitting at the exact spot.
What this means for UCR’s season is — like most else concerning the team this year — not so clear, but it may be fair to suggest they have indeed met the more reasonable expectations. As for those who had goals set higher, it is reasonable to suggest that the momentum the team carried into the year and the shiny, new pieces made us overlook that UCR players would need time to develop into a cohesive unit.
Considering this, here is a theory: The Highlanders are still one year away. Imagine the storyline. After a momentous season in ‘14-’15, UCR men’s basketball underwhelms the following season only to roar back in 2016 with their first winning season since the ‘08-’09 campaign when they went 17-13.
It isn’t at all farfetched. Even with Johns and guards Jaylen Bland and Steven Jones exiting after this season, UCR will be returning a wealth of talented players who have gained chemistry over the course of the year and grown mentally from this struggling season.
Johnson will likely be an offensive focal point while swingman Eric Rwahwire should earn an expanded role and the three-headed monster of Thames, Sylvester and Thomas at the point guard position are all expected to be back in 2016. Not to mention Dijkstra, who has come on nicely as of late, and gives UCR some much-needed size and is the rare big man who can run the floor and orchestrate offense from the high to low post area.
And so, I’m calling it, UCR men’s basketball will make waves in the 2016-17 campaign. Sure, it’s lofty and a bit presumptuous, considering the team has two regular season games and a conference tournament remaining on their schedule. But in the way of optimism, looking at this disappointing season as a year of growth rather than failure can offer the Highlanders and their fans much to look forward to come next season.
