Seariders Make Progress As Alves’ Knee Looks Good To Go
By Jack Danilewicz
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS | Share
Del.icio.us
|
Brigham Young-Hawaii basketball fans can make a note beside Jan. 2 on their calendars. That’s the night Lucas Alves is projected to make his first appearance of the season after recovering from a knee injury that sidelined him for the Seasiders’first seven games.
As National Player of the Year,Alves is one of many reasons why BYUH opened the season as the nation’s top-ranked team in Division II.
“The doctors still have to approve it, but hopefully he’ll be given the OK,” BYUH coach Ken Wagner said of Alves, who packs 230 solid pounds into a 6-foot-9 frame. “He’s been working hard.”
The news is not as good for sophomore Jet Chang, who will miss the rest of the season with a broken arm.Chang, who hails from Yilan, Taiwan, was in the midst of a stellar season that saw him shoot 65.2 percent from the field while averaging 23.7 points per outing through the Seasiders’ first five games.He was named the Most Valuable Player at the Seattle Pacific Tournament earlier in the month.
“Anytime you have a player with that production, you miss him,” Wagner said of Chang, PacWest Conference Player of the Year.“I think we have some people who felt that they had to take on the burden (of compensating scoring-wise).When we play as a team, we’re a very good team.When we don’t, we’re average.”
BYUH’s injuries haven’t been limited to Alves and Chang,unfortunately.A handful of others have been hampered with ailments, including Garrett Sandberg, who returned to practice only recently from a back injury.
Given all the injury issues, the Seasiders would nevertheless appear right on track for the kind of year prognosticators envision for them. BYUH entered last Saturday’s home date with Simon Fraser at 5-2. Their only two losses came on the road to fellow Division II powers Seattle Pacific (78-72) and Chaminade (87-81), which recently took Division I Hawaii to the wire in a road loss of its own.
“You’d like to be at your best when you’re ranked No. 1, but we lost to two good teams,and we had a chance to win both games,” Wagner said. “We’re happy with our progress. I think we’ve started to learn to play within our capabilities. We’re getting better and better. We’re not as far along as I thought we’d be, but we’re getting closer.”
The Seasiders’ deep talent pool has allowed them to stay the course. In the absence of Lucas and Chang, their rotation in the Chaminade game largely centered around Heath Gameren, Marques Whippy, Rory Patterson, Virgil
Buensuceso, Gary Satterwhite and A.J. Reilly.
Defense has always been one of its fortes. It yielded 74.6 points per game last season when it finished 27-2 and advanced to the NCAA West Region Championship game. The team is giving up 80.1 early-on this season.
“I haven’t been happy with our defense,“Wagner admitted.“I think we’ve given up a lot of easy baskets.We have to play great defense.Our defense creates a lot of offense.”
The return of Alves figures to a big boost at both ends of the floor.
“No. 1, he has a great work ethic,” Wagner said. “He’s improved every year. He’s an incredible shooter for a big kid, and he runs the floor well,and he’s great in transition.”
BYUH is in the midst of a 13-day layoff between last Saturday’s game with Simon-Fraser and their Jan. 2 meeting with Chapman at Cannon Activities Center.
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
