2014-2015 Men’s Basketball Preview
Jerrell L. Tyree
On September 23, 2014, The Voice had a chance to sit in on practice with Tri-C’s basketball team for the 2014-2015 upcoming season’s condition session. We had the privilege to speak with a few of this year’s promising players, as well as coach Mike Duncan. With the new season approaching we wanted to hear what the players had to say about this year’s challenges, and what they are doing to prepare mentally and physically to cover come the adversities of last season with a new team and being coached by Mike Duncan, a former player for Tri-C’s 2004 Championship team.
After practice we had the chance to sit down with Brett Thomas a student at the Metro Campus majoring in Business Management to ask him what the coach is doing to get him and the guys prepared condition wise for this upcoming pre-season play. “We hit the track every other day 8 laps equaling up to 2 miles, then we do sprints and activity called bear crawls, that’s when you’re on all fours both hands both legs and you just going hardworking on both arms and legs simultaneously. We hit the gym do drills and basically just a lot of running to get into shape for the upcoming season.” We asked what’s it like working on the same goal with a new team he responded, “It brings us all together, you can see the dedication of fellow teammates, the ones who come every day and give their all every day.” We also asked what is it like to play for Coach Duncan knowing he was player here in 2004 bringing home Tri-C’s last Championship, and how does that inspire him as a player? “He talks about that great year that Tri-C had, and he also talks about last year. Last year’s team went 5-24, He’s the head coach now so we are just looking to turn that all around.”
We also had the privilege to speak with one of the primary prospects of this year’s team, an addition out of New York. We sat down with Cairo Brown also attending Metro campus majoring in Strategic Leadership. “Coach has us doing a lot of running, strength and conditioning, we run about 40 to 45 minutes every practice we do a lot of sprints.” When asked what it’s like coming to a new team and community being from New York playing here at Tri-C and under Coach Duncan. “Dunc, he’s a great guy playing under him I can connect to him in a bunch of ways. He’s from the kind of area where I’m from New York, but I’m adjusting and people around here are pretty good people, and my teammates are some really awesome guys. I’m looking forward to playing this upcoming season here at Tri-C.” When questioned on overcoming hurdles and challenges, he responded on his physical stating, “I haven’t really conditioned like this in my life. I’m kind of banged up so hopefully I’m not going into the season worn out.
We had a chance to speak with Anthony Slane another promising prospect who is a student at Metro/Western campuses of Tri-C majoring in Nursing/Business. Slane says, “The hurdles and challenges we mainly face as a team is selfishness and overcoming adversity. Coach Duncan knows what he’s doing, he’s been there before and he is the one who’s going to help us get there.”
We sat down with Head Coach Mike Duncan to get an overview of what to look forward to this upcoming season. Duncan responded, “Cairo Brown out of New York, he’s here and most likely to be our starting point guard, he came out of prep school he’s going to be a big part of our team this year.” Coach Duncan concluded “I love coaching basketball. I am just thankful to be in this position.”
