Braves’ transformation has them in national tournament

Most people heading to Florida in January are going there for one thing: fun, whether it be in connection with spring break, vacation, or retirement.

When Husson College’s men’s basketball team headed to Daytona Beach the first week in January, fun in the sun was not on the main itinerary.

Despite a 6-3 record, head coach Warren Caruso wasn’t happy with the focus or execution of his team. If that wasn’t enough to concern him, Caruso was dealing with an undermanned squad still smarting from having its streak of three straight league titles snapped last season.

He had to dismiss his team’s leading scorer and 2002 Maine Athletic Conference player of the year Robert Pilsbury for academic reasons and was already without the services of another experienced player as senior guard Nate Cyr had decided not to play after undergoing two offseason knee surgeries.

But rather than dwell on their misfortunes or become distracted by them, the Braves began to buy into Caruso’s put-the-team-ahead-of-yourself concept wholeheartedly and got back to basics.

The attitude adjustment which started in Florida also coincided with the unexpected return of Cyr. He not only returned to the team, but slid into the starting guard slot vacated by Pilsbury. Throw in a final change in the rotation with freshman Phil White replacing Brad Galley at forward in the starting lineup and the Braves’ midseason makeover was complete.

That was 19 games ago. The Braves have gone 17-2 in that span and won the Sunrise title to earn their fourth conference title in the last five years (seventh in the last 10) and 13th overall berth in the NAIA Division II national.

The 23-5 Braves will take on 26-6 Oregon Tech, ranked 10th nationally among NAIA Div. II teams, at 5:30 p.m. Thursday in the first round of the tourney tournament at Point Lookout, Mo.

Oregon Tech, which has good size and four double-digit scorers, is almost identical to Husson statistically.

Key players are 6-foot-6 junior forward Kevin Baker (14.1 ppg, 7.7 rpg), 6-7 junior center Alassane Bakayoko (14.0 ppg, 6.4 rpg), 6-1 freshman guard Florian Houghuet (12.9 ppg, 3.1 rpg), 5-9 junior guard Todd Matthews (11.4 ppg, 8.3 apg, 3.8 rpg) and 6-4 sophomore guard Michael Nunes (9.8 ppg, 5.9 rpg).

“This team deserves a lot of credit for accepting the decisions we made and the changes we made,” Caruso said. “I think the big difference is our leadership this year, not only from our seniors but from a group of people who are listening to everything people say. It’s a group that likes each other and people trust each other.”

Caruso credits his three seniors for most of the solid team chemistry.

Co-captains Randy Fletcher and Ryan Rivera have been leaders on and off the court, while Cyr has been inspirational as he’s gone from non-playing student assistant to a starting player.

“I had no intentions of playing. I just found out I could play three weeks to a month before I came back, after the Florida trip,” said Cyr, a Howland native who has started all 19 games he’s played, averaging 9.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.8 steals, and 1.7 assists per game.

Fletcher, who was named Sunrise player of the year, has been a rock inside for the Braves. The 6-foot-5, 230-pound power forward-center leads the team with 16.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game.

Rivera, a 6-1 guard from Bradford, has subjugated his individual game for the betterment of the team while still managing to average 13.1 points and 4.3 boards per game. He is also averaging a team-leading 2.4 assists and 1.7 steals a game.

“They’ve offered this team a sense of leadership, and each of them is doing it in a different way,” Caruso said. “Nate does it by throwing himself all over the court, Randy’s the steady guy we can rely on and our horse, and Ryan does it by stepping up his game in a sense that he’s still our best defensive player and now he’s given us offensive punch as well.”