Men’s basketball breaks streak, but begins another

By Chris Nicolini
Sports Editor

The men’s basketball team finally broke their infamous 32-game losing streak on Nov. 22, beating Division III Newport News Apprentice 69-68, then lost three straight games, two of which were decided by a margin of more than 40 points.

Despite the lone win, UNCP head coach Bryan Garmroth does not believe the team has found the mindset necessary to be competitive this season in Peach Belt Conference competition.

“This team didn’t create the streak,” Garmroth said. “They were 0-1 (before the win). It was only me and about four other guys that were a part of the streak. The win I thought would be a confidence boost. It wasn’t.”

The team is plagued by a lack of bench depth - only 11 players are listed on the team’s roster.

The squad’s current 32 percent 3-point field goal percentage is not benefiting the team when opponents are shooting 46 percent from outside the arc, netting nearly one of every two attempts. The problems seem to stem from transition breakdowns.

“We’re not defending… we’re doing a lot of drills trying to get on your man as he catches the ball, and not after he catches the ball and gets his feet set,” Garmroth said. “When we started out we weren’t even contesting shots; now we’ve got them contesting, but they’re still contesting too late.

“I think we stand around sometimes thinking about what’s going to happen,” Garmroth said. “We’re supposed to lose. And that’s a hard, hard mentality to break. Right now we’re just not putting in the effort defensively.”

One bright spot in the otherwise dismal season is the successful crashing of the boards by UNCP, pulling down 38.6 boards-per-game. Another is the team’s leading scorer, senior Damien Goodman, who is shooting nearly 56 percent from inside the arc.

“My goal when I came here was to try to lay a foundation that where in the future Pembroke would be winning championships. And right now we’re a long ways from that… I’m not naïve,” Garmroth said.

The problem with recruiting more experienced talent is the lack of a winning tradition that the men’s basketball program is missing.

“Our basketball program, aside from losing, even with that, we’re not really well known. I get out to a lot of these high schools and these kids have never even heard of UNC-Pembroke, and they’re in Fayetteville, or an hour up the road,” Garmroth said.

“Another thing that would help us is (a winning) tradition. Pembroke had a winning (basketball) tradition about 14 years ago, and right now we don’t have a winning tradition,” Garmroth said.

It is obvious that Garmroth alone cannot turn the tide all by himself; in fact it is necessary for the players to step up for themselves, take responsibility and change their mental attitudes toward the way they approach each game.

“With our numbers right now, and with where we are, it can’t just be one player (to produce a winning squad). We need a group of players to just say, ‘enough is enough.’ Right now the biggest problem we are facing is that, ‘it’s OK to lose because we’ve lost so much,’ and that’s not something one person is going to change.” Garmroth said.

Garmroth has a big belief that sports emulate life, and vice-versa.

“You have to realize that basketball, and athletics in general, are a lot like life,” Garmroth said, “You’re going to face a lot of difficult times, and you can just roll over and die, or just quit and go through the motions, or you can get tough and grow and make yourself stronger through it. That would be the ideal way I’d like to see us go.”