The St. Thomas University men’s and women’s basketball teams ended the regular season with their eyes on the playoffs.
The women’s team finished fourth in the Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) standings, while the men’s team finished fifth.
Both qualify for the playoffs, which will be played from Feb. 28 to March 2.
STU women’s head coach Fred Connors said that even though the team dropped games early in the season, they are right where they want to be.
“As long as you get into playoffs and you’re playing well in playoffs, then it doesn’t really matter what you’re sitting is going in, so we’re just focusing on being ready for playoffs,” said Connors.
The girls in green and gold have qualified for the playoffs for “a while” and will face the University of King’s College in the first round.
“I’m not worried about who the opponent is,” said Connors. “I just want to make sure that we’re as good as we can possibly be and play our best when we get there and if we do that, I think that’s good enough.”
Connors, who has been coaching at STU for the past 22 years, said that the team has put up some “impressive” defensive numbers, but they need to work on finishing.
“I think we’re moving the ball well, I just think we need to finish and we’re working on that,” he said.
Fourth-year guard Alyssa Jeffrey said that the team is excited, but they’ve also been keeping their composure for the last couple of regular season games.
“We have good energy and good vibes towards [playoffs],” she said. “Our first game will be against Kings, so we know what we need to do to win that game.”
This year is special for the women’s team because STU will host the 2025 Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) women’s basketball national championship for the first time in the program’s history.
The nationals will be played from March 12 to 15 at the Richard Currie Center on the University of New Brunswick campus.
Connors considers this a recognition of the standard at STU, where they have been nationally ranked 20 of the 22 years he has been with the team.
“It shows support from our university, that they believe in what we’re doing and it’s definitely a compliment that they trust us to host in terms of what the national body is,” said Connors.
The STU men’s basketball team has had a similar record to the women’s team. Head Coach John Hickey said that the team conceded more games after the Christmas break, but the team has been picking up the pace.
“We’re quite a bit better defensively than what we were at the start of the new year; that’s been a focus,” said Hickey.
“If you’re not focused on some certain details, then we’re not going to win games.”
Similar to Connors, Hickey said that the team has been strong defensively, but the team needs more consistency looking forward to the playoffs.
“An area that we’ve talked about a lot lately is just our consistency, our consistency offensively in the types of possessions that we have and our consistency making sure we have the right energy defensively,” he said.
“We have a lot of guys that have kind of been through the trenches and have been in those finals, have played tough playoff games, so we do have experience there as well.”
For Hickey, one of the players who has stepped out of his role this season is second-year player River Lanz.
“It makes me feel really good, knowing that I’m still only in my second year being able to step up after one year on the team,” said Lanz.
He said that it has been an interesting season and that it has been a big adjustment for everyone after losing key players from last year and dealing with injuries.
“We don’t play next weekend and that’s probably going to be the most important time for us to rest, recover, but also get some solid work in.”
“It’s gonna be a very physical few games, so we just need to be prepared to put anyone in and make sure everyone knows the plays,” said Lanz.
