Improvement is required
Mar. 5, 2010 - Regina Leader-Post
By Ian Hamilton
Making the post-season made the 2009-10 season a little more palatable for University of Regina Cougars head coach James Hillis.
The Cougars men's basketball team went 10-10 in the Canada West regular season to earn a spot in a best-of-three quarterfinal against the Simon Fraser Clan. Regina's season ended Saturday, when the Clan completed a 2-1, come-from-behind series victory.
"I'm pleased, with the new alignment, that we were .500 and that we made the playoffs," Hillis said. "There were a lot of shocked faces from people who didn't make the playoffs, like Brandon and Victoria. Trinity Western didn't make the playoffs and that was a team that was considered a legitimate contender for a national championship.
"With the realignment and the reduction of the teams that make the playoffs, it's a very difficult league to make the playoffs. We didn't back into it, either. We took care of it ourselves."
The Cougars will have some work to do to reach the same level -- or to surpass it -- next season.
Regina lost point guard Paul Schubach and forward Jamal Williams to graduation after the '09-10 season and their production will be tough to replace. Those who return -- notably shooting guards Jeff Lukomski and Sterling Nostedt, point guard Darius Mole and post Kris Heshka -- will have to pick up the slack.
"We've got to get better by making the players we've already got better," Hillis said. "We'll start in a couple of weeks with workouts -- and we've got to get into the weight room, too. At times, we didn't look strong enough.
"We weren't big enough, either. That's a big part of it. We're going to need to try to recruit bigger guys in all positions, not just posts."
That may take Hillis across the continent. The best big man in the Regina Intercollegiate Basketball League is 6-foot-5 Campbell Tartans star Matt Campbell and, while Hillis is trying to recruit Campbell, the Cougars' head coach knows he needs to employ "a wider shotgun in terms of recruiting."
"Part of it is resource-based," Hillis said.
"If we're going to recruit kids from Toronto or Winnipeg or Calgary, that requires money. It requires money to support the athletes in terms of scholarships but also in terms of travelling and identifying players."
Mind you, size isn't the only concern this off-season. Hillis suggested the Cougars have a reputation across the conference as a good shooting team, but he noted the statistics from the '09-10 season don't bear that out.
Regina was 10th in the 14-team loop in field-goal percentage (41.1), 12th in three-point field-goal percentage (31.9) and last in free-throw percentage (62.4).
"We've got to shoot the ball better ...," Hillis said. "You address that two ways. One, the guys who are coming back and want to make this team need to shoot the ball better. They need to get in the gym and shoot the ball. They can't take the summer off. Guys who struggled from the free-throw line need to shoot the ball maybe 50,000 times between now and September.
"The second way is to recruit guys who are better shooters."