Tough Love

Does tough love pay off? This year, the cliché of the UB Men’s Basketball Team is that “we are young.” Everyone knows that we have five freshmen this year, making us one of the youngest, if not the youngest, team in the MAC. With that being said, the entire coaching staff has made it their goal to not only prepare us for the season, but also make us men. With this being my second year and comparing last year to this year, I can honestly say practices have been extremely rough, and very fast-paced. We have all been put in difficult situations throughout practice, making us both mentally and physically tougher as well as overall better individuals; making us a better team.

“This isn’t high school anymore, boys.” This has been Coach Witherspoon’s most repeated quote this season so far. In other words, we have to grow and man up to the challenges set before us this year. This is sort of déjà vu, because I can remember when I was in high school and was a wide-eye freshman with long hair. I had no clue what I was in for starting as a varsity point guard. My coach, who was also my dad, had similar quotes. His were, “You ain’t in middle school anymore,” or “This isn’t JV, guys,” and he said these whenever we had immature moments or were not playing to our full potential.

So the question still stands, does tough love pay off? Since practice has started, we as a team have taken long strides. Day by day you can see how we are improving in different aspects of our games. Our first test came Saturday, when we had our first scrimmage against Carleton University, a university from Canada. With Byron Mulkey and Mitchell Watt out due to injuries (short-term injuries, don’t stress people), we were a little short-handed but ready. We looked strong in moments and were able to pull out a three-point victory in the end. We could see where we needed work and where we need to improve. On the other hand, we got the win and we can see tough love really does pay off. 

Until next time, that’s Wats’ Up!