Men’s basketball looks to use rivalry game as chance to start anew

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The slate has been wiped clean.

A non-conference schedule riddled with offensive struggles and heartbreaking losses is over.

Now the 3-10 Central Michigan men’s basketball team turns its focus toward rival Western Michigan, who ended its season in the Mid-American Conference tournament last year, as Mid-American Conference play begins at 2 p.m. Sunday in Kalamazoo.

While freshman guard Trey Zeigler will play in the rivalry for the first time, he’s been around long enough to see it firsthand. But many of the other freshmen have not.

“My Dad’s been stressing to the new guys the rivalry and how important it is to the community and having a good game against them,” said freshman guard Trey Zeigler. “They ended our senior’s season last year, so we want to get a little revenge.”

Both teams split their two regular season meetings last year – with the home team winning both times – but the Broncos came out on top when it really counted, upsetting the higher-seeded Chippewas in the quarterfinals of the Mid-American Conference last March.

“You can find every little thing to try and add fuel to the fire, but it’s Western,” said CMU head coach Ernie Zeigler. “The last two games we’ve had there in Kalamazoo have gone down to the final minutes and we’ve been 1-1 in those games. We’re preparing to hopefully have the same opportunity, to go down there and hopefully get another one-possession game.”

Despite boasting just one senior on the roster, WMU has gotten off to a 7-6 start, beating two teams (Detroit and South Dakota State) the Chippewas could not.

Junior guard Flenard Whitfield leads a balanced scoring attack, averaging 12.7 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. While junior guard Demetrius Ward is the only other player to average double figures (11.8 points per game), the Broncos have four other players that average 8-9 points per game.

Meanwhile, CMU has struggled to find a consistent third scorer.

Freshman Zeigler and senior forward Jalin Thomas continue to lead the way with 15 points per game, but getting points from anyone else has proven to be tough in a scoring offense that ranks 316th in Division I. Senior Amir Rashid is third on the team, averaging just 5.8 points per game.

Even with the deficiencies on offense, the team has been in its share of games late. Four of the losses were decided by four points or less.

“Hopefully, for us, we can remember that and take the near misses and disappointments to put us in a better position to finish games,” Ernie said. “Because even though we’ve had our offensive woes, we’ve had opportunities to grind out wins, and that’s what we have to do. We have to be a grind, grimy team that can win one-possession games.”

Said Trey: “We’ve said we’re 0-0 right now. We just want to get off to a good start in conference play. For a team like us, it’d be hard to get an at-large bid to the (NCAA) tournament anyway, so we got to play good in the conference.”

The two teams will meet on the floor Sunday for the 137th time in the rivalry’s 103-year history. With both games scheduled to open and close the conference schedule this season, WMU head coach Steve Hawkins downplayed the emotions of the game.

“We’re both aware, obviously, that the rivalry is there,” Hawkins said Thursday during the Mid-American Conference coaches teleconference. “But when you play the first game, and I don’t know if Ernie’s going to do it or not, you have to try and take the emotion of the rivalry out of it. Motivation alone comes from getting ready to play Game 1 of 16 toward a conference title.”

The details
Records: CMU: 3-10, WMU: 7-6
Tipoff: 2 p.m. Sunday, University Arena, Kalamazoo
TV/Radio: None/CMU Sports Network (95.3 CFX, 98.5 UPS)