Men's basketball wants to compete, improve in second half
Central Michigan's Men's Basketball head coach Keno Davis talks to the media after the basketball game on Jan. 30 at McGuirk Arena.
Keno Davis is focused on improvement in the second half of the Mid-American Conference season for the Central Michigan men's basketball team.
“We have to continue to find ways to win and improve going forward, and one game doesn't necessarily change the season,” Davis said. “For us it’s about getting better, because even though we were able to win there is a lot of things to improve on, which is a good thing.”
Coming off of a win against Northern Illinois, CMU currently sits at 3-6 in the MAC and 14-8 overall. The win put them in a three-way tie for fourth in the MAC West Division with NIU (10-12, 3-6 MAC) and Eastern Michigan (12-10, 3-6).
Even though the Toledo Rockets (15-7, 7-2) lost on Tuesday, the Chippewas are still four games out of first place, with only nine league games remaining.
Senior guard Josh Kozinski, who is coming off a career-high 24 points against the Huskies, understands the standings but believes they can become a tough team by March.
“This MAC can be wide open as we start on the bottom like we are now, but once we get the ball rolling we will be difficult matchup like we showed (against NIU),” Kozinski said. “We can be just like Kent State last year making a run to the NCAA Tournament."
CMU's next game is at Ohio at 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 3 from the Convocation Center in Athens.
The Chippewas are still waiting to face the Rockets later this season. Two games against in-state rival Western Michigan also await the Chippewas.
Sophomore forward David DiLeo said the team needs to play a “full 40 minutes" to be successful.
“One of the things we have talked about is not starting the game off slow and put ourselves behind early,” DiLeo said. “We did a better job against NIU, but we need to every night. If we can put together more complete games, we can beat anybody as I’ve learned.”
Davis knows where his team currently sits, but believes good things are coming.
“We like where we are going as a team, but I still like where we are right now,” Davis said. “Even though the conference record isn’t where we would like it to be, I have high hopes for this team in the second half of the season.”
