RIT’s Randy Muldrow goes up for a layup Friday, December 12, 2008 against Houghton College. RIT won the match up 89-73 allowing them to advance to the finals of the 23rd annual Harold J. Brodie Tournament.
Ashley Conti

Men’s Basketball

Youth is a word that best describes this year’s RIT men’s basketball team. As eight of the team’s eighteen players are first year students, there are some uncertainties going into the early stages of the season. But, don’t panic — Coach Bob McVean has coached his team through seventeen straight winning seasons; included within that streak is sixteen straight post-season appearances. The latest streak ended last season when the team failed to reach the playoffs, despite having a 14-11 overall record.

With the amount of youth on this year’s team, it is important to maintain a stout leadership. This year’s team is led by star forward Mark Carson, a fourth year Packaging Science major, and guard Adam Sweet, a third year New Media Interactive Development student, the team’s two captains. But just because other players don’t wear the letter “C” doesn’t mean they can’t help lead the team. Coach McVean expects everyone to take a part in the leadership role; it is a critical part to the overall meshing of the team.

Heading into the winter break, the team has a 2-0 conference record. Ultimately, the team’s expectations are to qualify for the Division III NCAA tournament. A team from the Tigers’ conference can have an auto qualification into the NCAA tournament by winning their conference championship tournament in which the top four teams play for the title of Conference Champion. Of Coach McVean’s 26 years of coaching tenure here at RIT, one of his fondest memories is of doing just that, when in 1997 the team made it to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

“We attract a very special student athlete here. What I mean by that is there are true student athletes here at RIT,” said Coach McVean. The players on the team devote a lot of their time to the sport of basketball, but don’t let that fool you into thinking that they don’t devote as much time to their studies. The RIT men’s basketball team has a 100 percent graduation rate of four-year players under Coach Bob McVean. This is truly remarkable for any institution, maybe even more so here at RIT.

Sweet weighed in, “This year’s team is very close both on and off the court. The team is very devoted to getting better beyond the hours of regular practice. Even our freshmen find the extra time to get into the gym during their busy freshman schedules.” All the hard work is paying off for the Tigers. Coach McVean says that the team is gelling well and that they are getting better, day by day, practice by practice.

Coach McVean described the team’s biggest challenge this season as “taking a team of freshmen and having them perform at a high level together and being able to compete against teams with more experience.” This year’s team is full of youth, but with strong displays of leadership from veteran players and the team’s two captains, the team looks to be in for a great season.

Women’s Basketball

This year’s women’s basketball team is small in numbers; there are nine girls on the active roster, five of which are first years. One such first year, forward and Physician Assistant student Sharon Dennis, has been a real bright spot for the Tigers this year. She has earned Empire 8 Rookie of the Week honors consecutively for the past three weeks, putting up strong performances in each game. Dennis has four double-doubles and 10 or more rebounds in each of the six games this season.

Not only are there new faces on the team but there are new faces in the coaching staff as well. This year the RIT women’s basketball program has named Amy Reed their eighth head coach since their inaugural season in 1987. Reed is poised to become only the second coach in the team’s history to compose a winning season, the last and only time being the 2006-2007 season. Over the past couple of years the program has taken a turn in the right direction; the past two seasons they have had a combined 27-25 overall record and the prior nineteen seasons accounted for a dismal 84 wins and 364 losses.

The team this year features three captains, senior guards Kelly Votolato, a fourth year Industrial and Systems Engineering student, and Rachel Bruno, a fourth year multi-disciplinary student, along with junior guard Danielle Furman, a third year New Media Design and Imaging student. Bruno stated, “Our team this year is young but talented. We focus on defense as a team because we only have nine players this year and we are small. It is important for us to hold teams to as few points as possible. I feel as though I bring experience and competitiveness to the team. As a captain, I feel as though I need to bring leadership to the table for our team because we struggle with that. The team, as a whole, is very talented.” Since this year’s team contains mostly younger players, it is a rebuilding process. With a new head coach and several new players, the team can look ahead and focus on the task at hand: Winning.

So far this season, the Tigers have a 2-4 record. The young team definitely doesn’t lack talent (with an impressive 81-49 win at Hilbert College), but it does lack experience. “It’s just when it comes down to close games where experience is needed; we lack it because we are so young. [However,] we have a lot of heart when we are out on the court,” Bruno said. The veteran members of the squad strive to be better and make every effort to set forth a good example to the rookies by being focused and working hard day in and day out.

The women’s Tigers basketball team is looking to get ahead in the conference with a string of five home games starting on December 13, which includes four conference games. The rookies will look for veteran guidance while the veterans will be looking for a youthful emergence. “The best and worst part of our team is the amount of us,” says Dennis, and with a team as small as this year’s, the girls will become a closeknit group who will ride the ups and downs of the season together.