St. Thomas' defeat of Benedictine university marked the end of a very exciting season in Division 3 Men's Basketball. We thought it would be a great idea to look back at our own Blackburn Men's Basketball team for a season recap on what was an exciting year! This year marked the first year of new head coach Steve Kollar taking over the program. The first year saw many exciting games and milestones acheived. In front of a packed Dawes gymnasium, these Beavers gave this home crowd something to cheer about this year.
In the pre-season polls, the Beavers were picked to finish last in the conference. Instead, at the end of the year, the Beavers finished 10-15 and 9-9 in conference to finish one game out of the conference tournament. Finishing 10-15 also gave the Beavers the best record in the past decade at Blackburn. Of those 10 wins, there were a few that were milestone victories for the program. Blackburn swept Webster this year which was noteworthy as Webster had taken 17 of the last 18 meetings between the two programs. Blackburn's victory over Spalding at home marked the Beavers first ever win over Spalding. The win at Iowa Wesleyan on February 13th marked Iowa Wesleyan's first loss at home this year as they were previously 9-0.
Anybody who saw the Beavers play this year know they played fast paced with high intensity. In doing so, this lead to an exciting brand of basketball that garnered some indivudal accomplishments as well. Out of 413 teams in NCAA DIII, the Beavers finished 13th in the nation in 3 point percentage and first in conference at 39.3%. Jake Maestranzi was a huge factor in that as he shot an outstanding 52.8% to lead the conference. On the offensive glass, the Beavers were a terror as they finished 2nd in conference and 68th in the nation in offensive rebounding. Backing up their style of play, the Beavers got into opponents and forced turnovers as they ranked 60th in the nation in steals.
We asked Coach Kollar his thoughts on the year and he came away very pleased. "This was a very important year in terms of establishing the culture we wanted. We stressed that in order to be a part of this program, you have to do things the right way. It was very important we brought back the excitement of Blackburn basketball to the campus, community and the alumni. My favorite part this year was when you could physically feel the guys come together during our four game win streak. You could feel they were bought in and playing for the guy next to them."
The Beavers will continue off-season lifting and workouts as they prepare for what should be another exciting year of basketball next season. For now, enjoy the season highlight tape which will be linked below. Go Beavers!