Trailblazers dogged by extended break

by Eric Keppeler
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, December 21, 2006
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, December 23, 2006

Here is the dilemma facing Niagara County Community College men’s basketball coach Frank Rotundo.

With just two players on his roster returning from last year, Rotundo is counting on a talented but inexperienced freshman class to carry his Trailblazers in the 2006-07 season.

But events have conspired to put just six games on his schedule during the first semester – and now the Blazers don’t play again until a Jan. 4 date at Pitt-Titus.

How on Earth can his guys get playing time if they can’t play?

“They need to learn the game because my guys don’t have game experience,” Rotundo said. “It’s all about how they grow mentally now. If we’d had 10 or 12 games in the first semester, I think we’d be in good shape right now. But with the lack of experience, we’ve played six games in two months, and that was about the worst thing that could have happened to us.”

The Blazers actually came out of the gates strong with home wins Cayuga and Niagara College. They then hit the road for their next four games and dropped them all, although they were in every game.

“We’ve got a lot of heart, but we’ve got to make sure that we show it the whole game,” said sophomore forward Sean Sittnick, one of the two returning players on the team. “We’ve been killing ourselves in the first half by falling so far behind and not coming out of the gate strong. We can make excuses, but we have to get mentally stronger. We have enough talent to play with anyone at this level.”

That last loss was Dec. 7 at Finger Lakes Community College. Now they’ve got almost a month to think about it before they play another game.

“All of the time off is hard to take, but we’re just taking it one day at a time,” said freshman forward Derrenus Brundidge, the team’s second-leading scorer. “Believe me, we’ll be ready Jan. 4.”

The Trailblazers are scoring an average of 65.7 points per game, which is very close to the 68.5 points per game they’ve been giving up.

Individually, they are led by sophomore Ezra Scott (Niagara Catholic) at 16.6 ppg, followed by Brundidge at 13.5 ppg and Ron Miner at 12.8 ppg. Scott and Brundidge are the leading rebounders, averaging 8.3 per contest, and freshman Calvin Reed (Niagara Falls) has a team-high 3.8 assists per game.

“Once we get started Jan. 4, we’ve got games right straight through until the end of February,” Rotundo said. “We don’t go more than five days without playing, so we’re going to get all of the games we want. With our starting five and two or three off the bench, I think we’ll be fine. We’ll still make the playoffs.”

Along with the general lack of experience, many of the players were reserves on their high school teams and saw action only in mop-up time.

They lacked the killer instinct, but now they’re getting a crash course.

“We’re not as disciplined as we need to be outside of the gym, so when we don’t get gym time, it kills us,” said Sittnick, a Sherman High School grad. “But we’re coming together over this break, and we’re getting ready to make a stretch run in the second semester.”