Coast Guard returns nine players including four players who made 14 or more starts from a team that finished 7-17 overall and 3-11 in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference (NEWMAC). The Bears final record is not indicative of how they played last season as the team suffered 10 of its losses by 10 points or less and that is something head coach Kevin Jaskiewicz, in his ninth season, has talked about with his team a lot in the preseason.
“We have to learn from that experience, we know how hard we played in games, but we have to play harder to get over that hump,” said Jaskiewicz. “We could have been 6-4 in those 10 and it’s a very different year.”
Sophomore Packy Witkowski and senior co-captain Micah Baldez, the Bears top two scorers last season, both return in the back court.
Witkowski started 23 games and led the team with 13.7 points per game (15.1 in conference games) and 6.4 rebounds per game. He led the team with 54 3-pointers, shooting at team-high 40.9 percent from behind the arc. Witkowski was third on the team with 41 assists to go with 14 steals.
Sophomore Justin Kane, who made 14 starts last season and averaged 8.9 points and 5.8 rebounds per game along with classmate Noah Baldez (6.9 ppg.), who started eight games, and junior Nolan Benson (5.2 ppg.), who made seven starts all return to bolster the Bears front court. The Bears add four freshmen to the roster this season in guard Yonas Gordon, swing player Paul Costain, and front court players Tyler Jones and J.T. Cox.
“I believe all four of the freshman will make a contribution this season,” said Jaskiewicz. “They all had a good preseason. Gordon and Cox will be counted on heavily, but all will play a key role.”
Coast Guard scrimmaged two NCAA tournament teams in Eastern Connecticut and Albertus Magnus and will open the season with a tough Roger Williams team to prepare for the always challenging NEWMAC schedule which features defending national champion Babson, which did not win the NEWMAC championship last season, that honored belong to MIT.
“We are not trying to dodge anybody, that does us no good,” said Jaskiewicz. “The conference is so good, but we feel good as a group, we were in a lot of games last year and now we are looking to see if we can make that next step and close out some games. We are making good progress, we are in a good spot, we have good depth and I like the balanced scoring we showed in the two scrimmages. We had five guys in double figures and we can score from different spots on the floor.”
The Bears will play nine games in the first semester before jumping into NEWMAC in the second semester.
“The way we can measure ourselves and our progress early in the season is to see if we are winning those close games,” said Jaskiewicz. “The guys are showing a deeper understanding of our system and are applying the experience they gained from last year. We are excited about the start of the new season.”