A Great Season Reached New Heights
Yeah, it hurts.
Northern Colorado’s 68-63 loss to the Montana Grizzlies is the type of defeat that makes your stomach feel nauseous, it makes you wonder what could have been had a possession or two turned out differently, if Devon Beitzel didn’t come down on a Weber State player’s leg late in a game played on February 13th which effectively ended his season, if Taylor Montgomery’s persistent knee injury never came back this year (which, to a close observer, could be seen as hampering the big man’s abilities towards the second half of the season.).
Yet, look how far this team has come. We have now reached the point where a couple of bad breaks were the only things stopping this team from being conference champions. Would that have been believable in 2006?
We say so long to Will Figures and Yahosh Bonner (after the postseason tournament of course), how grateful can we be to those two?
Bonner was here for only two years but his impact was felt immediately. Known for his charm and grace off the floor, the 6-1 guard will be remembered for his leadership and bulldog defense on it. Yahosh eventually gained the respect of his peers and coaches in the Big Sky as evident of his recent Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year Award. Bonner also won the MVP honors in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii which jumpstarted UNC’s meteoric rise this season.
Figures will be leaving the University of Northern Colorado as one of the greatest to ever put on a Bears jersey. Thrown into the fire as a true freshman in the forgettable 4-24 season, Figures learned on the fly how to become a player at this level despite his small stature.
The 5-9 guard from Aurora became the unquestioned leader by example, his grittiness and ability to score from anywhere on the court only improved by each passing year, hitting its peak towards the end of this season, when the Bears needed him most—without Beitzel. The 1st Team All-Big Sky player will be sorely missed as time goes on.
But UNC must continue to build off the success from this season. Despite losing two key players in Bonner and Figures, the Bears still return a boatload of talent, and expect to have some new faces contribute.
Beitzel and Montgomery will hopefully be back to 100 percent or at least close to it by the time practice starts in October. Athletic swingman Chris Kaba returns, he is more than capable of filling up a box score on any given night, he just needs a little more consistency. Mike Proctor and Neal Kingman will be back. Both players provide solid scoring and bring a lot of the intangibles. Elliott Lloyd showed flashes of scoring and improved throughout the season and will be a bigger factor in 2010-2011. David Arnold and Connor Osborne, two freshmen who didn’t see the court much this season will also be called upon to play major minutes.
Among those who red-shirted this season is Emmanuel Ado, who has been supposedly impressive in practices. As well as Tevin Svihovec, a guard from Texas who is the most highly touted recruit to come to Greeley.
The Bears still will have a chance to gain postseason experience this season, for the first time as a Division I member, an experience that will be helpful to the team down the line in future years to come, as they learn how to become a dangerous team in March.
An optimist can find one bright spot in Northern Colorado’s early exit in the conference tournament. It will probably protect Tad Boyle’s name from being thrown out by the bigger schools with a head coaching vacancy for the time being, leaving the hometown hero to continue to build on the suddenly solid foundation in Greeley (and by hearing his interviews, Coach Boyle is the absolute last one to be thinking of a future beyond his hometown.).
As we begin to close the book on the most successful season in the history of Northern Colorado Basketball (after what will be a very important post-season tournament still to be played) the future looks brighter than ever. We must ask ourselves one question that will take 365 days to get the answer:
Will we all be dancing this time next year?
Yeah, it hurts.
Northern Colorado’s 68-63 loss to the Montana Grizzlies is the type of defeat that makes your stomach feel nauseous, it makes you wonder what could have been had a possession or two turned out differently, if Devon Beitzel didn’t come down on a Weber State player’s leg late in a game played on February 13th which effectively ended his season, if Taylor Montgomery’s persistent knee injury never came back this year (which, to a close observer, could be seen as hampering the big man’s abilities towards the second half of the season.).
Yet, look how far this team has come. We have now reached the point where a couple of bad breaks were the only things stopping this team from being conference champions. Would that have been believable in 2006?
We say so long to Will Figures and Yahosh Bonner (after the postseason tournament of course), how grateful can we be to those two?
Bonner was here for only two years but his impact was felt immediately. Known for his charm and grace off the floor, the 6-1 guard will be remembered for his leadership and bulldog defense on it. Yahosh eventually gained the respect of his peers and coaches in the Big Sky as evident of his recent Big Sky Defensive Player of the Year Award. Bonner also won the MVP honors in the Rainbow Classic in Hawaii which jumpstarted UNC’s meteoric rise this season.
Figures will be leaving the University of Northern Colorado as one of the greatest to ever put on a Bears jersey. Thrown into the fire as a true freshman in the forgettable 4-24 season, Figures learned on the fly how to become a player at this level despite his small stature.
The 5-9 guard from Aurora became the unquestioned leader by example, his grittiness and ability to score from anywhere on the court only improved by each passing year, hitting its peak towards the end of this season, when the Bears needed him most—without Beitzel. The 1st Team All-Big Sky player will be sorely missed as time goes on.
But UNC must continue to build off the success from this season. Despite losing two key players in Bonner and Figures, the Bears still return a boatload of talent, and expect to have some new faces contribute.
Beitzel and Montgomery will hopefully be back to 100 percent or at least close to it by the time practice starts in October. Athletic swingman Chris Kaba returns, he is more than capable of filling up a box score on any given night, he just needs a little more consistency. Mike Proctor and Neal Kingman will be back. Both players provide solid scoring and bring a lot of the intangibles. Elliott Lloyd showed flashes of scoring and improved throughout the season and will be a bigger factor in 2010-2011. David Arnold and Connor Osborne, two freshmen who didn’t see the court much this season will also be called upon to play major minutes.
Among those who red-shirted this season is Emmanuel Ado, who has been supposedly impressive in practices. As well as Tevin Svihovec, a guard from Texas who is the most highly touted recruit to come to Greeley.
The Bears still will have a chance to gain postseason experience this season, for the first time as a Division I member, an experience that will be helpful to the team down the line in future years to come, as they learn how to become a dangerous team in March.
An optimist can find one bright spot in Northern Colorado’s early exit in the conference tournament. It will probably protect Tad Boyle’s name from being thrown out by the bigger schools with a head coaching vacancy for the time being, leaving the hometown hero to continue to build on the suddenly solid foundation in Greeley (and by hearing his interviews, Coach Boyle is the absolute last one to be thinking of a future beyond his hometown.).
As we begin to close the book on the most successful season in the history of Northern Colorado Basketball (after what will be a very important post-season tournament still to be played) the future looks brighter than ever. We must ask ourselves one question that will take 365 days to get the answer:
Will we all be dancing this time next year?
