Seattle Pacific University’s men’s basketball team is getting a jump on their season at the D-II Canadian Tip-Off Classic from Nov. 3 through Nov. 5. Games ahead of the official start of conference play are normally not counted toward the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s championship, but this upcoming tournament is an exempt event, meaning the NCAA allows for the games to be countable.
Head coach Kefferey Fazio believes this tournament will help build the team’s resumé when the NCAA championship tournament arrives in March 2024.
“The start of the season for everybody else is Nov. 10, but we are getting permission to play in this event. There are three of these events all over the country, so it’s a pretty unique experience,” Fazio said. “[We are] creating the strongest non-conference schedule we can so our season resumé is the strongest we can make it.”
Fazio views the overall tournament as an opportunity to gauge where the team stands and how they can improve.
“These early tests, these early challenging non-conference games, are an opportunity for us to kind of see where we are. We’re a team, we’re a program that’s always trying to be and get better throughout the year,” Fazio said. “We don’t want to plateau too early in the season. This is an opportunity for [us] to get better and get experience.”
Fifth-year forward and communications major Shaw Anderson welcomes the challenge this tournament promises.
“It’s exactly what we need to start the year, so we can kind of gauge how we’ve been doing in our craft,” Anderson said. “The ultimate test is playing in a real game. I’m excited for it.”
Apart from the tournament itself, a recent challenge the team encountered ahead of the season was acclimating to their new roster and coaching staff.
“This is a brand-new team, we got a lot of new players, and we’ve spent a lot of time together these last couple of weeks practicing and just getting to play off each other and know each other and understanding when people are going to make certain cuts or passes,” Anderson said.
Maui Sze, a senior business major and point guard, shared that the team is still ironing out their kinks and learning to play with each other.
“Our defense can improve, and I think part of that is just our talk. We’ve had a new team and a new coaching staff, so that’s just been a little different [but] we’re starting to get more comfortable with each other,” Sze said. “Coach Keff [Fazio] was here before so a little of that is the same, but there are a lot of [differences] that we’re trying to work through.”
Another challenge the team had to face was time apart for most of the summer. As per Division II rules, they were not allowed to have summer workouts as a team.
“I think a big message we had this summer was just to win the summer. Obviously, we couldn’t be together, so each of us [wanted to] win the summer individually so we could come back and have a head start on other people,” Sze said.
Anderson is confident the team will improve as they approach the tournament, noting how far they have come already.
“By the time we play on Nov. 3, we’re going to have to get better at pretty much everything: defense, offense, our pace. That’s still a couple of weeks away [but] we try to get better every single day,” Anderson said.
Building a foundation of trust and understanding is essential while building a team. With their early start fast approaching, men’s basketball hopes to have accomplished just that.
“We’ve spent a lot of time together these last couple of weeks practicing and just getting to play off each other and know each other,” Anderson said. “There’s [still] a lot to get better at, but so far, from where we’ve started, we’re a lot better from the first practice we had.”
