Travis Nguyen/Photo Editor
With three wins under their belt, the men’s basketball team has set their goals high
While many Canadian University teams have needed time to get back into the swing of things after a year off from playing, the Marauders Men’s basketball team has found themselves in the midst of a four game winning streak, starting the season blazing hot.
With their most recent win against the Algoma Thunderbirds on Nov. 19, the Marauders have found themselves sitting in second place with a four and one record, with their lone loss finishing with a one point spread.
Sefa Otchere, a third-year guard for the team, spoke about the team’s recent performance and the success they’ve had over the last stretch of game. In an interview Otchere discussed an event relating to an injury affecting a member of the team, emphasizing the optimism the team has regarding their future.
“I feel very good about the team's performance. I still feel like we have a lot more to go because right now we don’t have our full team. Some people are injured, but hopefully by the second half of the season we can get them back,” said Otchere
Discussing his own performance, Otchere felt that he could’ve played better for his team, despite averaging a relatively strong 10.4 points, 5 rebounds and 1.4 steals while shooting to a 41.9% field goal and an 84.6% free throw.
“Subpar honestly. I feel like I can do better to help the team win more. I feel like I can be better and hopefully I can pick it up a little bit in our last two games in Algoma and pick it up in the second half as well,” explained Otchere.
As he had hoped, he did pick it up in their first game against Algoma, extending their winning streak to four after an 18-point victory. Otchere scored 15 points, good for third most on the team, while hitting all his free throws, grabbing five boards and raking up three steals.
With so much time off from their previous season, it’s a challenge for teams to start themselves up again so quickly. Otchere credits the team’s success to their high standards and coach, Patrick Tatham.
“Training-wise, we pushed each other. We worked hard and worked with a common goal of getting to nationals. I think with that goal in mind we came in as a collective unit. Since Sept. 1, since [coach Patrick Tatham] came back from [coaching] team Canada we’ve all had the same goal: one mind, one body [and] one big family just working together,” said Otchere.
With a significant portion of their schedule still ahead of them, the team will look to continue their success down the stretch and into the new year. After completing their final game of 2021 against the Thunderbirds on Nov. 20, the team won’t see the court again until Jan. 12, 2022, when they will return for 10 more games leading up to the playoffs.
With championship aspirations on their mind, they will have a real opportunity to take the crown if they can keep up their recent performance and continue closing out important games into the new year.
On Jan. 26, two days after Josh Marando was elected the next McMaster Students Union president, The Silhouette sat down with Marando to discuss his campaign experiences and goals for the future. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I think I'm still a little bit in shock. The past few days have been a bit of a wild whirlwind. I wasn't expecting to hear as soon as we did. Last year, I knew that they heard at, around 3:10 a.m, so when Ikram called me at 9:00, I wasn't really sure. I thought she was joking at first. I really expected her to say, ‘Just kidding.’
I just remember her saying, ‘Congratulations to the president-elect,’ and then I said, ‘You’ve gotta be freaking kidding me today.’ I really just needed to make sure that she was right… that she got the right number [and] she got the right person.
The first people I told outside of the team were my parents. I sent a nice little text in our group chat just saying that I won. And then after that, a lot of phone calls kept coming in.
So it's definitely something that's always been in the back of my mind. Before I decide to run, I talked a lot to the MSU vice president (Administration) Kristina Epifano. I was like, "What do you think I should do? If I don't run for president, I would likely run for vice president (Administration)." But then I was talking to MSU president Ikram Farah and she said, ‘It just like seems like your goals are bigger than that. It seems like you would really benefit from being in this role and it seems like your ideas would really benefit the students by being in this role.’
I learned that I'm more capable than I think. I remember the biggest thing that made me nervous was making a platform. But I think when that started to come together, that's when I really became confident in the idea that I could do this role.
Something that we really try to do is just talk to students and see what exactly they wanted, and also some things that they would have wanted when they were in first year. Because in reality, I think that's something that's said very often. People are like, ‘Oh, the MSU president doesn't really do much.’ But that's really not true. They do a whole lot. It's just that there's very few things that can happen in one year. Often times, you see the changes made by a president the next year or the year after.
Obviously there are some projects that are easier to do than others. I have no doubt that we'll be able to make the MUSC student lounge and I would love for that to happen by the start of next year, so I'm probably going to start working on that.
The first thing is, thank you to the students who did vote. Even if they didn’t vote for me, I’m still happy that students were engaged and I just want students to know that my care for students didn’t end when election night ended. Now that the election is over, that’s when I feel like I need to talk to students even more because, in reality, I’m here to represent them, not only during the election, but for the rest of this year and next year.
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