Mercer’s Isiah Rice takes a shot in Mercer’s men’s basketball away game at Raritan Valley Community College on February 16 in which the team lost 69-74. PHOTO | CHRISTOPHER PATTI
It has been a difficult season for Vikings basketball, which welcomed players back to the court after last year’s entire season was scratched due to COVID-19. This year, the women’s team finished with 15 losses and 2 wins, beating the Morris County Titans 60-50, and the Ocean County Vikings 69-28. The men’s team ended with 24 losses and 2 wins, with victories against the Essex County Wolverines 66-57 and the Rowan College of Gloucester County Roadrunners, 68-64.
Players had a lot working against them this season; injuries, illness, undermanned teams and last minute game cancellations.
According to Mercer’s Athletic Director John Simone, “If another team had a [COVID] exposure, we couldn’t play.” He added, “We had one trip this fall where we were about ready to get on a bus at 10:30 in the morning and at 10 o’clock we get a call saying that they had an exposure down there, don’t come. So here everybody’s dressed and ready to go to get on a bus and [we have to] turn around, we’re not playing. It’s frustrating.”
The women’s team saw four postponements and ten cancellations. Coaches say the constant shift in schedule affected players’ focus and morale.
Simone said, “Because of closures or shutdowns or not playing today, it causes a lot of angst. Everybody gets into a routine and you like to have a routine; time of day, day of the week that you have games and practices.”
The men’s team schedule had less disruption with one cancellation and three postponements but were operating with a roster of seven that started as eighteen.
Men’s basketball Head Coach Howard Levy said, “Of the team that I expected to have, probably within the first month we probably lost five or six guys. There’s almost always attrition and sometimes you’ll lose guys after first semester grades. A couple of guys got hurt, got sick, so we were really left with seven active players. There wasn’t much margin for error. Of all your seven guys, they all had to be playing well and playing hard. I gotta give them credit because it was rough.”
“I’m just so happy that we were able to compete this year because we weren’t able to last year, as you know, because of COVID”, says Simone. “You have to be resilient in life and in sports. Because you’re not always going to win. There was so much stuff or so many things or obstacles that we had to figure out just to get the season and we got it in. We didn’t have a winning record but we got it done and students were able to participate.”
