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OGDEN — If someone would have told the 2012 Weber State basketball team they would go 30-7 overall, and 18-2 in Big Sky play, the Wildcats would have assumed they would win the league and make a deep run in the postseason.
However, Weber State was the bridesmaid too often for their liking last year, as the Wildcats were the Big Sky regular-season and tournament runner-ups, and took home the second-place trophy in the CIT postseason tournament.
In 2013, the Wildcats are eager and ready to shed their runner-up reputation and build toward a run at the program’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007.
“Our expectation around here … is to win a Big Sky championship this year,” senior guard Davion Berry said, during Weber State’s basketball media day. “We keep coming up short and we’ve got to make it this year. “
After leading the Wildcats in scoring last season, at 15.2 points per game, Berry is expecting to take a deeper role in the team’s chemistry.
“First and foremost, leadership, be an everyday guy, and care about my teammates,” said Berry, when naming his goals. “I’m going to let everything else take care of itself.”
"Our expectation around here … is to win a Big Sky championship this year. We keep coming up short and we've got to make it this year."
Many Weber players stayed in Ogden during the offseason to train, and Wildcats coach Randy Rahe said he was pleased with the condition his players are in.
“When they got back in August, I was actually really pleased with conditioning,” he said. “I was pleased we asked certain guys to lose body fat, certain guys to add weight, and everybody that we asked to change their bodies a little bit did a really good job.”
However, Rahe did say the Wildcats need to add some depth and versatility to their skill set.
“Definitely, I felt like we need to improve our secondary defense,” said Rahe, who is entering his eighth season at Weber State. “We were primarily a man-to-man defense last year, and I was really happy with how we played our man for the most part, but me and my staff figured out we need to have a secondary defense we can rely on.”
The Wildcats’ schedule this year features several marquee matchups, including games at UCLA and at BYU. Also, a key preseason game for the Wildcats will come on Nov. 26 when Rahe’s mentor, Stew Morrill, brings the Utah State Aggies to Ogden for a regional rivalry game.
“It’s probably the toughest schedule we’ve had since I’ve been here, top to bottom,” Rahe said. “We can’t get home games because nobody is going to come here and play. So, we can either choose to go out on the road and play a low to mid-major school or we can choose to go out and play a really quality program.”
After last year’s school-record run, team leaders like guard Scott Bamforth and post player Frank Otis left the team due to graduation. Now, the Wildcats are looking to a new group of seniors to provide leadership.
That group includes fifth-year senior forward Byron Fulton, who is looking forward to the opportunity in front of him and his teammates.
“I know I talked with Coach Rahe, and with (this) being my fifth year, I’m going to have be a leader and a role model for some of the younger guys, and try and bring them along,” said Fulton, who only played in 17 games last season.
Overall, players and coaches mentioned the desire to once again hang a championship banner inside the notoriously loud Dee Events Center.
“We’re tired of being second,” senior center Kyle Tresnak said. “We’ve come into the preseason and even this summer thinking there’s no more second place. I’ve been let down a lot, so I’m not looking to be let down anymore.”
