BY ALEX CONOVER
Sports Editor
At the time, it was just another open gym.Looking back on it now, it brought Saint Mary’s University two of their best men’s basketball players in the last 30 years.
Juniors Will Wright and Lukas Holland were invited to play a pick-up game on campus as high school seniors in the spring of 2007. The experience was good enough to convince the two to commit to SMU basketball.
“I had my choices narrowed down to three schools,” saidWright. “An assistant coach asked me to visit the school and play in an open gym with some of the players; Lukas was there too. I felt comfortable, and I liked the team.”
“I had all of my forms sent in to go to UW-Madison, just for academics,” said Holland. “I called Saint Mary’s the next day and told them that I was going to miss basketball too much.”
After starting nearly every game in their first two years as Cardinals, the pair is on pace to finish their careers somewhere in SMU’s top 10 scorers of alltime. In 2008-09, Wright had the highest scoring average for a Cardinal in 15 years. Holland’s free throw percentage last year ranks fourth best in school history.
Wright and Holland said they would throw out all of their records, however, if it meant bringing SMU basketball back to the spotlight. The program has not had double-digit wins since the 1999-00 season. “We’ve got a chance to turn around a program that has traditionally struggled,” said Holland. “And the fun part is doing it with people that we enjoy and that are willing to work hard.”
The duo had very different high school basketball experiences. Holland played on a La Crosse Central, Wisc., team that relied on him for scoring for much of his career, while Wright only saw the starting lineup as a senior at Marist High in Chicago. “I didn’t play varsity until junior year, and even then, I didn’t play much,” said Wright. “We had three division I-A athletes on the team that year. It wasn’t until my senior year that I started to see some real playing time.”
Neither player was certain about his future after their freshman season, a year when the team finished 2-23. They decided to give SMU another chance, however, with the subsequent hiring of new Head Coach Todd Landrum.
“The atmosphere is positive,” said Holland. “There’s been a total mentality change. We’re not going to accept losing anymore, and we don’t care that we’re in a tough conference. Our expectations are high.”
“Will and Lukas are doing a good job and showing great leadership,” said Landrum. “As they get better, our team will get better.”
SMU’s sights are set on a playoff berth in the 2010 conference playoffs. With the improvement of some incumbent players and the arrival of some impact freshmen, much of the pressure is taken off of Wright and Holland to score. A much deeper and capable bench will allow the two starting guards to rest and play more efficiently in shorter bursts.
There are no seniors on this year’s roster, so next year’s squad will look nearly identical. For Wright, Holland and the rest of the men’s basketball team, there’s a window of opportunity to go farther than any men’s basketball team has gone in a very long time.
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