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Re-tooled hoop Axemen ready to kick off pre-season this weekend

NOTE: Acadia has a pair of games against Atlantic Canada college teams Atlantic Baptist U. and Mount Allison before travelling to Ontario the following weekend to play in the Naismith Classic at Waterloo.

Acadia men’s basketball head coach Steve Baur is excited with the makeup of the 2009/ 2010 Axemen. Despite losing seven players from last year’s team, the Axemen, who open their pre-season this weekend in New Brunswick; will feature a good mix of veterans and talented newcomers.

Unless you’ve been really paying attention, you might not realize what a turnover the Acadia men’s basketball program has had this off-season.

Since the Axemen last took to the court in the AUBC playoffs in March, the team has bid farewell to Peter Leighton, Luckern Dieu, James Burke, Nathan Duncan, Chris Ogbuah, Marcel Hyde and J.D. Howlett.

Leighton and Dieu graduated; Burke, who had already graduated, completed his eligibility; Duncan, Hyde and Howlett have moved on; Ogbuah is still at Acadia, but concentrating on his studies.

Only Alex Traikov, back for a fifth and final year of eligibility; last year’s top rookies Casey Fox and Justin Boutilier, sophomore Matthew Doidge and senior Joe Nwabuzor, only playing basketball this year; remain.

Newcomers include Andre Grant, a former Axemen returning for his fifth and final year; recruits Anthony Sears, Owen Klassen, Jonathan Kamba, Alex McLaughlin and Dustin Poirier; Tyler Lutton, a transfer student in his third year of eligibility; walk-on Tom Filgiano and Colin Bebbington.

Axemen head coach Steve Baur says high-profile recruits Sears and Klassen “have both looked very good” in training camp.

Sears, a 6’3” point guard from New Brunswick, “has been every bit the player we thought he’d be when we recruited him,” to the point he will likely be one of the five Axemen starters.

The return of Traikov, a second-team all-conference player last season, will allow Klassen, a 6’7” forward from Ontario who has been “confident and aggressive” so far; to “play at the level he’s capable of playing” off the bench.

Both MacLaughlin and Poirier, a Central Kings grad from Waterville, “are likely looking at a steep learning curve” but, at the same time, “are both off to a good start.” Poirier, in fact, “has been a bit of a pleasant surprise” for Baur, in that he has been “very effective - especially on the offensive end.” Kamba, a 6’5” swing player, has been hurting; but should be ready to go this weekend.

“One through 12, we’re relatively young,” Baur says of the Axemen, who will feature 10 players in either their first or second year. That makes the return of Traikov and Nwabuzor and (after a few more years’ absence) Grant so important, as they are all fifth-year players. Lutton, who played two seasons at Douglas College in B.C., also has more experience than your usual newcomer.

Baur is looking to start Sears, Fox, Boutilier, Grant and Traikov; which will allow him the luxury of having Kamba, Klassen, Nwabuzor and others coming off the bench.

“We have a good mix, seniors at key positions and some young players who are really playing well.”

The Axemen embark October 9 on what Baur describes as “a busy pre-season,” beginning with games against Atlantic Baptist University and Mount Allison October 10.

Acadia will attend the Naismith Tournament Oct. 17 to 19 at the University of Waterloo, where they will play Waterloo, Toronto and Manitoba. The team then returns to the Valley to face Holland College Oct. 23 at NKEC, Royal Military College Oct. 29 at Kings-Edgehill and York Oct. 30 at Acadia.