The Lawrence University men’s basketball team is hoping Dorothy was right and there really is no place like home.
The Vikings are playing their next four games in the friendly confines of Alexander Gymnasium before facing a brutal stretch of road games in February.
“It’s a crucial stretch because it could put us in good position,” Lawrence coach Joel DePagter said. “We need to be in a good position because February is going to be tough. It always is and we’re going to be on the road a lot.”
Lawrence faces Knox and Grinnell at home on Friday and Saturday, respectively, and then hosts St. Norbert on Jan. 26 and Carroll on Jan. 29. Lawrence’s schedule in February features six games, including five on the road.
If the Vikings want to be one of the four teams playing in the Midwest Conference Tournament at the end of February, the Vikings will have to take care of business on the home court.
“It’s nice to be back at home where we’ve played very well, especially after last weekend when you realize how brutal and tough the road trips to Iowa and Illinois are,” said DePagter, citing Lawrence’s split of games at Grinnell and Monmouth on Feb. 14-15.
“After you take one of those trips, you get very excited when you don’t see a bus pull up in front of Alexander for a few weeks.”
The Vikings are 6-2 in Midwest Conference play and are just a half-game behind first-place St. Norbert. Lawrence is 4-0 against MWC opponents at home this season, and DePagter needs his team to maintain its winning ways at Alexander Gymnasium.
“This weekend is huge,” DePagter said. “It’s a chance to be 8-2 going into the second half of the season, which any of us would have taken entering the season.
“We’ve got to take care of business this weekend at home. The guys have played well at home and are confident.”
In its four home games against the MWC, Lawrence has shot 53.8 percent from the floor, including 46.6 percent from 3-point range, and is averaging 74.5 points per game. The Vikings have limited the opposition to 34.6 percent shooting from the floor, including 24 percent from beyond the arc.
“We can score. We are eighth in the nation or something like that in field goal percentage,” DePagter said.
“Our defense has been pretty solid this year, and we have unbelievable team chemistry. Our guys love playing with each other. That certainly is something that makes an average team a good team and a good team a great team.”
While DePagter knows February is going to be tough for his team, he also realizes the rest of league faces problems of its own.
“The conference is so balanced from one to 10. Any team could beat any other team on a given night this year,” DePagter said. “The only solace you take, knowing how hard our schedule is going to be, is that everyone else’s schedule is hard.
“If we do the things that we’ve been doing, we’ll get to play some extra games this year. All we can control is what we do, and hopefully that will get us into some postseason play.”
Raymond picks up weekly award
Defenseman Jameson Raymond has been named the Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association Defensive Player of the Week.
The junior from Flint, Mich., won the honor after Lawrence’s sweep of a weekend series at Finlandia University. Raymond scored two goals, including the game-winner, in Lawrence’s 5-3 victory over the Lions this past Friday. Raymond was a plus-4 on the weekend, which included a 3-2 win over Finlandia on Saturday.
This is the third time in his career that Raymond has won a MCHA weekly award. He was the Freshman of the Week and the Defensive Player of the Week during the 2008-09 season.
Editor’s Note: Inside LU Athletics is a weekly notes package written by Lawrence University Sports Information Director Joe Vanden Acker. It will feature teams and individual players, recap weekly awards or highlights and take a look at what’s ahead for the Vikings.