Playing against perfection

Joe Reid and the TAMIU Dustdevils have won six of nine games this season. (PHOTO BY DANNY ZARAGOZA | LAREDO MORNING TIMES)

It’s been a while since I blogged about the TAMIU men’s hoops team. This is a period of trial-and-error that generally serves as a time for the team to find itself and hopefully gain some momentum heading into the start of conference play in January.

So how do they look? What’s the latest? Well, the Dustdevils are playing great basketball, winning five of their last six games for a 6-3 record heading into Saturday’s bout against NCAA Division I Texas-Pan American. Up to this point, they’ve been without the services of senior forward James Silvie, still out with a pulled groin. That’s about 12-15 points and 6-8 rebounds missing from the lineup.

In short, they’ll only get stronger and bigger once the 6-foot-6 Silvie gets back on the floor. It’s important to remember that, because as well as TAMIU has been playing of late, I tend to forget it as well. Things will only get better.

Last weekend’s slate against Hillsdale Freewill Baptist and Arlington Baptist – christian collegiate athletic programs that TAMIU defeated by an average of 56.5 points per game – were hardly telling about where this team stands right now. Those teams were cupcakes. They tried and gave a nice effort, but they’re about 2-3 levels below where TAMIU stands on the ladder.

What you had to look at was how the Dustdevils played in regard to accomplishing goals they wanted to achieve.

TAMIU has adopted a motto of “playing against perfection” of late. It’s meant to keep the team focused on playing against its own standard opposed to the name across the front of the opponent’s jersey, whether it’s an Arlington Baptist or UTPA.

The players, for one, have bought in. After last weekend’s games, they didn’t talk about beating Hillsdale or Arlington so much as they talked about limiting turnovers, playing better positions defensively and playing with full effort from the opening tip. They weren’t patting themselves on the back for scoring 100 points against Hillsdale or shooting 60 percent against Arlington.

They harped on the spurts of lack of focus and too many turnovers. Against Hillsdale, the Dustdevils were sloppy. They played hard, but they didn’t play TAMIU basketball.

Against Arlington, they did. And that’s what matters. They won the games within the game.

“If we just focus on what we have to do, we’ll be fine,” senior guard Ryan McLucas said. “We’re not worried about (other teams).”

Even when it comes to the thought of playing a DI, it doesn’t affect them. Just another day at the office.

“We have a lot of players that could be playing at the DI level, so we’ve just got to worry about what we’ve got to do. If we do that, we’ll be successful,” McLucas assured.

Their actions support their words. From Friday’s 62-point win against Hillsdale to Saturday’s 51-point victory against Arlington, the Dustdevils cut down on turnovers (from 16-10), fouls (20 to 13) and cleaned up other subtle, yet relevant, nuances, such as cutting strong in their motion sets, employing a relatively fresh fullcourt defense and doing an all-around better job as far as moving the ball and knowing when and where to get shots.

From the starters to the third-stringers, every single Dustdevil worked. And that’s not easy to do when you could probably beat those respective teams by starting just your third-stringers. I get sloppy just playing a Minnesota or Washington in NBA 2K12, so I can only imagine how disciplined you have to be to keep your intensity and focus consistent in a college basketball game.

It’s obvious this team is settling into its groove, and for that, all you need to do is look at how fast the new kids on the block are acclimating themselves to a veteran unit.

Sophomore forward Joe Reid has grown more comfortable in his role. He’s not pressing as much and his production is impressive (7 points and 4 rebounds in 13 minutes per game). He still can get in foul trouble — hence the few minutes — but he’s aggressive and he attacks. He is getting into a nice rhythm offensively (he hit all seven of his field goals against Arlington Baptist) and that, in turn, has delivered more confidence defensively.

Junior center Jayvin Reynolds has stabilized the inside, which was desperately needed with the graduation of all-conference forward Will Faiivae. His numbers aren’t mind-blowing (5 points, 3.2 rebounds), but he does what coach Shane Rinner wants from his bigs: he runs the floor hard, screens well, protects the paint and takes advantage of the few opportunities afforded to him on offense (64 percent shooting). It helps that Reynolds is a quick study and carries a studious persona. It’s all business with him, and that’s as obvious off the floor as it is on it.

But where you can really see the Dustdevils’ growth is with junior guard Tyree Murray. A scorer by nature, all you have to do is see Murray whip the ball around and make the extra pass to know this team is very close to putting it all together. Before, he would shoot ill-advised shots and pass up on good looks. Now he makes that extra pass and shoots with authority.

“I have a good group of teammates to pass the ball to and we have an unselfish team,” Murray said. “It helps when you have great players to pass the ball to. I definitely have more room to grow, but I’m feeling a lot more comfortable. It’s getting there.”

The Dustdevils have acquired this fast start even with a relatively unstable starting rotation. Only Evan Matteson and McLucas have started all nine games. Reynolds has started seven, Brian Schaeffer 6, Scottie Payne 5, Armando Brito 4, Murray 3 and Ian Salter 2.

It speaks to the team’s depth and versatility that it can keep a nice flow going with so many transient parts.  It all comes back to Rinner’s motto of playing against perfection. Even he is not too concerned about other teams. He’s too busy trying to figure out exactly what he has in his cupboard, and if that might even cost a few non-conference games, so be it.

“It takes some adjustment as far as the idea of playing against yourself,” McLucas said with a smile. “But it makes sense, because we’re trying to be the best team we can be. We have to compete against ourselves, so then it doesn’t matter what kind of team we’re going up against.”

Rinner can sleep soundly at night knowing he has a good team with all on the same page. It’s clear everyone is drinking the kool-aid. You can tell he wants this team to succeed badly. He knows he has the tools. He knows he has the talent. It’s because of that that he’s barking at a player for not cutting hard enough with three minutes left on the good side of a 40-point game. It’s because of that that he, more so than any other season, finds himself teaching, molding, shaping, growing his players.

Let it be understood how fast this team’s aura has changed. Just three, four weeks ago, some of the new guys privately questioned whether or not they thought it was a good idea to come to Laredo. They were dealing with the typical doubts of whether their talents could fit within Rinner’s meticulous, demanding system. There was a fair amount of uncertainty and self-evaluating. But they buckled up and refused to leave the car. Why? Well, it’s my opinion that they know Rinner’s style – as physically and mentally exhausting as it can be – pays off.

And now? Now they smile. Now they laugh. Now they walk with a swagger. Now they no longer worry about where they fit in. They just worry about where the team fits.

That’s pretty much all you need to know about how far this team has come in a relatively short amount of time.

“We’re looking at it as TAMIU versus perfection,” Murray said in reference to the upcoming DI game against UTPA. “We’re thrilled to be playing a DI, but the games we’ve lost, we’ve beaten ourselves.

“It’s just another opponent. We’re going up against perfection.”