Hamilton, ON- Emily Frankovic remembers when the season first started.
The McMaster Marauders women’s basketball team were a new team back then. A team with seven first-year players. With bench players stepping into starting roles. A team with lots of learning to do. Frankovic was one of those seven rookies.
Head coach Theresa Burns and her fellow coaches talked to them about poise. “You don’t need to rush your shot. You don’t need to rush to get anything,” Frankovic remembers them saying. “Be a player. See what it’s front of you. Play your check.”
The first-year forward from Thornhill learned more and more about poise with every passing game.
She showed it in her first university playoff game against the Laurier Golden Hawks on Feb. 21. Her first playoff victory as well. Her team showed their next play mentality. They stayed together. McMaster showed all that growth since the season began.
Frankovic felt the excitement leading up to her first playoff game. She had played in playoff games at the club level but this was a whole new level. She didn’t know what to expect.
She was excited though. She was ready to have fun. As the game tipped off, it was the visiting Golden Hawks scoring and cheering though. They went out to a 13-2 lead not even three minutes into the game. Burns signaled for timeout.
“We’ve got to get stops,” Burns told the team. They had defensive breakdown after defensive breakdown. So they went back to their fundamentals – working hard, rotating defensively, boxing out and stopping their check.
It’s super early in the game, Frankovic thought. Basketball is a game of runs.
The Marauders made their run to bring it within two points at halftime. As the teams traded baskets and the clock ticked closer and closer to the end, Frankovic thought about keeping her composure. She can reflect back to their close game against the Brock Badgers almost two weeks ago, where they pulled out an overtime victory.
That meant going back to their offence and sticking with the details. They set small goals for themselves. Frankovic’s was to box out and rebound. She finished with four boards.
As the game went on, those rebounds became oh so important. So did those box outs and defensive stops . McMaster got the crucial ones. After Amy Stinson hit a three to put them up 72-69, the Marauders withstood a late Golden Hawks push to win 72-71. The players celebrated on the court afterwards.
This year’s team’s first playoff game ended in cheers.
Burns saw all the youth around her coming into the season. She saw how talented the rookies were. Talented enough to earn important minutes in the regular season – which they did. She saw how they needed experience. How they received that experience over the course of the regular season. How some of them were receiving that experience by playing major minutes in their first post season contest.
There was Frankovic hitting shots and grabbing boards. There was point guard Ashley Guerriero firing – and draining – some big threes. There was Sophia Urosevic pulling up and shooting with even the tiniest bit of room – something the head coach and the team marvels at.
“They don’t shy away from the big moment,” Burns noted. “They’re not scared to take the big shot or take the next shot.”
They’re not shying away even when it’s contested. Even when they have to work hard for it. Even with something on the line. Burns can see how much that will help them going forward. “That’s what big time players do,” she said.
She saw Frankovic score eight points in 14 minutes coming off the bench. She saw her knock down a jump shot and then a three-pointer with the game in the balance in the fourth quarter. She’s talked to her about being poised, taking that extra second to balance before shooting.
Frankovic remembers what Burns told her about poise. She’s learning to do so at the pace of university basketball.
She reminds herself to take a deep breath and stay composed. Basketball’s easy if you make it easy, she thinks to herself. Do the little things correctly and stay focused on the details.
That meant taking the right shots and playing what’s in front of her.
In the Laurier game, she found herself catching passes from Guerriero on the wing sometimes. She stopped and took a moment to see what the posts – Jordan Denkers or Cassie Joli-Coeur – were doing and then seeing what the next pass or read was.
Once, she caught the ball and saw Denkers had cleared up an opening for a jump shot. So, she took it – and scored. Another time, she saw everyone spaced out and reading off each other. Frankovic found when everyone is in a fluid motion, it’s easy for everyone to be poised, play their role and play off each other smoothly.
She found that poise she’s been working on.
Denkers saw the team’s growth as the season went on. Their next play mentality continued to get better and better. They did so by picking each other up and staying together. Even when they’re losing on the scoreboard, she doesn’t feel like they’re losing.
Think about how important that togetherness was against Laurier – a game where McMaster was on the losing end of the scoreboard several times.
When Laurier was making their runs or hitting their shots, Denkers and her teammates tried to keep the intensity, focus and positivity on the next play. They kept believing in themselves.
That positivity is something they’re conscious of. Denkers knows how important the mental aspect is to their performance. If we’re positive with each other and with ourselves, then that’s going to propel us forward, Denkers thinks. Even if it doesn’t show up on the scoreboard.
The third-year forward thinks about the togetherness the team has during those moments of adversity. She knows how much she loves her teammates. How much it has shaped her experience. How she loves coming to practice because of that. How the Burridge Gym has become her home. How this team is her family.
It’s all that feeling Denkers feels as her team rallied against Laurier. Can you feel the fire inside her that creates to play for her teammates? Can you see all the time they spend together? All the singing and dancing on the bus or before a game? All those relationships being forged?
Can you realize how much she understands her teammates during a game because she understands them as people? Can you sense all the belief they have in each other to succeed – and the joy in celebrating when they do so.
Celebrating their playoff win on home court for instance. Do you know how important that feeling is? “I think it’s the deciding factor to be honest,” Denkers said. “The tightness of your team and the relationship you have with your teammates means everything.”
The Marauders will travel to the nation’s capital to take on the defending national champion and top ranked Carleton Ravens in the OUA quarterfinals. Remember their last game against them – a 86-56 defeat at home on Dec. 1?
Burns does. She knows how good the Ravens are. How physical and committed to the details they are. For her, this upcoming game is about the Marauders though – how they focus on their details.
Do you remember where the Marauders were at the start of the season? Do you understand how much they have grown since then – or even since their last meeting with Carleton?
Can you see how poised and composed they are now? How they’re remembering and executing those details. How they’re not shying away from big moments. How they’re still growing and learning – and will continue to do so.
How they’re doing all of this together.
Featured Image: Kevin Lassel/McMaster Athletics