In four years, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) has crowned four different men's basketball champions, showcasing a bit of volatility at the top of the standings seemingly only matched by some of the roller coaster runs Southwestern has made in-season over that time.
Head basketball coach Connor Kuykendall took over the program in the spring of 2019, taking control of a team that won the 2018-19 regular-season title but lost in its first game of the SCAC Tournament.
Those Pirates had enough firepower to overwhelm teams in the aggregate over a long season but relied too heavily on it to compensate when it failed them. Southwestern could run the best teams in the conference off the floor when its shots were falling but lose on any given night those same shots went cold. In shaping the program to his liking, Kuykendall wanted to emphasize parts of the game more consistently under his team's control.
"For me, one of the things I try to preach is energy and effort," Kuykendall explains. "Everything we do is all out, and after that, we'll live with the results."
For most of Kuykendall's second season with the Pirates, almost everything was out of his control. The work of implementing a culture of effort and energy was short-circuited some by a global pandemic and winter storm that limited the Pirates to just seven games with an entire month off before the final official game of the season, a loss to Austin College in the first round of the SCAC Tournament.
"It takes time when you establish a new culture and do things differently than what people are accustomed to. We're getting closer, but we're not quite there yet, which I think is to be expected," Kuykendall says. "The good thing is the guys aren't fighting it. You can tell they're working to carry it over into every drill or live play."
Southwestern finished last season 4-3 and entered this one selected fifth in the SCAC Coaches' Preseason Poll. The Pirates' place in the preseason poll is more indicative of inconsistency than shortcomings.
In some ways, Kuykendall's work and aims with the team is reflected in one of the players who's been with him the longest, senior Kyle Poerschke.
Kuykendall was the head coach at Schreiner University during Poerschke's freshman year, and even from a distance with limited minutes, the 6-foot-4 guard's talent was apparent. As a sophomore in Kuykendall's first year at Southwestern, Poerschke was a bundle of chaos and charisma off the bench, showing flashes in quick spurts while averaging 6.9 points and 3.1 rebounds in 15.9 minutes per game.
As a starter last season, Poerschke blossomed into a First Team All-SCAC player, averaging 16 points and six rebounds in 26.7 minutes per game, improving his shooting percentage from 39.1 percent to 50.5.
"I was really pleased for him to take that step forward. He was a different player. He's always been athletic and talented. Now he's learning to use that to put himself in a position to be the most successful," Kuykendall explains. "Sometimes, when you have guys like him who can get a shot whenever they want, it's easy to fall into the trap of settling because you know you can easily create a shot. He can shoot those shots and still does, which is fine, but last year he was more aggressive and assertive in getting to the rim."
One of the most significant leaps a go-to scorer can make is understanding plays for individual players are designed for the team to score, not that individual player.
"We only played seven games, but last year was a learning experience, figuring out how to let my shots come to me and get to the spots on the floor where I'm best at," Poerschke says. "Now, I know where all my spots are, how to get to them, and how to get others involved instead of just me."
In short, he's worked to let his game be more sustainable, even on off nights and under duress. Those values are apparent in his goals for this season, which on an individual level are to average seven rebounds per game, which is reliant on energy and effort, and shooting better than 50 percent from the field again and 80 percent from the free-throw line, which will be determined by shot selection and focus. Accomplishing those three goals will go a long way towards meeting his team goal.
"I have yet to win a SCAC Tournament game," Poerschke says. "The goal is always to win a championship, but first you have to win that one game. That's my team goal."
Southwestern has enough firepower to accomplish it. Last year, seven different players averaged eight or more points, and the Pirates will have five of them back this season.
"We have a lot of guys who can make shots and play physical on defense, so we're going to play a fun style of basketball," Poerschke says. "We have guys who can create for themselves and others, so we'll be hard to guard on one end, and we want to wear teams down with our physicality on the other."
Between the junior and sophomore guards are pairings with different qualities. Junior Preston Hannah is a dynamic guard who struggled to find his shooting range last season but still finished second on the team in scoring. Josh Jones is a steady point guard who takes care of the ball, facilitates, and hits over 40 percent of his 3-point attempts.
"Preston is more of a rhythm guy, and it was tough for a lot of people to stay in a flow last season. He was still getting good shots. They just weren't falling for him. He's had a good preseason, and he can impact the game in ways beyond scoring. His confidence is one of the things I love. He's not scared of the moment," Kuykendall says. "Josh knows who he is as a player and stays within what he does well. He's not going to make many mistakes, and he's going to be solid."
Sophomores Sam Lacy and Jacob Hester are valuable rotation players with different skill sets. Lacy is a jack-of-all-trades guard whose contributions aren't always reflected in the box score, and Hester is a microwave scorer capable of getting to his pull-up jumper at will.
"Those guys are sophomores, but they didn't get a full first year. So they're still learning, and they just got their first true preseason, but they're already good basketball players," Kuykendall says. "They're both high IQ players who are really different in how they play. Jacob is a pure scorer while Sam is a guy who is solid defensively and makes the right reads on offense."
On the wing, the Pirates expect a solid second season from senior Chris Smith, Jr., who averaged almost 10 points a game while struggling through injuries that forced him to miss three games.
"The biggest thing is health, but we also want him to be more assertive," Kuykendall says. "Having that killer mindset is something I've challenged him to do this year. Don't be afraid to make things happen. I'll let him know if I don't like what he's doing, which is very rare because he's such a talented player."
The season, however, could hinge on how quickly a group of freshman frontcourt players adapts to the college game. Southwestern lost starting center Zac Black to a leg injury last season and don't expect him back until December while its other center, Trenton Garrett, graduated.
Southwestern added plenty of size over the summer, welcoming three players standing at least 6-foot-7 in Brock Luechtefeld, Jackson Duetsch, and Stephen Smith.
"Right now, we're playing all freshmen at center, so that's our youngest position," Kuykendall says. "They're going to have excellent careers here, but right now, they're young. So they're going to be thrown into the fire at a position that involves a lot of physicality that's not always going to be fun. But they're going to be so much better by February than they are now."
The Pirates are still a relatively new team but were finding an identity through adversity last season, winning four of six regular-season games.
"We were just trusting each other and trusting the offense, and when we did that, we knew we could match up with anybody," Hannah says. "This year, we're just looking to build on that with physicality and a lot of improvement on the defensive end."
The top of the SCAC has been a roller coaster over the past four years. Southwestern hopes to find enough stability to rise its way to the top.