After a six game winning streak, the men’s basketball team has struggled to continue their success, winning just two of their most recent 11 games. Despite their struggles, the team remains hopeful.
Captains Sam Stevens ’25 and Evan Flaks ’26 cited injury as a major reason for the recent losses. On a team of 14 players, four are currently injured. At the moment, Kuba Cwalina ’27, Ian Murray ’27, Edward Witherington ’26 and Jackson McKersie ’26 are all out of commission, creating an unstable lineup, game to game.
“Our lineup has constantly been shifting around so our success is not exactly where we have expected it to be or wanted to be,” Flaks said.
Even though the Panthers have fallen short in their past five games, each by a deficit greater than 10 points, the team still believes they can turn around the rest of the season. When asked about what separates championship-winning teams from the rest of the pack, Flaks cited intangibles, like team cohesion, trust and communication as reasons why some teams win and others lose. He says that under the right conditions, a team that might not have the most talent can find more success than teams that do, citing last season’s Trinity College Bantams who won the NESCAC Championship and made it to the final four of the Division III Men's Basketball Championship.
“It's the teams that really, really play together on defense and always have each other's backs and are in constant communication and constantly disciplined [that win championships]. The best example of that was Trinity last year, who won our league and made it to the national final four,” Flaks said. “They did not have the most talented roster from our league, nor the biggest, nor the strongest, but they really played together and they played a really tough defense. They had a lot of success with it.”
This year’s captains have been on a team that has competed as one one of the best in the country. When Stevens was a sophomore and Flaks was a first-year in the 2022–2023 season, Middlebury was ranked as high as third that season and beat two teams ranked in the top ten, not only in the same week, but away from their home court at Pepin Gymnasium. In order to turn this season around, the captains will need to bring the intangibles, like team cohesion, trust, and communication from the 2022–2023 season into this one.
The team’s hope to still win the NESCAC Championship is not unfounded. The Middlebury men’s basketball team’s season has certain parallels to the NESCAC Championship winning team from two seasons ago. In the 2022–2023 season, the Colby Mules also started off on a strong winning streak before losing five games to NESCAC opponents. Despite the mid-season losses, the team was able to pivot and win the NESCAC title.
The Panthers hope to have a similar comeback story this season and are most certainly not giving up hope. As the captains concluded their time with The Campus, they reiterated that they believe their season is very much alive and asked students to do the same by showing their support at games.
“We're just going to keep having faith in what we're building,” Stevens said. “It would be great to get support from other people.”
Jonathan Buchholz (he/him) is a Sports Editor.
Jonathan is studying International Politics & Economics, with a focus on Mandarin. He is a member of the club rowing team, Treasurer of the Middlebury InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, is a Residential Assistant, and has a community friend. He hopes to work in public service or consulting in the future.
