After losing 103-76 against the rival conference team, Misericordia, shooting guard Marcus Robinson took some time to reflect on the men’s basketball team this season.

The Wilkes men’s basketball team consists of three first-year players, six second-year players, four third-year players and only one fourth-year player. Robinson acknowledges that his team is young. However, Robinson believes a young team comes with high energy as well as camaraderie. The most important thing for Robinson as a team is to stay unified and continue to get the job done. The younger players should always step up to the competition, but the older players have to also.

Robinson is a second-year player. Last year, Robinson stood out as a first-year player amongst a great group of seniors. Robinson, this year, is one of the toughest players on the team and in the conference. He thinks that his success in contagious to some of the younger players. It gives them motivation because when they see someone with only one more year of work than them perform at the level that Robinson does, the younger players look up to him. Not only do the first-year players model themselves after Robinson, the other second and third players that perform well also motivate team members.

The loss against Misericordia brings Wilkes to a record of 9-9 overall, and a record of 3-4 in conference play. At this point in the season, Robinson was asked whether he thinks his team is performing better, worse or somewhere in the middle. Robinson said that he thinks the team is where it needs to be at this point in the season. He would rather not be sitting at the top spot in the MAC because that would go to the team’s head. In the same breath, he knows they are not at the bottom, which is good because Wilkes wants to continue to get better in hopes of a playoff berth.

Before Misericordia, Wilkes defeated DeSales 78-74 and defeated King’s 64-63. Coming off two important and close conferences wins, Wilkes was surprised to lose to Misericordia 103-76. Robinson described those two wins are hard-fought battles that went all the way to the end. He thinks his team did not come out with the same enthusiasm that they usually do, and that Misericordia threw a metaphoric boxing punch in the beginning of the game that gave them the early lead.

Robinson has recorded 59 three-point field goals made this season and that is the most for any individual player in the MAC. Robinson knows that his three-point shot is the most effective part of his game, but it isn’t the only way he can score. On top of that, when Robinson makes a three-point shot in a game, the next time he gets the ball an opponent will stick to him to play defense and that opens up lanes for the rest of his team to drive the ball to the net.

Head Coach Izzi Metz is now in his third year coaching at Wilkes. Robinson thinks his coach is very focused on making his team one that is selfless and complementary to each other. In his recruiting process, Robinson believes that Coach Metz will only recruit someone if they have that ‘Wilkes personality.’ Along with that, he noticed that he does not recruit people who would outperform one another. He is focused on hard-workers who don’t just dominate the game individually, since those sorts of players tend see themselves as above the team. Robinson’s team is a family both on and off the court. Metz is good at keeping his player’s heads in the game.

Being one of the top four teams in the conference, Robinson is very hopeful to make it to the playoffs. As mentioned earlier, he thinks it is better to enter the playoffs as an underdog so his team can play without being too confident. He says the team needs to play smart and hard in the final conference games to get the playoffs. Once in the playoffs, Wilkes takes it one game at a time, but Robinson has a feeling that he and his team have a good chance at taking the MAC title.

Individually, Robinson thinks he has played pretty consistently this year. One thing that he thinks he could improve on is his defense. When the playoffs come around, he begins to play at another level. The hype of the playoff games is what drives him. However, he sees almost every game as a big game, so he is always ready to play. No matter what, he will always play his heart out.

There are seven games left in the season after the game versus Misericordia. With wins over DeSales, Fairleigh Dickinson and King’s, Wilkes will now play the seven conference teams again for the second time. Many of the games were very close, so the second time around for most of these games could go either way.

The game against Fairleigh Dickinson ended 73-59, which was Wilkes’ strongest conference win so far. Wilkes will be looking to defeat them again.
As mentioned earlier, Wilkes beat DeSales 78-74 and King’s 64-63. These two games were very close, and could go either way for a second time.
Wilkes lost two conference games they could have won. They lost to Manhattanville 58-61, and Delaware Valley 65-69.

There are two more teams in the conference that will give Wilkes some trouble. One team, Eastern, will be a tough game since Wilkes fell to them, 70-83. Finally, Misericordia gave Wilkes the hardest time in all of the conference. This 103-76 loss is by far their largest deficit of the season so far, and the way that Wilkes bounces back in their next game against Delaware Valley will define how they will perform the second time around.

“We need all of the support that we can get. I would love the fans to come out to the games so that we can show we really are a Wilkes family here,” Robinson said.