In Flight: Forward Steven Clarke will be the only player returning to the men’s basketball team this year.
Head basketball coach Stephen Cowherd has been recruiting during the offseason in hopes of improving the Sharks’ record from last season’s 7-21 performance.
Besides being a rookie head coach last year Cowherd had to rebuild the Miami Dade basketball program from the ground up. After former Sharks coach Matthew Eisele resigned in March of 2011, all of Eisele’s players transferred to other schools leaving Cowherd with a depleted roster.
Despite their record, the Sharks were able to make it to the Southern Conference Tournament because they won two of their last four games — one of those wins against Broward College sending them to the playoffs. Unfortunately, the Sharks lost in the second round of the playoffs against Brevard College.
Cowherd is trying to build on his first year by adding some talented recruits to the team. He has already recruited four players to join the team this season and hopes they will make a great addition to the team. The new additions to the team are 7-foot center Jakov Pilic from Croatia, and Stefan Bubanja, a 6-foot-6 small forward, from Serbia.
Also joining the Sharks is Division I Duquesne University transfer Danny Herrera.
Herrera, small forward, is a Miami local and went to Doral Academy. Cowherd said that Herrera will make a great contribution to the team because of his skills he learned at Duquesne.
“He will make an immediate impact to the team, and he is also good academically.”
Last year, Cowherd barely had time to recruit since he was hired two weeks before the season started. Most coaches start the recruiting process in April, but Cowherd had a couple of weeks to get his team together. But this year he’s had more time to research and lure players to Miami Dade.
“ [Other coaches] had a four month head start to recruit their team where I only had two weeks,” Cohwerd said.
One of the challenges that may arise with this year’s team is that they will have to learn how to play together for the first time. Small forward Steven Clarke is the only returning player. He attends daily practices with his former teammates and is ready for next year to begin.
“I am very excited to play with my teammates, to practice, and to win,” Clarke said.
Former Sharks Malik Jackson, who made First-Team All Conference, is transferring to Bethune Cookman Division I; Levi Noel, who made Second-Team All Conference committed to Division II Florida Tech. Stephen Burrows, who made the Second-Team All Conference squad has not decided where he will transfer to. Cowherd said that these three players played different positions that they weren’t used to help the team win.
“They were good teammates,” Cowherd said. “Hopefully they set the tone on what we are going to be doing in the future.”
Cowherd hopes to implement his philosophy—a tough defensive minded team— with this year’s team to help improve from last year’s performance. He will be able to create a system with more flexibility with these players.
“We will have a lot more options on what we want to do and what we want to play. It will be man to man and we will press a lot,” Cohwerd said.
