Central Michigan players doused interim head coach Raymoan McAfee in water following his first win as a Division I head coach.
Central Michigan men’s basketball improves to 2-0 early in the season with a final score of 93-50 over the Alma Scots.
“I saw it coming, man,” interim head coach Raymoan McAfee said. “But they love me enough to do that. If they didn’t like me, they wouldn’t have did that, so I’m glad they found a way to celebrate and lift my spirits. Having those guys pick me up and come out and give max effort like they did tonight, that makes everything a little more seamless.”
“Those are the things that we’ll remember when it’s all said and done,” junior guard Phat Phat Brooks said. “Just try to cherish the moment and make it about other people, because yeah, we got the win, but that was his first as a head coach. All credit to Coach [McAfee].”
The coaching situation for the Chippewas was in question headed into the game, following the sudden and unexplained announcement that head coach Andy Bronkema was placed on leave on Thursday, Nov. 5.
In lieu of his absence, McAfee is captaining the ship. Fortunately, there aren’t many people who understand the style and culture of the basketball that Bronkema instills better than McAfee.
“I think I could say I was comfortable,” McAfee said. “I played for Coach Bronkema, coached with him for a number of years, so yeah, I know it like the back of my hand. It was nothing, just go out and execute and communicate that to the guys.”
The announcement allowed mere days of notice for the staff and players to adjust accordingly, which the team did.
“Nothing was different because I’m at practice every single day, and we had a game plan to execute, and we went out and executed it,” he said. “I come to practice every day, I show up my work, I pay attention to detail, I love on these guys so nothing was different. I just had to speak a little bit more. It feels good to win, but as far as being the head coach, I don’t know the difference right now.”
“We just talked to everybody and basically told them this doesn’t change anything,” Brooks said. “We still got the same goal, same mission, so we can either let it push us back or let it push us forward, and we all decided as a team, we’d rather push forward.”
“It was the same,” freshman forward Jake Bascom said. “There was really no change with our preparation. We just kind of put our heads down and kept moving forward.”
Central Michigan got into rhythm as a team, allowing two players to score double-digit points in Brooks and Bascom.
Brooks scored a career-high 21 points, shooting 70% from the field while also leading the team in assists with four. He’s been the primary ball handler so far in his second season at CMU, stepping up as a leader on and off the court.
“A lot of our teammates always come up to me, talk about how they need me to lead them and how they just need me to step up,” Brooks said. “I’m just glad that they put that kind of trust in me and allow me to basically lead them. So, yeah, I couldn’t ask for more.”
In just his second career game, Bascom scored 15 points, setting the pace in the paint early in the contest. He got an extended leash with 22 minutes on the floor compared to game one against the University of Louisiana-Monroe, where he saw just 11.
“It just felt a little more comfortable tonight,” Bascom said. “Got a few more minutes, so it kind of let me ease into my game a little more. I try not to think about the whole freshman thing too much, because, obviously, when you get out there, it doesn’t mean anything. Just play my own game, play within our system.”
“That’s why we recruited [Bascom], he can do that any given night,” McAfee said. “Tonight was just his night. We made a point to go inside. He’s one of our best post guys, and we went to the well.”
The Scots kept it close until the 11:15 mark of the first quarter, when the Chippewas started to pull away. What was a 13-12 game turned into 43-23 at halftime.
Once CMU got out and ran on the fast break, played with pace and used the height advantage, the lead grew exponentially. Alma was outrebounded 47-27 and outscored in the paint 44-18 by Central Michigan.
“If we get stops and get out in transition, we’re going to be a powerful team,” McAfee said. “Getting out, getting stops and running, that’s what we want to do. And that was probably the biggest difference between the first half and the second half. One of the ways we did that was throw it in the post to Jake [Bascom] and Conrad [Luczynski], and the other way was to get stops and attack the paint early.”
This is the first time since the 2019-20 season that CMU has begun the season 2-0.
The team hosts the Youngstown State Penguins next at McGuirk Arena on Nov. 10, looking to build off the good start.
