Welcome back A.J.
After watching his major knee injury late in the 2020-21 season, I wasn’t sure if we would see him back on a basketball court in a playing capacity. It’s no surprise he worked his butt off to try and get back on the court for this season, but outside of the Coyote men’s basketball program, I don’t know how many people were confident in what his return would look like.
Well, after a rusty opener at Wisconsin Monday night, A.J. Plitzuweit started to showcase just how much he has left. In just his second game in over 600 days, a 33-point, five assist performance on 9-of-11 (5-of-6 from deep) shooting by Plitzuweit lifted the Coyotes to a 83-75 non-conference victory over Lipscomb Wednesday night. Oh, and he went 10-for-10 at the free throw line.
Talk about a feel good story, there might not be a better one right now.
Expectations were high for this season for the Coyotes under first year head coach Eric Peterson, who picked up his first win at the helm for USD Wednesday night in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Getting A.J. at his all-conference, player of the year level might be the difference between meeting those expectations and not this season.
It’s hard to not root for the hometown kid coming back from what he is returning from. He is still returning to form movement wise, looking a step slow defensively and isn’t quite as sharp moving with the ball offensively, but he looked better as the game moved on and I think things will only improve from here.
Plitzuweit is just one player though, so here are some of my other takeaways through two games of this very young season.
The GATA guys
If you have listened to Peterson talk about mentality at any point over the last six-plus months, you’ve probably heard about the GATA mentality (Get After Their Butts, to keep it PG). The player that most knew fit that mentality going into the season was Damani Hayes.
The undersized forward is not a prototypical power forward, but he plays and competes for the gritty stats like a typical four would. He didn’t have the best game against Wisconsin to open the season, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise against a perennial strong Power 5 team.
This time out, Hayes looked much more in his element. He battled against guys bigger than he was, and won a lot of battles. He also finished with 11 points and six rebounds.
The more surprising guy that didn’t shine in the box score Wednesday night, but deserves credit early this season, is Max Burchill. The walk-on has seen a lot of playing time through two games, and has been one of the best surprises so far for the Coyotes.
Newcomer Struggles
Outside of the talent returning for the Coyotes this season, there was a lot of anticipation about the newcomers for Peterson’s squad. Transfers Paul Bruns and Mihai Carcoana were looked at as immediate impact guys, and the first freshman class for Peterson was hoping to earn their worth.
Wednesday night wasn’t the night for Bruns or Carcoana, as Bruns went 1-for-6 and Carcoana played three minutes without registering a shot attempt, rebound or assist. Jeremiah Coleman also got playing time as a true freshman.
If the Coyotes want to compete in the 18-game conference season, they will need those three, along with Burchill and the rest of the bench, to perform semi-consistently. That will be a must-watch story as the non-conference season develops.
What to look for coming up
The Coyotes get an NAIA tune-up to close out the opening week, and I anticipate we will see some key bench guys getting larger amounts of playing time in hopes to get them confident heading into the next two weeks.
The Coyotes are at Mississippi State November 17, then play in the Fort Myers Tip-Off the week of Thanksgiving. They also have the first of two games against Coastal Carolina this season at Coastal Carolina November 26.
That stretch of four games in nine days (five in 11 if you count a Nov. 28 game with Mount Marty of the NAIA) will test the Coyotes’ ability to adapt and grow as a team in the early going. A successful stretch the rest of the month will set the Coyotes up very well. This stretch will be a chance for the Coyotes to prove just how good they can be in the early going, but ti is a long season, so Coyote fans should manage expectations and remember that this group has been known to play better the second half of the season.