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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Subway AUS Championships Team Profile: UNB Varsity Reds

In three years Brent Baker turned around UNB and has the Reds back at the Metro Centre.
by Bill McLean
Varsity Reds Seed at the Championships: Fifth
First Game: Quarter finals, Friday Night at 6:00 vs. Fourth Seeded Acadia
Head Coach: Brent Baker
Last AUS Championship: 1967
2010/11 Record: 8-12, 20 points.

Meet The Varsity Reds

Key Players

Andrew Wright- UNB's leading scorer averaged 14 points per game and shot 41 percent from the three point line. The 5th year guard from Fredericton had 70 assists, only 49 turnovers and shot 83 percent from the foul line.

William McFee- Averaged 14 points per game but struggled with foul travel, limiting his playing time to 25 minutes a contest.

Alex DesRoches- Fourth year forward averaged nearly a double double with 11 points and 9 rebounds a game.


Strengths

Defense- The Varsity Reds finished fourth in the conference in scoring defense giving up 79 points a game and defend the three point shot very well as conference opponents shot only 32 percent from beyond the arc.

Coaching – An excellent motivator and tactician, the potential AUS Coach of the Year Brent Baker gets the maximum effort possible out of his players and always prepares a solid game plan.

Veteran Leadership – Wright and DesRoches are savvy seniors hungry for their first AUS tournament win of their careers.

Depth- The Reds have nine players on the roster who averaged over 10 minutes playing time per game in conference play.

Weaknesses

Scoring – The Reds had the lowest scoring offense in the AUS averaging just under 75 points per game. UNB had the worst shooting percentage, just barely above 40 percent.

Rebounding – The Reds finished seventh in the conference in rebounding margin with a -4. Not one player on the roster besides DesRoches averaged more than 5 rebounds a game.

Lack of Experience- The Reds have not been to the AUS Championships since 2006.


Varsity Reds Notes

The Reds finished third in the AUS in three point shooting percentage averaging 36 %.....the last time UNB played Acadia they won on a buzzer beating three pointer in Wolfville that turned out to be a critical two points in the standings......the Reds lost five of their last six regular season games, their only victory a 76-66 drubbing of UPEI in Fredericton......the Reds signature win of the regular season was a 94-82 victory over X in The Pit on January 30th.......Brent Baker is in his third season as UNB Head Coach after a long tenure at Saint Francis Xavier as an Assistant on the men's team and Head Coach of the women.....expect to see a lot of red shirts in the Metro Centre on Friday night. UNB has enjoyed a resurgence recently with their athletic program and a great deal of students, alumni, and Frederictonians have been following the Varsity Reds teams throughout the Maritimes this year.



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