Tito and Badgers ready for season
Heading into Friday night’s home opener, Brock women’s basketball coach Mike Rao would love to see a repeat of last season albeit with an even better finish.
In 2022-23, the Badgers went 12-10 in conference play, won one playoff game and then dropped a 71-66 decision to the top-ranked Queen’s Golden Gaels in the Ontario University Athletics quarter-finals. Queen’s would go on to earn silver at the U SPORTS championships.
“We want to make the playoffs. That is our first goal. We want to get there and see if we can keep improving similar to last year,” Rao said. “We peaked at the end of the year which was good for us. I thought our game against Queen’s was courageous. I was really proud of them. I think we should have won it but things didn’t go our way.”
Things didn’t go Brock’s way in the preseason as the Badgers struggled to a 2-6 record.
“Defensively we are not as good this year. We just give up too many easy baskets and we have never done that here ever. It looks to me like they give up and I don’t want a team like that. We have done that too much this preseason and that is going to stop.”
Once training camp started, Rao knew there was work to do.
“I think Shailah Adams had started to take on a bigger role. She has some things to work on but she’s been a big surprise. Everybody knows about (Madalyn) Weinert and we need some other people to kick in,” he said. “My good surprises are not really surprises. My surprises are the other way. I’m surprised some aren’t as good as they should have been. They should have been better.”
After the Queen’s game last year, Rao looked at his roster and made the below assessment about his returning cast of players.
“Any one of them with three months of solid work could reach levels that they don’t think they could attain themselves. That will be the telling tale for the next four months.”
One player who heeded that message was Oluwatito (Tito) Akinnusi. The 20-year-old native of Kleinburg has earned a spot in the starting lineup after averaging 4.9 points, 4.2 rebounds and 13.2 minutes of playing time last season.
“She has worked a lot harder this year and she is getting to be the player that she could be. If she stays on this trajectory she will get there. She is improving week by week and she is learning how to play,” Rao said.
He realized Akinnusi was ready to take on a bigger role this season after the fifth or sixth exhibition game.
“She needed the preseason games to get into it. I realized that she was contributing more and with that comes confidence. Last year, she really didn’t get a lot of time but this year with a steady increase in time, more reps and more ball touches her success is better and that gives you a different mentality. Now she knows she can play and she just has to put it together.”
The 5-10 forward will play at power forward or centre for the Badgers.
“She is playing bigger than she really should but that is the demands of this year,” he said.
There is no secret to the Caledon Basketball Academy product’s improvement.
“I spent my summer here, I worked on my game and I got better,” she said. “Going into my third year, I set goals for myself that I wanted to be a starter, I wanted to get more points and rebounds and be more aggressive.”
Her work included coming to Brock almost every morning to get shots off and working exclusively on floaters and her offensive game inside the three-point line.
She agreed it took a good chunk of the preseason to find her niche with the squad.
“I got to know my teammates more and what they need from me and what I need from them. I now know how they play and even though the lineup is changing we go at it every day in practice. It has allowed me to play more freely knowing they can trust me.”
Gaining confidence has also been a huge development for Akinnusi, who began her collegiate career redshirting in 2021-22 for the then-defending national champion Saskatchewan Huskies.
“Confidence is a big thing. When the coach trusts you to play in those crunch-time minutes, it allows you to not think ‘If I make a mistake, I am going to get subbed out.’ When you make a mistake and the coach trusts you, you can keep playing.”
Brock hosts Toronto Friday at 6 p.m.and York Saturday at 6 p.m. and Akinnusi can’t wait to hear her name being announced as a starter.
“I am very excited. I know my family is coming and some of my friends are coming to watch the game. I am really, really excited for the season because I know we are going to be really good.”
A .250 winning percentage in the preseason hasn’t altered that belief.
“The confidence comes from us putting the work in every day. Preseason is the time for learning and the actual games that matter is the season. To me, it doesn’t matter about our record. It is how prepared we are for Nov. 3.”
