Patrick Fitzgerald, Special to The Denisonian
Will Hunter ‘23, is the lone senior on the Denison Men’s Basketball team, an undoubtedly rare situation for a student-athlete.
“It was fun and stressful at the same time –as a leader and a figure on the team,” Hunter said. He also mentioned that it was fun to have a lot of young guys on the team.
Notably, five members of the team come from the class of 2026 and nine from the class of 2025. “There are moments where someone has to step up and say the hard things,” Hunter said, and he learned to embrace that.
In regards to what pieces of advice he would say to the upcoming seniors, he said they should “find a way to lean on each other” in tough times and added that good leadership is heavily based in the “way you present things.”
However, the point he would stress the most to them is to “get the guys to buy in early,” because it is really easy to lose the locker room if things go poorly and the team is not a cohesive unit.
Hunter smiled when asked about what he’d tell his freshman self in retrospect. “Not to take it so seriously, and to spend more time enjoying it. Soaking in those memories,” he said.
The highlight year for him was his sophomore year in 2020-21, the covid-shortened season. During that year, Hunter led the team in scoring with 11 points per game.
“I wish it lasted a little longer, because I was playing pretty well,” Hunter said. He elaborated on the fact that they had gone through preseason as normal and then all of a sudden, the season was in doubt. They ended up only playing ten games.
Hunter identified two stories as his favorite on and off-court memories in his four years at Denison. He was quick to mention his first game at Earlham back in November of 2019 as one that stood out.
He said he was “jittery” and nervous. He ended with ten points on 3-5 shooting and laughed, also mentioning that he fouled out of the game. He said it was his favorite on-court memory because it is a benchmark on how far he had come since that moment.
His favorite off-court memory with the team was when they traveled to San Francisco in December 2019. “Me and maybe seven other guys went on a hike for a day —[we] wandered the streets of Santa Cruz at night after we beat UC Santa Cruz,” Hunter said.
As for goals for the rest of the season, Hunter said, “We just want to play the best we can.” Based on recent performances, they seem to be meeting that goal.
We can’t know for sure if their form will continue into the NCAC Tournament, but the Denison Men’s team extended their conference winning streak to three games against Wabash on Wednesday, Feb 8.
In what was Senior Day for Hunter, the Big Red and the Little Giants played a highly contested game where Denison came out on top 68-61.
The Big Red won on the back of Darren Rubin ‘24’s 18 points and team-high four assists. A big disparity in the game was their 14 fast break points compared to Wabash’s one.
Other notable players included Tyler Miller ‘25 with 13 points on 50% shooting from the field and Scotty Dean ‘25. Dean was all over the court, playing the top of the Big Red’s 1-3-1 defense while running back and forth.
He came up with a huge steal and bucket with 5:18 left in the game and also sank a massive three-pointer with 4:05 left in the game to give them a five-point lead.
When asked how they snapped the Wabash run in the first ten minutes of the second half, Dean said, “You just need one spark play, Tyler hit a big three that gave us some energy.”
The sophomore guard was the epitome of energy in the last ten minutes of the game. In addition, speaking on what mentality he has to play with such intensity, he said, “Just go have fun, leave it all out there man. You can’t go back into that locker room thinking you left something out there.”
On Saturday, Feb. 11, the Big Red’s winning streak, unfortunately, came to an end with a 78-61 loss at Ohio Wesleyan. They look to end the season off strong, facing Wooster and Kenyon in their final two regular-season matchups ahead of their first NCAC tournament game on Tuesday, Feb. 21.