After a red-hot start to the season, the Men’s Basketball team has come back to Earth lately with a flurry of tough losses as the team heads into the final weeks of the regular season.

The Gusties began their Conference schedule with wins in each of their first nine games and handed MIAC champions St. Thomas their only defeat of the season, but a rough stretch in recent weeks has seen the Gusties lose four of their last five games.

“When we start out 9-0 and beat St. Thomas, it puts a huge target on our backs and makes teams really step it up when they play us,” Senior Sam Paulson said. “We haven’t caught anyone on a bad night yet, that’s for sure.”

The Gusties remain one win from clinching a berth in the conference playoffs and have their sights set on securing the tournament’s number two seed, but they have a difficult three game stretch in front of them to close the regular season.

“Early in the year we got lucky a few times, winning a game in overtime and another on a half court shot,” Sophomore Seth Anderson said. “Our Conference is very balanced; other than St. Thomas there is no dominant team.”

To close out the season, the Gusties will attempt to avenge a 52-54 loss against Bethel and will follow that up with games against top-ranked St. Thomas and the tournament hopeful Johnnies.

“Every single game is important, and we always play every game like it’s our last,” Junior Phil Wirtjes said. “We’ve already lost to Bethel this year, and obviously any game against St. Thomas and St. John’s is going to be tough.”

The battle for the Conference title has been fierce all season, with four squads sitting within two games of each other and numerous close calls involving games with highly ranked teams.

“The MIAC is very good this year. It’s the best I’ve seen it in my four years with the team,” Paulson said. “Every team in the MIAC is good enough to beat any other team on any given night.”

With the Tommies already assured of  of their fifth straight regular season Conference championship—a feat which has only been accomplished twice before—the Gusties are aiming to hold their current position in the MIAC standings.

“We are focusing on trying to get that number two seed so we can get the first round bye and home-court advantage for the next round,” Anderson said. “If we can take care of business and wrap up that number two spot, that’d be huge.”

Despite the team’s recent struggles, Wirtjes is confident that the team will get back on track and close the season strong.

“We’re just not making ‘that one play’ to end the game [in recent games],” Wirtjes said. “I don’t think that anything’s broken on the team; we just need to get better at the things we’ve been doing all along.”

The Gusties currently hold the sixth spot in the West Regional rankings, which means that the team will likely have to win the Conference playoffs in order to reach the NCAA tournament.

“As a group, this team has been special because we’ve really been able to highlight everyone’s talents in a way that most helps the team,” Paulson said. “We’ve got the talent and the heart to win the playoff championship, and hopefully everything falls into place like we want it to.”

Anderson notes that the Gusties have experimented with small changes in recent games, but stresses that the team’s tournament seeding will ultimately come down to the team’s intensity in the remaining three games.

“[All of our remaining games] will be very big as far as seeding goes. We’ve had a few different substitution patterns the past few games to shake things up and use as a spark to get something going,” Anderson said. “Other than St. Thomas, every [MIAC] team will have to be ready to play and win ball games the rest of the way.”

The Tommies have knocked the Gusties out of the playoffs each of the last two seasons, creating somewhat of a rivalry between the two schools.

“Any time we play St. Thomas it’s a big challenge,” Wirtjes said. “We’re looking to send a message [to the Tommies] especially because we already beat them this year.”

Paulson says that the aura surrounding the dynasty that St. Thomas has built over the past few seasons is slowly fading, noting that many subpar teams have nearly knocked off the Tommies.

“In the past few years, teams had the mindset that the Tommies can’t be beat, but no teams think that St. Thomas is invincible this year,” Paulson said. “I’d like to have a shot at St. Thomas [in the tournament]. No one is scared of them anymore.”

Regardless of the regular season’s outcome, Paulson says it has been a great year for the team.

“We’d be pretty disappointed if we didn’t get the second seed, but if we don’t I wouldn’t call it a bad season by any means,” Paulson said. “Big picture-wise, we play to have fun, and it’s been a pretty fun season so far.”