His intensity burns
Mike Burns admits that he kept his players a little longer than expected for practice on Monday night.
At the end of the third hour, players began to clap and yell. Tim Mitchell, Community Colleges of Spokane’s student assistant men’s coach, was running lines.
“Ah, coach Tim has to run 10 deep – he was late to practice today,” said Burns, adding that he had to do the same thing last week.
“Why did I have to run (last week)?” Burns asked, turning to sophomore Jon Clift.
“You said Eagle footwork,” Clift replied.
“Oh, that’s right,” Burns said. “It’s Sasquatch now, not Eagles. Freudian slip.”
Burns, who was fired after last year as the Eastern Washington University men’s basketball coach, seems settled as the interim coach at CCS.
When asked if Burns is as intense as he seems, sophomores Eric Beal and Clift laughed.
“He’s intense, yeah, to say the least,” Beal said. “But it’s a good intensity. It keeps us from getting lazy – keeps us going.”
Beal and Clift, two of the nine returning players on this year’s Sasquatch team, are familiar with the style after playing last season under Eric Hughes, who stepped down to take a job with the NBA’s Toronto Raptors.
“It was an easy transition in my mind,” said Beal. “Both of them are similar in coaching styles and they want the same thing as far as how we play and what they expect out of us.”
After two straight Eastern Region championships, a young Sasquatch squad finished 13-16 last season and failed to qualify for the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges tournament.
Burns expects this year will be different.
“I’m very impressed,” he said. “They are a great group of not only good players, but great young men, and it’s been very fun to work with them so far.
“I think there’s the potential here for us to have a pretty strong season – there’s no question that this group has the potential to contend for a regional championship.”
It comes down to experience, and the Sasquatch have plenty.
Burns anticipates Beal and Clift, both guards, will play big roles in a turnaround for the Sasquatch, along with 6-foot-7 post Robert Lippman, and brothers Bo and Jordan Gregg (guards). Zach Gianukakis would have been on that list, but upcoming back surgery ended the sophomore’s season before it began.
Newcomers Kevin Cameron, a 6-1 guard, and Matt Dorr, a 6-3 guard/point guard, are also expected to contribute.
“We have the experience, no doubt, that’s where it really starts for us.” said Burns. “We have eight guys who have played a lot of NWAACC ball and understand what it’s all about.
“It’s not just that we have size – we have depth of size. In the front court we’ve got a lot of kids that can contribute and I feel we have that in the back court as well. Our freshmen are stepping up, which is exciting, and we have a lot of goals and expectations with this group.”
The Sasquatch travel to Pasco on Saturday for an NWAACC jamboree at Columbia Basin CC. The regular season begins Nov. 16 when CCS hosts Bellevue at Spokane Community College.