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Bird Ready for Huskies Nest

By Corey Atkinson, Fort McMurray Today

Thursday Jan 28, 2010: They may not be playing a lot of games, but the Keyano Huskies men's basketball team with a Bird in the roster is worth wins on the season. Huskies men's basketball coach Mike Connolly announced yesterday they picked up point guard Colin Bird to join the program, which will play in the ACAC next season.

Bird was one of the leading scorers on the Lethbridge College Kodiaks before leaving that team at Christmastime. "We're excited about having him the opportunity to come up here," Connolly said. "He's a very talented player. High skill level — university-calibre skill level. For his personal needs, this is one of the better places for him. He has a year and a half under his belt in the ACAC already… We just added an instant two man who's going to add a lot of scoring."

In eight games with the Kodiaks, Bird scored 11.4 points per game, and team highs with 5.4 rebounds and three assists per game. The way Connolly sees it, Bird will leak out into the open court where the other guard, Mike Thomas, will be able to get him the ball."I can pretty much do anything, (and) just do what coach asks," Bird said. "I think I'll lead by example. I'm not very vocal on the court. I do listen to my teammates, so whatever they have to say, if I'm doing wrong, they'll correct me on it."

Connolly, the former University of Lethbridge Pronghorns head coach, said that he's wanted to add Bird to his program for a long time. "That gives me a lot of confidence," Bird said. "It feels good to know that he wants me to come so bad. I don't mind coming here."

He finished his last year at Kainai High School in Standoff, at 30 points per game. "He's going to be able to compliment what we have pretty well," Connolly said.

colin

Colin Bird (in blue)

Huskies ride Broncos to Success

This weekend saw the Keyano College Huskies Men's Basketball Team take a weekend sweep of the Olds College Broncos taking 2 games on the road. The Huskies came out friday night jumping to an early 20pt lead never to allow the host Broncos back finishing with a 10pt win of 100-90. The next day the Huskis again jumped on the host Broncos but this day the Huskies continued their focus play allowing only 22 first half and cruised to a 107-46 win. Mike Thomas (2nd year point guard) was player of note controlling the tempo and setting up several nice scoring opportunities while setting the effort defensively for the Huskies. The weekend sweep improves the Keyano College Huskies record in exhibition play to 5-4 overall. The Huskies next travel to Edmonton Dec 4-5 to take on Kings College who currently sit in 5th place in the ACAC north division.

Huskies Impressive against Vikings

The Keyano Huskies men's basketball team wanted to hit the ground running when they hit the ACAC full-time next season.

This weekend against the Augustana Vikings, the Huskies hit the ground running at the Syncrude Sport & Wellness Centre and then some, as they blew out the ACAC North team in two straight games, 89-72 Friday and 85-67 Saturday.

While the offence hummed along, it was the Huskies' defence that still gave head coach Mike Connolly some concerns.

"That's the only thing we're going to worry about," Connolly said. "It's still got some flaws in it and even though it seems like 67 points (against) is good, I feel we can still do a lot better defensively. Defence is what's going to help you win championships."

King's College Tournament

This past weekend saw the Keyano Men’s Basketball Team Travel to Edmonton to participate in the Bob Day / Kings College Basketball Tournament. The Huskies played 3 games going 1-2 on the weekend. The Huskies lost their first game to NAIT 86-56 in their first game of the season. The next game saw the Huskies hold on to fight off a scrappy Olds College Team 93-80. This game saw the Huskies up as many as 25 points in the second half only to let the scrappy Olds College team back into the game to make it interesting down the stretch. With the win the Huskies moved on to the Consolation round semi-final game only to loose a close one 76-74 to a good St Mary’s Team from Calgary. This game saw the young Huskies give up a 15 pt lead in the game, and a 6pt lead with 1:20 left in the game. The Huskies gave up the 6pt lead on 3 consecutive turnovers. Overall this was a good learning experience and allows the players and coaching staff to identify some points of concern to work on for their next series of games vs Lakeland College Oct 30-31st.

Men's Basketball 2009-10 Season Outlook

New Keyano Huskies men’s head basketball coach Mike Connolly is going to have to do a bit of a Mike Holmes impression and build a ACAC competitor from the ground up.

Connolly, who recently held the same position with the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, sounds like he will enjoy rolling up his sleeves between now and the 2010-11 season, when the Huskies play their first league games in ACAC.