Grant Moore
gpm003@marietta.edu
Basketball season is right around the corner, and for the Marietta Pioneers Men’s basketball team they are looking for a successful performance heading into the 2023-24 season. Head Coach Jon VanderWal is heading into his 17th season as the Pioneers head coach, and his expectations for the team are high heading into the season.
“Everybody’s really excited, last year was a challenging year for us coming off a previous run to the Final Four, and graduating a lot of really good players, last year was kind of a re-development year for us, played a lot of new guys, had a whole new coaching staff, but going into this year there’s a lot of excitement”, VanderWal explained.
After a record of 17-11 season last year. The Pioneer team has gained more experienced going into this year Coach VanderWal said, “It gives us a ton of experience and it I think it gives our guys confidence, they’re not going to be on this floor for the first time trying to make the plays, they were thrown into the fire last year, they know what the expectations it is now. I think they are just going to be more comfortable and a lot more confident.”
The excitement is high, and Coach VanderWal says he hopes to have that excitement in the Ban Johnson Arena this year. “It’s going to get off with a bang, we play Washington and Jefferson here on November 10th, they won twenty games last year, and they were really good, but the very next night, we have Christopher Newport who just won the national championship, and most likely be pre-season number one in the country. We’ll be playing them the very next night, on November 11th and so hopefully we got this place rocking again this year”.
All eyes will be on the Pioneers men’s basketball team this year. They tip-off with Washington and Jefferson on November 10th at home in the Ban Johnson Arena.
