Recap The Court

Jacob Smith

The Brock Badgers made back-to-back OUA championships in the 2019 and 2021 season taking a silver in 2021 and a OUA championship and national silver in 2020. Since the constant battles of Brock and TMU, other powers have risen to the top and Brock is left to find a new identity under new player leadership and a small but tight veteran core.

Gone are the days of Sam Keltos, Melissa Tatti, Kristin Gallant, Jess Morris, Jenneke Pilling and Mackenzie Robinson. It’s now Madalyn Weinert’s team and Madalyn has proved constantly to be one of the top talents in the league, but who will be the accompanying pieces that’ll push Brock back to supremacy?

Brock finished the 2022-23 season with a 12-10 conference record and a even 6-5 and 7-6 record at home and on the road respectfully. In a season highlighted by a home victory over the eventual OUA and U SPORTS champion Carleton Ravens, Brock constantly fought to settle themselves in amongst the pack, trailing McMaster throughout the year and doing battle with TMU, Windsor and Western for the 7th/8th/9th spot in the overall OUA standings.

Noor Bazzi returns, an important piece of last years team providing leadership and experience to a young roster. Holding down the backcourt, Noor and Karen Kasonga will once again lead the offence, this time without the presence of Theresa Brown and Kaley DeMont.

Despite the losses in the guard spot, the question for me lies in the front court. Brock gets contributions from their guards pretty consistently every year, whether it’s Melissa Tatti and Kristin Gallant, or Mackenzie Robinson and Jenneke Pilling, or now Madalyn Weinert and Noor Bazzi. Where they’ve wavered since the departure of Sam Keltos is their depth in the paint, and questions surround who will help our Madison MacInnis and be that second piece that can step up not only offensively but to defend some of the bigger teams in the league they’re going to run into down the stretch.

Brock has announced five recruits, Jamie Addy, Brooklyn Keltos, Vienna Vercesi, Emi Vlatkovic and Shailah Adams. With Emi being the only forward of the bunch, Brock’s contributions will have to come from some returning players while Emi finds her feet in the OUA. Immediately, i’m looking at Oluwatito Akinnusi who played good minutes for Brock off the bench last year.

Playing in all 22 games, Akinnusi got her career high 10 rebounds against Laurentian on January 28th and 10 points against TMU on February 17th. Akinnusi plays from the 3/4 spot, and a lineup of her at the 4 alongside Keren, Noor, Madalyn and Madison may be able to give her some matchups she can take advantage of and be that extra piece the Badgers need to get past those top teams they’ve been in tight battles with.

Brock is going to enter camp with decisions to make and a significant bunch to cut down. They have a wealth of talent coming back from last season where we haven’t totally seen their potential. The Badgers teams of previous years haven’t usually went more than 7 to 8 deep during a game, but who those two or three players are off the bench is really important. Bringing a scoring post and a defensive guard to take advantage of the usually smaller second unit, can give the Badgers a lot of success. The question remains who they will be.