Last year the Pioneer men’s basketball team provided this campus and this community with a kind of excitement that only comes around once in a while. They dominated in the WIAC and ended up with an NCAA tournament bid for the first time in 10 years.

This season has provided just as much excitement but in a completely different way. The Pioneers had their struggles in the WIAC, going 8-8, but they have kept everyone interested because of the great fan support this community gives them.

There are two kinds of excitement in sports. The first is when a team is great and is supposed to do great things. The other is the kind in which a team claws their way through a tough season and makes things interesting.

It has been nerve racking watching this team navigate their way through a season in which they had to replace their starting point guard and try to find some way to replace a 6-foot 10-inch All-American center.

This type of season, in which younger players carry more responsibility and have to learn as they go, is much more impressive than a season in which a team wins with a star-filled lineup.

The Pioneers have a number of great players on their team, but they are not last year’s team and they have had to try to step out of the shadow of a team that a year ago was one of the best teams in Division III college basketball.

Aside from Curt Hanson and Mike Shaw, the Pioneers had to rely on players that had not carried as much responsibility in years past. The two juniors on the team, Nick Allen and Eric Wall, have been very productive, as well as freshman Rob Stallion, who stepped into the starting lineup during winter break.

The players on this team have contributed top to bottom, whether it is in practice or in games, and that is what makes this team so great. They have come to rely on each other and build a camaraderie that is simply amazing given the challenges presented to them at the start of this season.

No matter what happens in the conference tournament, this team has accomplished something that seemed impossible in October: create their own identity and step out of the shadow of last year’s team. To the Pioneers, I say congratulations and good luck with wherever the rest of the season takes you.