Bruiser Flint: The key to the men's teams' sucess
Mike Mazzeo
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: Basketball Preview
Bruiser: Now, when you walk into a recruit's home, you don't have to explain where your league is. To be honest with you, that's the biggest thing. You're not walking into a kid's home and when you say, "We play in the CAA," and they say, "Well who's in that conference?" You're not saying that anymore. People understand the level of competition and that it's a pretty good league. Now your recruits are not asking, "Well who is that?" or "What team is that?" or "Where do you play?" They ask more about your out-of-conference schedule than anything else because they realize they have to play in the CAA. George Mason was in the Final Four and VCU played at Duke, so name recognition is there now when you walk into a kid's home and try to recruit him.
Drexel plays 16 times on television this season. Are you excited about being under the spotlight again?
Bruiser: We always say this: You always enjoy the exposure, but when you're not playing good you get exposed (laughs). So if you want to be on TV, you better be ready. I mean, I think we've built to that point. Four of the last five years we've been to postseason play. With the year we had last season, I think you put yourself in a position to be on TV like that. But, we learned they only put you on if they think you're decent. If you're not a good team, if they think you're not a good team, you're not going to be on TV. But like I said, if you want the exposure, you better be ready or you're going to be exposed.
The Triangle: You were picked to finish fourth in the league this year. Given the losses your team took, do you feel your team can live up to this preseason ranking?
Bruiser: I think people picked us like that in some similar order because all those teams in the top four have been in the top four, whether we're in first or Mason is in second. Those four, ODU, VCU, Mason, Drexel and a little bit of UNC Wilmington have been in there for the past five years, so in a way you're sort of getting picked at only because you've been a team that's been finishing that way. I actually think this year, this is a league in which a lot of the teams with the most experience usually win a lot of the games in the league and a lot of the bottom teams have the most experience coming back. There could be a couple of bottom teams in the bottom for a while that actually make that jump up. I hope that we can come in fourth or higher, but we lost some good players. This league is always tough, so you never know what's going to happen and the top five teams in the league I always feel is a juggling match as to who is going to win it. But like I said, a lot of the bottom teams are returning a lot of experienced players that have been through it a bit, been getting there butts kicked a little bit and they might not be trying to have that this year so its going to be interesting. Mason is definitely the clear cut favorite because they return everybody.
Drexel plays 16 times on television this season. Are you excited about being under the spotlight again?
Bruiser: We always say this: You always enjoy the exposure, but when you're not playing good you get exposed (laughs). So if you want to be on TV, you better be ready. I mean, I think we've built to that point. Four of the last five years we've been to postseason play. With the year we had last season, I think you put yourself in a position to be on TV like that. But, we learned they only put you on if they think you're decent. If you're not a good team, if they think you're not a good team, you're not going to be on TV. But like I said, if you want the exposure, you better be ready or you're going to be exposed.
The Triangle: You were picked to finish fourth in the league this year. Given the losses your team took, do you feel your team can live up to this preseason ranking?
Bruiser: I think people picked us like that in some similar order because all those teams in the top four have been in the top four, whether we're in first or Mason is in second. Those four, ODU, VCU, Mason, Drexel and a little bit of UNC Wilmington have been in there for the past five years, so in a way you're sort of getting picked at only because you've been a team that's been finishing that way. I actually think this year, this is a league in which a lot of the teams with the most experience usually win a lot of the games in the league and a lot of the bottom teams have the most experience coming back. There could be a couple of bottom teams in the bottom for a while that actually make that jump up. I hope that we can come in fourth or higher, but we lost some good players. This league is always tough, so you never know what's going to happen and the top five teams in the league I always feel is a juggling match as to who is going to win it. But like I said, a lot of the bottom teams are returning a lot of experienced players that have been through it a bit, been getting there butts kicked a little bit and they might not be trying to have that this year so its going to be interesting. Mason is definitely the clear cut favorite because they return everybody.
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