{"id":15066,"date":"2012-11-26T09:40:29","date_gmt":"2012-11-26T14:40:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=15066"},"modified":"2013-01-02T17:20:37","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T22:20:37","slug":"basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>EMU Basketball Men Hoping To Catch Another Round Of Lightning<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> <em>After a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/mbkb\/2012-13\/releases\/20121219bmyl93\">79-71 win over Mary Washington University on Dec. 19<\/a>, the Runnin Royals were 1-2 within the ODAC and 8-4 overall. The team returns to the court after the holiday break on Jan. 5 at Emory &amp; Henry College.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>EMU men\u2019s basketball <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/mbkb\/coaches\/index\">Coach Kirby Dean<\/a> will quickly stop short of directly comparing this year\u2019s team with his 2009-10 team which made the program\u2019s only NCAA Tournament appearance.\u00a0 But it\u2019s hard not to compare them.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15067\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15067\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/24_-_Ryan_Yates_2411E_sr.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15067\" src=\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/24_-_Ryan_Yates_2411E_sr-300x131.jpg\" alt=\"Newcomer Ryan Yates earned his first start for the EMU men's basketball team\" width=\"300\" height=\"131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/24_-_Ryan_Yates_2411E_sr-300x131.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/24_-_Ryan_Yates_2411E_sr.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15067\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Newcomer Ryan Yates earned his first start on Nov. 25 against Marymount University. The team, now 4-0 for the season, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/mbkb\/2012-13\/releases\/20121125njxwv7\">dominated the second half for an 83-72 win<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 2009-10, the Runnin Royals returned all five of their starters from a 15-11 campaign and vaulted to the Elite Eight in the national tourney, finishing with a final record of 25-5 and a No. 4 national ranking.\u00a0 This year, Eastern Mennonite returns all five starters from a 12-15 team, and Dean is brimming with optimism.\u00a0 And he will compare that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the 15-11 year, going into the next year I thought we were going to be good,\u201d said Dean.\u00a0 \u201cBut never in my wildest imagination did I see those guys ascending to that level of play.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see fourth in the country coming.\u00a0 But to be honest, I\u2019m just as optimistic now as I was then.\u00a0 Can you catch lightning in a bottle twice?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know, but it\u2019s certainly something we\u2019ll strive for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Royals are perfect at 4-0 since beginning the season on Nov. 16. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/mbkb\/2012-13\/releases\/201211063fwigd\">Read more about the 2012-13 team&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Women\u2019s Basketball Hoping To Live Up To Own Expectations<\/h3>\n<p><strong>Update:<\/strong> <em>After an exciting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/wbkb\/2012-13\/releases\/20121229dtab92\">93-40 win over Cairn University on Dec. 29<\/a>, the Lady Royals were 2-1 within the ODAC and 5-4 overall. Play continues through the holiday break as the ladies square off against St. Mary&#8217;s College of Maryland on January 2.<\/em><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15068\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15068\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/4_-_Keyla_Baltimore_1500E_sr.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15068\" src=\"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/is\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/4_-_Keyla_Baltimore_1500E_sr-300x131.jpg\" alt=\"EMU women's basketball player Keyla Baltimore\" width=\"300\" height=\"131\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/4_-_Keyla_Baltimore_1500E_sr-300x131.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/4_-_Keyla_Baltimore_1500E_sr.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15068\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Point guard Keyla Baltimore led the Lady Royals to a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/wbkb\/2012-13\/releases\/201211165tk1kt\">90-56 win over Kean University<\/a> during the season opener.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Last year a young EMU women\u2019s basketball team got on a roll and finished with a 22-4 record, tied for second-best in program history.\u00a0 Yet the Royals lost in the ODAC Tournament semifinals and missed out on the NCAA Tournament.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/wbkb\/coaches\/index\">Coach Kevin Griffin<\/a> knew he had a talented crew last winter, but with just three upperclassmen on the roster, Griffin didn\u2019t expect the explosion of wins his team earned.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was very surprised considering how young we were and what we had lost,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cThings just sort of fell into place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year the eighth-year mentor returns his top six players, including all five starters. \u00a0Griffin acknowledges that returning core triggers an extra layer of pressure. (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/wbkb\/2012-13\/roster\">Check out the 2012-13 roster&#8230;<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt means that expectations are high from ourselves and from others,\u201d said Griffin.\u00a0 \u201cAnd it means that we do have experience, which is why those expectations are so high.\u00a0 I think everybody expects we\u2019re going to be good and so there\u2019s a pressure.\u00a0 Our schedule is a lot tougher this year, but I think that pressure and schedule can be a good motivator.\u00a0 At the end of the day it\u2019s basketball and we just need to go play, try to improve and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.emuroyals.com\/sports\/wbkb\/2012-13\/releases\/201211133mzupm\">Read more about the 2012-13 Lady Royals&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>EMU Basketball Men Hoping To Catch Another Round Of Lightning Update: After a 79-71 win over Mary Washington University on Dec. 19, the Runnin Royals were 1-2 within the ODAC <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":15072,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4516,4522,5173],"tags":[8366,5674,6153,5693],"feature":[],"class_list":["post-15066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-athletics","category-mens-basketball","category-womens-basketball","tag-kevin-griffin","tag-kirby-dean","tag-ncaa","tag-runnin-royals"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EMU Basketball Men Hoping To Catch Another Round Of Lightning Update: After a 79-71 win over Mary Washington University on Dec. 19, the Runnin Royals were 1-2 within the ODAC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-26T14:40:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-02T22:20:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"610\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EMU_News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/\",\"name\":\"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women - EMU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-26T14:40:29+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-02T22:20:37+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg\",\"width\":\"610\",\"height\":\"370\",\"caption\":\"EMU men's and women's basketball off to a promising 2012-13 season\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/\",\"name\":\"EMU News\",\"description\":\"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women - EMU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women - EMU News","og_description":"EMU Basketball Men Hoping To Catch Another Round Of Lightning Update: After a 79-71 win over Mary Washington University on Dec. 19, the Runnin Royals were 1-2 within the ODAC","og_url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/","og_site_name":"EMU News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite","article_published_time":"2012-11-26T14:40:29+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-01-02T22:20:37+00:00","og_image":[{"width":610,"height":370,"url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@EMU_News","twitter_site":"@EMU_News","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/","name":"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women - EMU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg","datePublished":"2012-11-26T14:40:29+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-02T22:20:37+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2012\/11\/EMU-basketball-2012-13.jpg","width":"610","height":"370","caption":"EMU men's and women's basketball off to a promising 2012-13 season"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2012\/basketball-season-off-to-promising-start-for-men-and-women\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Basketball Season Off to Promising Start for Men and Women"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/","name":"EMU News","description":"News from the Eastern Mennonite University community.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15066"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15082,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15066\/revisions\/15082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15066"},{"taxonomy":"feature","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature?post=15066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}