The Fast Break with Ryerson's Roy Rana

The Ryerson University Rams have been playing some great basketball leading up to the December break and are in new territory - Top Ten territory.  The Rams have been in improving in small increments since Roy Rana took over the program three years ago and after making it to the CIS Final 8 last season, the expectations are aimed a little higher.  The team is currently sporting an undefeated record (9-0) and is ranked ninth in the last CIS Top Ten poll.  I caught up with the bench boss behind the Rams this week to to steal a few minutes and ask a few questions in this new thing I'm calling the Fast Break ...

Can Ball Ray:  Well Coach, how does it feel to be ranked in the CIS Top Ten?

Coach Rana:  (With a laugh) It’s a nice compliment. It’s something new for us here.  It’s our first time being ranked but at the same time we’re not going to make too much of it here. It’s nice to see people recognize that we’re playing well but really we’ve only gotten through a third of our season and we have a long way to go. Talk of being ranked at the end of the season is much more exciting than being ranked at this point.

CBR:  How have you found the team leading up to this point in the season?

Rana:  I can’t say how pleased I’ve been. They’re a tight group, they’re committed to playing defense and rebounding, they’re unselfish and obviously we have a lot more depth now, the young kids have been able to come in and make a contribution so when you’re winning games your pretty happy with the results. Obviously there’s room for improvement, no question, and I think that’s what’s exciting because as well as we’ve played we know we can be better.

CBR:  Have any of the players surprised you in any way so far?

Rana:  It’s interesting because we have a core of our team going into their third year (on the squad) and I would say probably that Jahmal Jones is the one that’s pleasantly surprised me with just how consistent he’s been from a leadership perspective. His assist numbers have gone through the roofand he’s become more of a pure point guard. In the past we’ve relied on him to be more the primary scorer and I think he’s really found a nice balance, that balance between scoring and facilitating and really making his teammates better. That’s been important.

(Also) for the first time in his career at Ryerson, Bjorn Michealsen has been healthy and he’s shown that he’s good enough to be a league all star. He’s playing very, very well on both ends of the floor - shooting ahigh percentage from (inside the arc) and from the three, rebounding – just doing it all for our team.  He’s been so important (to our success) and it’s nice to have him on the floor (all the time now).

CBR:  You mentioned injuries with regards to Bjorn. Have there been any players that have been injured thus far?

Rana:  We’ve had nagging injuries throughout the season. (Last weekend) we didn’t have Matthew Beckford and Nem Stankovic, Nem didn’t play in either game and Matthew didn’t play against McMaster, Kyle Hankins made his debut that weekend because of a shoulder issue so we’ve been up and down (so far).  We also missed Jordon Gauthier all the pre-season because he had his appendix removed so he didn’t even play any pre-season games and finally got back to playing in the first regular season game. I think we’ve had the scattered injuries that most teams have had. Fortunately nothing overly serious and we’re hoping that we can stay healthy in the second half.

CBR:  What are you and the staff doing for the preparation for the second half of the season going in this month?

Rana:  Right now we’re gonna give them time off. It’s exam time so it’s a pretty high stress time for them mentally so we’re going to give them to focus on school. (When they’re over) we’ll get back to some individual workouts and eventually phase back into team practices to get ready our team our tournament here at Ryerson from December 28-30. It’ll be a slow, steady climb back into game prep but we have three games in December to end the month and then we’re right back into it to prepare for Queens on Jan. 5

A big shout to Coach Roy Rana for allowing me to steal a few minutes from his busy schedule.  Remember that Ryerson is holding their annual winter tournament, the Ryerson University National Invitational Tournament, from December 28-30 and they will have some great teams passing through including the Chinese U19 team.  It definitely something to check out. You know I'll be there for sure.