Currently viewing the tag: "Head Coach Dan Engelstad"

Blair Garrett

This Mount team has been through rough stretches before.

Head Coach Dan Engelstad preaches a defense-first game to his Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball team. The defense feeds the offense, and for large portions of the season, the Mount has thrived on that mentality.

For as solid as the defense has been, the challenge for every quality team is playing and closing out full games with a shutdown defense and turning those stops into counterattacks.

The Mount’s game on February 15 against St. Francis epitomized that struggle for consistency.

The first half for Mount St. Mary’s was as clinical and efficient as they have looked all season. The defense was suffocating, and it played perfectly into the team’s stellar transition game.

St. Francis is one of the top teams in the Northeast Conference (NEC), and the Mount held them to just 20 points in the first half. Forward Nana Opoku’s tenacity in the paint shut down opportunities for St. Francis’ top scorers, and that energy fueled the offense in the first frame.

Mount St. Mary’s held a 15-point lead and looked as dominant as Engelstad strives for his team to be.

“We had a really good effort in the first half,” Engelstad said. “I thought our defense was in a good place once we started sprinting back and getting stops. We did a really good job of holding a good offensive team to 20 points.”

The momentum quickly shifted at halftime, though, and the scope of the game changed rapidly over the next 15 minutes.

St. Francis’ offense exploded, and the second and third chance opportunities that were shut down in the first half were suddenly available in the second frame.

“The second half was the tale of two teams,” Engelstad said. “We got comfortable, and they hurt us inside and outside. We’ve got to look inward. There are a lot of things we need to do better, that I need to do better.”

St. Francis outscored and out-rebounded the Mount drastically over the second half, pulling out a 15-point lead and closing out the game with a 70-55 victory over Mount St. Mary’s.

“We have to find a way to get stops,” Jalen Gibbs said. “It’s not going to be easy, and we know that. We just have to keep pushing.”

There is no easy fix for consistency, outside of putting the hours in practice day in and day out, but it’s not for lack of effort on the basketball court.

“We’ve been through tough stretches and come out with four wins in a row on the road,” Gibbs said. “We just need to lock into the details.”

With just a handful of games left in the season, it’s now or never for this Mount team. The talent is there, the effort is there, and the right attitude emanates through the locker room.

“This is the biggest part of our season. We still have a lot to play for,” Engelstad said. “We have a lot of work to do, but we still have a lot more basketball ahead of us.”

The Mount control their own fate, and despite the struggles as of late, the team’s in-conference record has them in the thick of it in competing for a long postseason. This team has faltered on its path before and come out stronger than ever, and there’s no reason they can’t replicate that to close out the regular season.

With its most important games still left to play, this Mount team now has the chance to execute to its potential and prove to everyone that this team isn’t going down without a fight.

Jalen Gibbs takes it to the hoop on the counterattack.

Blair Garrett

The young guns have begun to click under new head coach Dan Engelstad.

The Mount St. Mary’s men’s basketball team has picked up its first two wins of the season in back-to-back victories against Wilson College and American University, bringing the team back on track after a rocky start.

The wins are Engelstad’s first as the bench boss for The Mount, and after navigating the waters of its toughest stretch of the season by facing some of the nation’s top teams on the road, the squad has come out the other side stronger and ready for more challenges.

With The Mount sporting an entire roster of underclassmen, the team was expecting to deal with struggles playing as a complete team, but the progress thus far has been apparent, and the Moutaineers are poised for a strong second half of the season.

“If you look at where we started,  from the summer to where we are now, just the improvement has been considerable,” Engelstad said. “We’re competing at a higher level.” 

Fortunately for Mount St. Mary’s, their first in-conference game does not come until the new year, giving the team more valuable time to cultivate the chemistry and consistency needed to compete in crucial games against the league’s toughest opponents.

Consistency has been a major point of focus for the team, heading into the most important part of the season. The ability to create a lead and continue to push the pace through the second half has been emphasized through the locker room and looks to be a key factor in the success of this young team.

“The biggest struggle we’re having is putting it together for a full 40 minutes, and that’s something with the youth,” Engelstad said. “We’re trying to close our gaps and big runs from the opponent.”

With the team securing some momentum from the team’s recent resurgence, there seems to be a sense of excitement throughout the group for what is to come.  

“Our season is broken down into three seasons,” Engelstad said. “You have non-conference, conference games, and playoffs, so the fact that we’ve battled against some really high level opponents bodes well for us going into the games where the competition isn’t as strong as we’ve faced.”

The road difficulties and strength of schedule during the early weeks of the season may end up playing right into the hands of The Mount, allowing Engelstad’s squad to head into conference matchups carrying confidence and a level of experience competing against world-class talent. “We feel like we’re battle tested,” he said.

Individual performances have given the team waves of momentum, but as The Mount turns the page into 2019, developing that effort and experience into closing out games with a vicegrip on the lead will prove that the hard work, day in and day out, is finally paying off.

“There’s a lot of optimism in our group in what we can accomplish in the league,” Engelstad said. “We just know that if we’re going to do anything, we’ve got to keep getting better every day, every practice and every game, and there’s a great opportunity to keep improving.”

Sophomore Jalen Gibbs scored a career-high 30 points in the team’s first win of the season over Wilson College.

Photo by Blair Garrett

Blair Garrett

The road to the NCAA Tournament is paved by overcoming challenges, game after game.

Whether it’s a heated rivalry game or a shootout against a top team, each opponent must be approached with a game plan for success.

With the 2018-19 NCAA Men’s basketball season fast approaching, the Mount St. Mary’s team has just a few days left to fine tune its offensive and defensive strategies before the start of its climb back to the team’s ultimate goal: competing for a national title.

“A big key to this season is going to be how we handle the tough times and the adversity,” said Head Coach Dan Engelstad. “Every season, you’re going to hit it, and with our schedule, we’re going to play some really tough teams early, and how our team stays the course is going to be a really big factor for us.”

With a new head coach and a team entirely made up of freshmen and sophomores, there is plenty of room for growth as the season progresses. But what this Mount St. Mary’s squad may lack in experience, they make up for in explosiveness, tenacity, and a solid game plan.

“We are young, but we have some really nice talent,” Engelstad said. “We think we’re going to be able to play fast, play up-tempo, get after you on the defensive end.”

Just two seasons ago, the Mount made the leap that every Division I basketball team hopes for: playing for a national title. Mount St. Mary’s entered the dance as a 16 seed and faced off against No. 1 seeded, Villanova University, keeping up a competitive first half before eventually falling to the Wildcats.

While the team’s tournament did not have a fairytale ending, it did prove that Mount St. Mary’s was not out of place competing at the highest level, and that competitive level is something the Mount is going to have to replicate this coming season to make a deep run into the post-season.

The entire team, from the players to the coaches, know the season begins even before the team’s first game. “What we bring [to practice] every day is going to be directly reflective of what happens on the court,” Engelstad said.

Experts and league officials are not carrying high expectations this season for Mount St. Mary’s, but embracing the underdog storyline is something Engelstad and the team can get behind. “I like having a chip on our shoulder and something to prove, and we’re trying to instill that with our young guys. We like that.”

Finding that rhythm early is going to be key for the Mount as it enters potentially the toughest stretch of the season. Engelstad’s group begins seven of its first eight games of the season on the road, but he is ecstatic to return as a coach in his home state.

“This was a dream opportunity for me, being from Maryland. This place has been so special for me.”

The Bethesda native looks to start his team’s season strong, making his Mount St. Mary’s debut as head coach in Raleigh, North Carolina, against NCAA tournament hopefuls, North Carolina State University on November 6.

The Mount St. Mary’s Basketball Team makes every practice count, fine tuning its offensive and defensive strategies, ready for a successful season ahead.

Photo by Blair Garrett