The Lindenwood Lions men’s basketball season may not have gone as planned, but according to first-year head coach Kyle Gerdeman, a lot of positives came out of the year. 

The Lions ended the season with a 12-16 record, but finished the year winning their last three out of four games.  

According to Gerdeman, he was pleased with how the season turned out for the Lions. 

“The positive is we have a lot in place for the future…we built a lot of foundation in year one,” Gerdeman said.  

With the new style of play, and being the new coaching staff, Gerdeman shows recognition to his seniors for sticking with the program. Lindenwood had many players leave from the 2018-19 team. Two seniors, Sukhamn Bhinder and Luka Radosevic, were players that faced adversity and stuck with Lindenwood. According to Gerdeman, this year was the first year that the seniors had the opportunity to play the full season for the first time in their careers, as the two were always plagued by injuries. 

The two seniors were helping build the program, while maximizing their senior year.  

“They did a good job leading the way for us, being good examples for the newer guys,” Gerdeman said. 

According to Gerdeman, something that could’ve went better on the year was that the Lions lost a lot of close games. Lindenwood lost five games by five points or less. A record of 17-11 could have sent the Lions into postseason play.  

According to Gerdeman, he also wishes he had a few more games to play with the 2019-2020 Lions squad. The Lions lost their final away game at McKendree before their final homestand of four games, and that’s when Gerdeman saw the turn around from this team.  

“We lost a close game at McKendree, but even that game we did a lot of good things, you could see everything kinda gilled,” Gerdeman said. “I think their enjoyment of playing with and for each other, that’s why you feel as a coach ‘like yeah we finally figured it out.’”  

 According to Gerdeman, his favorite moments from this season was the enjoyment from the players when the Lions were winning and when the seniors were sent off with a senior day victory against Lewis University.  

The Lions are already looking forward to next year, with workouts starting in two weeks. Also according to Gerdeman, the Lions have had a good recruiting process, including signing local talent. 

“We have signed two kids from the St. Louis area, they’re important to us. The area is so good with basketball- Frazier [Ott] out of Chaminade, and Devion Harris from Parkway Central,” Gerdeman said.