By: Jared Shafran, News Staff

It’s no secret that the first half of the season has been a struggle both on the ice and the court for the Huskies. Both men’s teams are loaded with freshmen and sophomores – who have a lot of raw talent, but not much experience.

The basketball team struggled in out of conference play, facing some challenging opponents. Northeastern had the toughest strength of schedule during non-conference play in the CAA.

Four of the five starters on last year’s basketball team are gone, replaced by sophomore guards Jon Lee and Joel Smith, sophomore forward Kauri Black and freshman center Ryan Pierson. When senior guard Chaisson Allen and senior forward Vinny Lima had to stay home from the team’s last road trip to Virginia for games against James Madison University and Old Dominion University, it was sophomore forward Dinko Marshavelski who, in his first ever start, picked up the slack and scored 23 points in a losing effort.

Although the team is 0-5 so far in conference play, all the young players are getting valuable minutes, which will give them experience and prepare them for the next few seasons.

Likewise, Greg Cronin’s men got a slow start out of the gate, struggled in out of conference play and have some ground to make up in the standings.

Although the first line of the hockey team contains three seniors, the rest of the 12 forwards only include one junior, forward Mike McLaughlin. That leaves four freshmen and four sophomores who are now mainstays in the lineup.

The team came away with four points in one weekend for the first time this season when they beat both UMass Friday and returned home to beat UMass–Lowell Saturday night.

The play of the freshmen has not gone unnoticed; Brodie Reid scored once in each game and was named the Hockey East Rookie of the Week. On Saturday, it was freshman Clay Witt who got his first Hockey East start between the pipes and stood strong the entire game, only allowing a single goal in the victory.

The defensive unit, although also young, has been reliable throughout the season. Freshmen Anthony Bitetto, Luke Eibler and Jamie Oleksiak have started all 18 games this season, anchoring a group of blue-liners that were joined by sophomore forward Drew Daniels last weekend.

After the win, head coach Greg Cronin was asked to summarize how he felt his freshmen were playing. He was upbeat about their performance.

“The defense is fine,” Cronin said. “Jamie is going to be a hell of a player. Eibler and Bitetto are really good. One or two of them need to be more reliable, generating chances on offense every night and doing some of those things that give you some of that offensive confidence.”

With senior defenseman Randy Guzior out with an injury, Daniels, another young player pushed into an unfamiliar role, stepped in and did what was asked of him during both games over the weekend.

So if you’re a Huskies fan, don’t get too frustrated with your teams. Every program has rebuilding years and both Cronin and men’s basketball coach Bill Coen have proven to be effective recruiters by signing top-notch players to play in future seasons.

The season isn’t over just yet, and both teams are looking to start fresh in 2011.