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| McPartland steps up for Gustie basketball |
By: Pat Beck
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Posted: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 11:53 am
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Gustavus senior post Ryan McPartland of Le Sueur grabs a rebound against St. Olaf’s Alfred Jaryn. He had 6 rebounds and 13 points. He leads the team with 10.4 points per game and ranks second in rebounding at 4.3.
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ST. PETER — Le Sueur native Ryan McPartland has been a steady player in four years for the Gustavus Adolphus College mens basketball team.
Now a senior, he’s playing better than he ever.
“I feel like I’m getting better year to year and hopefully day to day,” McPartland said. “I’ve gotten better by working on my game in the off season alone and with the team. Definitely practice every day, we get going 100 percent every day and we really focus on getting better as a team and individually.”
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound senior post leads the Gusties at 10.3 points per game, with a high of 17. He also is the team’s second leading rebounder at 4.5 per game.
The Gusties have well-balanced scoring in their motion offense. The Gusties rotate 11 to 12 players in and out of the game: junior wing Phil Wirtges averages 8.5 points, sophomore guard Seth Anderson 7.6, senior wing Jesse VanSickle 7.5 sophomore wing Tyler Grey 7.5, senior post Sam Paulson 6.6, junior guard Dan Schmitknecht 5.8, sophomore post Paul Blaylock 4.9, sophomore wing Adam Michel 4.5, Mychal Crowder 3.3, freshman wing James Hill 2.4 and freshman guard Ben Biewen 1.7.
“The kind of offense we run is not really relying on one person,” McPartland said. “It’s really team based. That gives opportunities to a ton of different people to score. We’ve got a lot of talented players. We have 12 players that can score.”
Playing in the post, McPartland is a high-percentage shooter, a strong rebounder and tough defender. He leads the team in field goal percentage at 62 percent (39-62) to rank second in the MIAC.
A strong mid-range shooter, McPartland said his range is from the middle of the free throw line out to the free-throw line and a little bit past the free-throw line.
“We basically run free motion offense,” McPartland said. “We don’t have a lot of set plays. We just kind of find the open spots and make quick cuts to that gap.
The Gusties use mostly double-post setups, with one on the block and one on the elbow. Sometimes they run a single post with four players on the perimeter.
McPartland is always on the inside. The two posts interchange. The posts are always setting screens for each other and the perimeter guys.
“One of plays is we want to go into the post,” McPartland said. “Once we get it into the post, we look to make moves, but if it’s not going to open we kick it out. Most of the time we get a lot of open shots off that, especially with the other big guy we got in there. They double team him (6-9 Sam Paulson) quite a bit.”
McPartland has gotten stronger and quicker. “We started lifting as team for the first year, and that’s definitely helped. The same for the off season, just doing our own stuff in the off season. I’m down weight from last year, but I’m stronger definitely.”
In last week’s game vs. St. Olaf, he shut down his man and scored all 13 of his points in the second half. The Gusties came back from trailing 36-25 to winning 69-56. The Gusties are 7-0 in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference and 9-2 overall.
“We really got outworked the first half, and we came in at halftime and said we had to have more heart than the other team,” McPartland said. “We’ve got to be more intense and play the kind of basketball that we play, play Gustie basketball: individually not trying to do anything more than you can. Basically fundamentals and using the motion offense. Once we put that extra pressure on them, they were not getting up as many shots as before.
“I consider myself a defensive player. My strengths are shutting down the post moves on the defensive end of the floor and rebounding as well. I think we’re the leading rebounding team in the conference. It’s definitely a strong point for us.”
Asked about the season overall for Gustavus, McPartland said, “The conference is going really well. We went down to Hawaii and played a double of DII teams, and they were really good. We got beat by both of them. Those two losses are definitely going to help us kick it up a notch.
“We’ve still got the toughest competition coming up in the conference. Both St. Thomas and St. John’s are going to be real tough.” Nationally ranked fifth, St. Thomas is the favorite.
As for his career overall at Gustavus, McPartland said, “It’s definitely a great program. It’s definitely a lot of fun and a lot of hard work. I’ve really enjoyed being here for four years.”
Pat Beck can be reached at pbeck@stpeterherald.com or (507) 931-8566.
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