Freshmen Standing Out for UMD Men’s Basketball Team

Four of the top five players in minutes played are freshmen, who have helped the team get off to a 2-1 start to the season.

DULUTH, Minn. – The UMD men’s hockey team has been a pleasant surprise this season.

Four of the top five players in minutes played are freshmen, who have helped the team get off to a 2-1 start to the season. One of the keys has been the fact that those players are already used to winning as they come from very successful high school programs.

“When we all came here, we knew we’d have to step into big scoring roles, big leadership roles right away. But over these games, you can kind of tell we’re getting a lot more comfortable playing with each other, playing with our team and stepping up and being leaders. You can tell we’ve just all kind of gelled together and grown in those roles and I think we look to continue to do that moving forward,” freshman guard Zach Lea said.

“Everybody has their own expectations for where we should be or where we’re going to be eventually, which is great. But in the moment, these guys believe that they can win right now. We’re not going to win every game obviously, but when we play well, we’ve got a chance to be a really good team right away this year,” said head coach Justin Wieck.

The Bulldogs will be back in action this weekend as they host MSU-Moorhead.