{"id":3657,"date":"2018-03-23T10:00:45","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T14:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.pages.roanoke.edu\/?p=3657"},"modified":"2018-03-23T10:00:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T14:00:45","slug":"freund","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/?p=3657","title":{"rendered":"Freund Frenzy: Team First Kinda Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written by Aeryn McMurtry<\/em><\/p>\n

Junior forward Josh Freund made some serious waves in the 2017-2018 basketball season.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Freund was awarded 1<\/span>st<\/span> Team All-ODAC, ODAC Player of the Year and most notably, 2<\/span>nd<\/span> Team All-American. On the season, the focal point of Roanoke\u2019s offense averaged 18.4 points per game, while shooting 60.1% from the field. And despite the prestige of these achievements, Freund is humble. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not too big on personal awards, but it\u2019s nice to see that hard work pays off,\u201d said Freund.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Maroons played in the ODAC Men\u2019s Basketball Tournament on Feb. 23 \u2013 Feb. 25, rounding out their season with a 20-8 record. The team went into the tournament hot off of a nine game winning streak, but Freund said that they didn\u2019t let that go to their heads. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe treated it like a new season,\u201d he says. \u201cWe were just taking it one game at a time. Each game was treated like the championship game. It was win or go home at that point. We just wanted to put ourselves in the right position to be successful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The RC men\u2019s basketball team lost to Emory & Henry in an edge-of-your-seat intense final game, with an end score of 72-70. <\/span><\/p>\n

Freund said that his relationship with coach Clay Nunley has a major influence on him. \u201cI love [Nunley] as a coach. I think his attitudes as a coach and as a player reflect mine. We have kind of the same mindset. We want to win, and we want to win the right way. We don\u2019t really have to be fancy or flashy, but if we do the right things and lock in on defense, its really gonna set us to be able to win like we did last season.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Freund described that \u201cwinning the right way\u201d involves having a clear game plan. \u201cYou\u2019ve got teams that can come out and \u2018get hot\u2019 from shooting the ball,\u201d Freund said. \u201cThey\u2019re not concerned about the other team offensively, they just hope that their shots go in more than the other team. It\u2019s kind of just \u2018loose\u2019 basketball, like AAU or travel basketball where you try to \u2018out hoop\u2019 the other team, and it\u2019s not really what wins.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2016\/17 season was Freund\u2019s first year as a Maroon, and he didn\u2019t play nearly as much as he did in the most recent season. He said that he does feel like he\u2019s improved, both technically and as a team leader.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freund concedes that is he a leader and a captain, but he feels like all of the players share the responsibility of being leaders. \u00a0\u201cI don\u2019t think it necessarily has to be the captains. Maybe there are guys that [lead] a little more often that try to set the tone, but if you get a couple freshmen to step up and be vocal in practice, that can go a long way. [Personally] I hold people accountable to do the right thing. First, you\u2019ve got to hold yourself accountable and that\u2019s probably the hardest thing,\u201d Freund said. \u201cA player lead team is better than a coach lead team.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The dynamic of the team is also important for Freund. \u201cWe\u2019re all friends, really all family. We\u2019ve got a nice little culture that we\u2019ve built\u2026 It\u2019s not just basketball. We all love each other,\u201d said Freund. He also says that the fans play a big role in his game. \u201cFans are always there showing support, and I love it. It\u2019s hard to pack Cregger, but sometimes it gets pretty loud. I think we had a great home record this season, and a lot of that comes from the fans,\u201d Freund said. <\/span><\/p>\n

Off of the basketball court, this student athlete also manages to balance an academic and personal life around his busy schedule. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI like to hang out with my friends, play a little Fortnite here and there. If I\u2019m hanging with a cool group of guys, I\u2019m down to do pretty much anything,\u201d Freund said.<\/span><\/p>\n

After finishing this season strong, Freund said that he looks forward to next season, saying, \u201cI want to do something special. Something that hasn\u2019t been seen in a while.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Aeryn McMurtry Junior forward Josh Freund made some serious waves in the 2017-2018 basketball season. Recently, Freund was awarded 1st Team All-ODAC, ODAC Player of the Year and most notably, 2nd Team All-American. On the season, the focal point of Roanoke\u2019s offense averaged 18.4 points per game, while shooting 60.1% from the field….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brackety-ack.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}