Last weekend, the first year of the Joe Golding era came to an end in Stephenville, where the Wildcats fell to the Tarleton State Texans on the road.
However, this season left ACU fans with hope for the future. The Wildcats quadrupled their conference win total from the last two years, and the outlook around the program may be brighter than it has been since Head Coach Golding himself was running the point for the Wildcats in the ’90s.
The Wildcats finished their season with double digit wins for the first time since 2008-2009, and the defensive intensity that coach Golding has preached all year brought a new dynamic to Moody Coliseum that had been missing in recent years.
“These guys have competed hard and fought all year.” Golding said. “I think guys that come back and guys we bring in will continue with that mentality and obviously we win more games next year.”
With the end of the season, the basketball team says goodbye to three seniors: Zach Williams, Ben Warton, and Eric Kibi, who have given everything they have to the basketball program. Although their time in Moody Coliseum has run out, they are confident that they were the start of a new era of Wildcat basketball, and winning is just around the corner.
“Nobody works harder than our coaching staff.” Williams said. “We have a good nucleus of people coming back. People need to look out for ACU next year.”
Wildcats nearly played their way into the conference tournament after a slow start to conference play, but fell just one game short of a post season birth. However, the balanced offense they showed this year is encouraging, having Antonio Bell, Zach Williams, and Kendall Durant all average more than eleven points a game.
ACU only lost three games by double digits all year, and finished with a 10-6 record in Moody Coliseum. Highlights of the year include a thirty-nine-point drubbing of Arlington Baptist and a fifteen-point victory against rival Angelo State in front of the home crowd in Abilene.
Looking ahead to next season, the Wildcats will return three starters and two of their top three scorers from the 2011-2012 campaign. The coaching staff is aware of the recent struggles the ACU program has had, but the talented players returning to the big country are enough to keep the coaching staff fired up about next season.
“We will hit the road recruiting and look for great student athletes that fit what we want to do here at ACU and mix it in with the guys we have coming back.” Golding said. “But we are going to win. That’s what I was hired to do, and I don’t like to lose. I won here as a player, and I won at Arkansas-Little Rock, and we are going to win here at Abilene Christian University.”
