Coming into the season, MUW men’s basketball head coach Dean Burrows had a feeling he had assembled a squad capable of doing some damage in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.
His theory, though, didn’t rest upon his raw human emotion or hang on the thin filament of hopes and wishes, but was grounded within the players he brought in over the offseason to pair with his returning cast. Guys like Trey Huguley, Joe Haze Austin and Devin McCain were mostly overlooked at their prior stops and came to The W looking to build something special under Burrows. They joined forces with guys like Jackson Reid and Trent Walker, big contributors who stayed put. So far, Burrows’ preseason assumptions have panned out to be true – and then some.
A relatively easy 90-56 cruise past Principia College last week gave the Owls their fifth straight win – which is the program’s longest streak under Burrows – and the ninth victory in their last 11 games. Both Huguley and Austin have already rewritten the Owls’ record books in their short time in uniform. Austin compiled the program’s first-ever triple-double against Greenville University while Huguley scored a program-high 51 points in the same game.
During the Owls’ tear, the team has won games handily, like an 85-65 shellacking of Southeastern Baptist College, and has also staved off late comeback attempts, like in their 82-80 triumph over Blackburn College. The Owls even beat Eureka College, 99-67, in a game that took almost a full day to complete due to a power outage at the gym. Now the team stands alone in the conference at the No. 2 spot, and most of that is due to their buy-in of Burrows’ brand of ball, which is based on being physically and mentally tough while also having prowess at pounding the glass for rebounds.
New Year’s resolution
But don’t roll out the cannon and the confetti quite yet. While the Owls are off to an unbeaten start in the new year, Burrows said there is still a ton of room for his team to grow.
“We’re still nowhere near what we think we can be,” Burrows told The Dispatch. “I know that might sound strange, but we don’t want to be playing our best basketball yet. I think from the outside looking in, we’ve steadily been getting better – it hasn’t been perfect and we’re not going to be perfect – but we have been getting better. So, hopefully late February going into March we’ll be playing the way we thought we could be playing the whole year.”
Burrows said part of their recent success is due to his team sharing the ball well. The Owls’ average of 18 assists per game is the second most in the SLIAC, and most of them have been generated by Austin, who leads the conference with 64 on the season. Most of those assists have given teammates easy layups and other good looks at the basket, and are part of the reason why The W leads all of NCAA Division III in field-goal percentage (53.03%). Huguley, a Shelton State Community College transfer, has been putting in most of those points. He’s rounded into the team’s No. 1 offensive option, averaging 22.5 points per game, second most in the conference. McCain is right behind with an average of 16.3, Austin is third with 14.3 points and Shephard chips in 13.8 per game.
While it’s been mostly the new faces finding the bottom of the net, Burrows said the leadership of his returners have been just as valuable to his team winning.
“Looking in, they’re all averaging double figures and they are new guys, but Trent Walker and Jackson Reid have done a better job of leading guys and being very unselfish with how we go about things,” he said. “They just want to win, and I’m not saying they’ve taken a step back by any means, but they’ve done a really good job, I think, of getting guys to understand (that) this is about us finding a way to win.”
So far the Owls have found a way to win every game in 2026, but they put their streak on the line today in St. Louis, Mo., against Webster University. At 14-2 overall and 7-0 in SLIAC play, the Gorloks have cemented themselves at the No. 1 spot in the conference standings behind the second-most productive offense in the SLIAC (84.9 ppg) and a defense that gives up the second-fewest points (71.7 ppg). The Gorloks also boast Charles Nelson, who is third in the conference in scoring with 307 points on the season.
“They take care of the basketball, they run their scheme very well, they rebound the ball very well, but one of the things I noticed is they are not going to beat themselves,” Burrows said. “You’ve got to go and beat them. We have a lot of respect for them, they got beat in the conference championship last year, so we knew they were going to be pretty good coming in. In order for us to host (a conference tournament game) like we want, we have to take care of business on the road. … Webster has two losses on the year, but I don’t know if they’ve necessarily seen a team like us. … So that’s the beauty of conference college basketball. That is why you come to (The W) for these opportunities.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
