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Posey’’s the key to LU’’s success
By Reuben Villagracia
Thursday, November 6, 2008

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Thunderwolves forward Kiraan Posey attempts to get around teammate Dean Magierowski on Wednesday.

Kiraan Posey can expect another congratulatory email from Dan Zapior sooner rather than later.
The Lakehead Thunderwolves forward has notched 2,339 overall career points (exhibition, non-conference, regular season and playoffs) in a Lakehead uniform – nine shy of passing Zapior‘s five-year-old record. The mark will surely fall when Lakehead opens the OUA men‘s basketball season in Toronto this weekend.
It won‘t be the first time Posey‘s scoring prowess has caught the eye of Zapior, who graduated in 2003 and played with and against the fifth-year forward in local summer leagues.
“No, I wouldn‘t talk trash to him,” Posey said with a grin when asked how he‘ll react to passing Zapior. “I‘ll probably give him a phone call. When I tied him with 47 (points in a game last year) he sent me an email saying congratulations.”
“I know him and his brother (former Lakehead player Steve) is cool,” he added. “I‘ve went over to their house for Thanksgiving dinner and everything.”
The lone senior on this year‘s young squad, Posey was voted as captain by his teammates, who are turning to the fifth-year forward to steer the ship.
“I heard about him before I came here,” said freshman and Toronto native Yoosrie Salhia. “Playing with him a couple times at practice, I knew he was the main guy.”
And with that, the Baltimore native who arrived in Thunder Bay nearly four years ago, experienced every kind of up and down since, has even taken Zapior‘s former role as the team‘s leader.
“Kiraan‘s improved every aspect of his game and his leadership abilities since he got here,” Thunderwolves coach Scott Morrison said. “The biggest thing I‘m happy with is his improved defensive play. He‘s no (San Antonio Spurs guard) Bruce Bowen out there yet, but he‘s a decent defender and understands the game on defence and has turned into one of the better rebounders in the conference, which no one talks about because of his scoring.”
Posey may have to rebound and then some starting Friday against Ryerson. Gone are forwards Warren Thomas and Matt Verboom, leaving Lakehead with an awfully height-challenged frontline.
Small ball it is. Jamie Searle will move to the shooting guard spot in the starting lineup and freshman Greg Carter will man the point. Sophomore Matthew Powell, a slash-type player like Posey, joins Salhia and Posey up front.
“Our style is going to be more perimeter-oriented and up-and-down and try and make teams be athletic and fast as opposed to slowing it down and using their height advantage on us,” Morrison said.
The six-foot-six Salhia, a former star at the Toronto prep school level, said he‘s used to banging with bigger bodies inside.
“It‘s nothing new for me,” he said. “I guess I have to step up to the challenge.”
Andrew Hackner should get the green light to return this week after being deemed academically ineligible during the Thunderwolves‘ 3-4 pre-season. Junior Andrew Quiron and freshman Matt Schmidt, the other two Thunder Bay natives on the team, will be part of a deep second unit.
At six-foot-six, Schmidt, labelled a project after being mainly untested in his high school career at Churchill, made the most of his minutes off the bench during a recent B.C. tour.
“It‘s going to take him awhile to get comfortable where he‘s used to the speed of the play and the size of the opponents he‘s matched against,” Morrison said. “Every minute of experience he gets is going to contribute to the speed of his development.”
Posey is banking the team‘s development phase doesn‘t last long. The countdown, not only to Zapior‘s record, but also his OUA career begins Friday night and Posey would love to suit up for his final game in a playoff setting.
“It‘s up for grabs,” he said. “We should make some noise, a lot of noise. Like 808 speaker noise.”
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