Walking back to the elevator of the hotel on the evening of March 4, Central men’s basketball guard, Pete Walker, looked over to Coach Craig Douma and emphatically said, “We can play with (St. Thomas). We were right there.” This came following their loss to the eventual National Champions in Division III, 78 – 66. The Dutch were out-rebounded, 43 – 28, and held to less than 42% shooting. Returning all of their players from that team come this winter, Coach Douma and the players have invested their time into some reading material and in the weight room in preparation for the coming season that is almost five months away from tipping off. The Dutch will have five seniors on the 2016-17 team, and Douma adds the team has also been working on taking better care of the ball on offense. Game number one is on November 15 at Iowa Wesleyan.