Most places, basketball players work up a sweat during practice.
Sawyer and Kooper Glick now joke that they sweat on the way to practice.
Such is life in South Florida, where the sophomores from Columbus North are in their first year at Barry University. But their first semester at the Miami Shores school hasn’t been all fun and sunshine. They were stuck there during Hurricane Matthew in early October.
The campus shut down for two days. But the basketball team, which was conditioning at the time, is about 50 percent European, and most didn’t have anywhere to go. The Glicks stayed in their room until they realized the Miami area wouldn’t be hit that hard.
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“It was pretty interesting,” Kooper said. “I’ve never been in a hurricane before. But when it got closer, and I knew it wasn’t going to hit us super bad, it wasn’t as scary at that point.”
Sawyer, who is two years older than Kooper, went to prep school for a year, then went to Spring Hill (Alabama). He took a redshirt year because of a knee injury before earning Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and first-team All-SIAC honors last season.
Kooper helped lead Rock Valley (Illinois) to the NJCAA Division III national championship last season.
At Barry, the Glicks are flourishing. They’ve helped the Bucs get off to an 8-1 start.
Although they aren’t starters, Sawyer and Kooper are the first two players off the bench. Sawyer is the fourth-leading scorer at 11.6 points a game in about 21 minutes of action per game. Kooper averages 4.1 points in about 12 minutes a game.
Both have been lights-out shooters so far this season. Sawyer leads the team with 25 3-pointers and is shooting 49.0 percent from behind the arc, while Kooper shoots 42.9 percent from 3-point range. Sawyer (91.7 percent) and Kooper (90.9 percent) are the team’s top two free-throw shooters.
“(Not starting) doesn’t bother me at all,” Sawyer said. “I just have so much confidence in the starters. The guys and the coaches made the adjustment really easy. It’s just been an easy transition into the program.”
While Sawyer plays mostly shooting guard, Kooper — who played a little point guard at North — has been playing shooting guard, small forward and power forward.
Kooper said he doesn’t really enjoy being a power forward, but has learned he can get the job done in that position for his squad. He can guard bigger players, but the bigger players usually don’t match up with his quickness.
Barry put up its highest offensive output of the season in its most recent outing, a 110-83 home win against University of Indianapolis. The Glicks were able to make it home for Christmas before heading back to prepare for Friday’s game against Rollins.
Both Sawyer and Kooper said the team’s goal to make it to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
“It has been a great start,” Sawyer said. “I think the key for us is how early we were able to buy into what (head) coach (Butch) Estes and coach (Justin) Furr were telling us. We don’t have any selfish attitudes or ego problems on the team, so that makes it easy.”
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Name: Sawyer Glick
High School: Columbus North
College: Barry University
Year: Sophomore
Height: 6-foot-4
Position: Guard
Key stats: 11.6 ppg, 49.0 3-point pct., 91.7 free-throw pct.
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Name: Kooper Glick
High School: Columbus North
College: Barry University
Year: Sophomore
Height: 6-foot-3
Position: Guard-forward
Key stats: 4.1 ppg, 42.9 3-point pct., 90.9 free-throw pct.
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