The Randolph-Macon men’s basketball team entered this season with the unenviable task of replacing four senior guards who were solid contributors throughout their careers.

  Therefore many Yellow Jackets may have questioned the sanity of head coach Nathan Davis when he entered this season with plans to use not one, but three freshmen guards, Marcus Badger, Trent Walker and Connor Sullivan along with sophomore Jamie Robinson, who averaged 3.7 minutes in 17 games last season, at the point.

  Twenty-one games into the season, Davis has proven his beliefs as R-MC sports a 17-4 record, stand second in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and posted an 11-game winning streak before losing at Washington & Lee on Saturday.

  Davis was confident in his guards’ abilities before they had ever faced an opponent. “I thought they were capable of being very good very early,” he said. “I’m very pleased with where they are. I think they keep getting better. It seems like every day they do something new that surprises me.”

  Like their coach, the players themselves sensed the possibility of success long before the season began.

  “Early on when we were playing pickup and stuff you saw the quality of players that were recruited beside you and you gain confidence in them and earn that, ‘Okay, I want to go to war with these guys’,” Walker said. “That confidence in your teammates can’t be replaced. So going into the season with that, I had great confidence that we were going to achieve great things this season.”

  “I knew we were going to be very competitive since playing pickup in the summer,” Sullivan said. “We’ve been working our butts off in practice and we always push each other.”

  Probably most surprising is the team has hardly missed a beat despite the fact that the trio of freshmen and a sophomore replaces senior guards; Thomas Scheeler, Eric Pugh, Kevin Voelkel and Jordan Brown.  Through 30 games last season, the senior foursome averaged 7.4 assists per game versus 4.9 turnovers. Through 20 games this season, Badger, Walker, Sullivan and Robinson are averaging 7.8 assists per game versus 7.0 turnovers, but even those numbers are lopsided due to early season adjustments.

  “If you look over the last three weeks or so, you’ll see our assist to turnover has gotten much better because the game is starting to slow down,” Davis said. “They’re starting to see it. They’re starting to get comfortable and I think the best for those guys is yet to come.”

  Despite the fact that the young foursome share court time, there is no battle for minutes. Badger has started every contest and averages slightly over 20 minutes a game. Robinson and Walker average 17 minutes a game and Sullivan 10.

  “It’s pretty fun because even though we’re getting subbed in and out, we get to go 100 percent and we know that as soon as we get tired we have somebody that can fill our spot right there,” Badger said.

  “I think that’s why we’re so successful,” Sullivan said. “We can spell those guys that are tired in games and we’re not losing a beat when the next player comes in. Everybody’s confidence stays high. Everybody knows their role and what they need to contribute when they get into the game.”

  Likewise each player brings a different characteristic to the floor. “Jamie’s a driver, a great driver, very athletic,” Sullivan said. “Trent’s a great passer, a great play maker and so is Marcus. Me, I think one of my biggest strengths is shooting the ball.”

  As the elder statesman among the group, Robinson sees himself as a transition leader, passing along the work ethic and dedication he adapted from the departing senior class. “Last year was like a good learning experience,” he said. “I learned how to play at this level, compete at this level and now I’m trying to carry that over for our (freshmen).”

  As good as the team is currently playing, Davis believes they can still grow significantly by season’s end. “We’re in the last part of the season and they have a pretty good idea, they’re starting to get a pretty good feel for each other and how they’re playing,” he said. “It should start showing that guys understand what they do well and what they don’t and how we play together and hopefully we’ll keep getting better that way.”

  On Wednesday night, R-MC will host #3 ranked Virginia Wesleyan at 7 p.m.

File photos by Charlie Leffler/The Local
Above: Randolph-Macon freshmen Marcus Badger and sophomore guard Jamie Robinson who acts as the elder statesman for the group of talented Yellow Jacket guards. Below: Freshmen Trent Walker and Connor Sullivan have played with maturity beyond their years for the Yellow Jackets this season