Bill Treseler has not had a dream start to his first year as head coach of SF State’s men’s basketball team. It is more than half way through the season and the Gator’s are still searching for their first victory.

Treseler comes to SF State from Dominican and UC Santa Cruz, where he put together a combined record of 134-90 in his eight years as a head coach. That winning tradition seems to have been lost in the shuffle this season, as the Gators have dropped to 0-16.

“This is the first time most of us have gone through this,” Treseler said.

The problem, according to Treseler, falls on the defensive side, and he puts the blame squarely on his shoulders.

“We have a tough time consistently defending, and I take responsibility for that,” Treseler said. “We are giving up high point totals and field goal percentage. We give up around 50 percent, which is way too high. We need to get it down to the mid 40’s.”

The Gator’s are giving up an average of 78 points a game and only scoring 60, that is a canyon sized 18 point differential. The coach sees this as a defensive problem; the players on the other hand see it as a lack of offense.

Oscar Edwards, a junior at SF State, is leading the Gator’s in scoring with nearly 12 points a game and just under seven rebounds. He thinks that the Gator’s need to amp up their offensive output.

“We have got to score more than 50 points a game to win and we are not doing that right now,” Edwards said.

The last two games the Gator’s have only been able to muster a mere 55 and 56 points respectively. Lawrence Metz, SF State’s second leading scorer with nearly 10 points a game, thinks that is because the offense is too restrictive.

“We are too structured. We need to just have fun and play,” Metz said. “It’s stop and go. We need to get out and play instead of being so robotic.”

Losing is like a virus that attacks the confidence of a team, with each loss the Gator’s seem to be a little more infected, and a little less sure of themselves.

“It’s tough. We start to wonder. Our confidence gets down. It’s hard to put in words. You think is it me or the team,” Edwards said. “Every game you try to break (the streak). It gets tiring after a while.”

Metz believes the team’s emotions have surpassed tired and moved into a completely new category, aggravation.

“We are frustrated. You can see it on teammate’s faces, no one is happy right now,” Metz said. “We need to have confidence in ourselves that we can get the job done.”

Metz thinks that the team has trouble putting their record behind them, like a giant zero haunts them every time they step foot on the court.

“We need to not worry about the past,” Metz said. “But it always comes back around. It’s kind of a let down.”

Though it’s been rough, Coach Treseler is pleased that the frustration on the court has not boiled over off of it.

“They have good attitudes and work ethic despite the problems we have had on the scoreboard,” Treseler said.

Through all the difficult times Edwards said the one thing they could count on was each other.

“We are a team. We stick together no matter what,” Edwards said.