photo by: Photo courtesy of Ottawa University

Ottawa guards Jaquan Daniels (0) and Jackson Mallory (31) talk with Braves coach Aaron Siebenthall during a game earlier this season.

The Ottawa University men’s basketball team left Monday morning for its first trip to the NAIA Division II national tournament since 2009.

But the way fifth-year coach Aaron Siebenthall sees it, the journey actually began on foreign soil a few months ago.

“We went to the Virgin Islands for a tournament earlier this season and that’s when I really think we came together,” Siebenthall told the Journal-World from the team bus bound for Sioux Falls, S.D., on Monday morning. “We had four and five guys to a room. We squeezed the whole team into two minivans. And we really spent a lot of quality time together during that tournament.”

It wasn’t just the time spent that impressed Siebenthall, though. One day after returning from the trip, Siebenthall saw the entire team eating together in the cafeteria, talking about keeping their season rolling.

“I for sure thought they would’ve been tired of each other by then,” said Siebenthall, a Lawrence High graduate. “But they weren’t. These guys really like each other and they love being together. I think that’s played a huge part in our season.”

Already with a school record 27 victories, the Braves are the No. 2 seed in their eight-team region at this week’s national tournament. They’ll play Concordia, from Seward, Neb., at 10:15 a.m. Thursday and will have to win five games in six days to bring home the title of national champs.

For Siebenthall, a 1994 graduate of Lawrence High who has been with the program for 14 years and the head coach for the past five, the journey to this point has been filled with fun.

During his first season, in just his second game as the leader of the Braves, Siebenthall was standing on the sidelines at Kentucky’s Rupp Arena, matching wits with Hall of Famer John Calipari in an exhibition game the Braves lost but gained so many memories.

“We played Baker that week and then we played Kentucky, and my whole thing was I just want to beat the Wildcats one time,” Siebenthall joked.

It didn’t happen. But there have been plenty of wins since then.

In addition to entering this week’s tournament at 27-6, Ottawa was 19-5 in conference play and won the regular season conference title while finishing second in the postseason Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference tournament.

Siebenthall was named KCAC Coach of the Year and senior guard Darryl Bowie, who does not start but is one of the team’s most dynamic players, earned KCAC player of the year honors.

Jaquan Daniels was named second-team all-conference and to the KCAC all-defensive team. And Ryan Haskins earned an honorable mention nod.

Bowie set a school record with 46 points earlier this season and Siebenthall said his team-first approach to not starting is indicative of the way this year’s entire roster approaches the game.

In fact, on senior night this year, Siebenthall wanted to start all six of his seniors, including Bowie, but the guard told his coach to start the other five because he was fine coming off the bench.

Junior guard Jackson Mallory, another Lawrence High graduate, also tells a story. His all-around game, fierce competitiveness and ability to shoot the ball from the outside is representative of the way the Braves’ roster is constructed.

“Everybody plays on the perimeter and we’re really trending toward positionless basketball,” Siebenthall said.

It’s worked. In addition to averaging 18 assists per game as a team, the Braves average the sixth most 3-point makes per game in the country.

Picked to finish fifth in the 13-team KCAC preseason poll, the Braves exceeded the expectations of others while delivering something they thought was possible all along.

Siebenthall admits now that he did not expect this team to win the league or set a school record for wins when practices began last fall. But he did always think they had a chance to be good.

“This has just been an awesome group to coach,” he said. “They play for each other, play so hard and share the ball so well. It was always our goal to win the conference and make it to nationals, but I’d be lying if I said I knew we were going to win the league by two games. Once we kind of started playing, though, and had some continued success and I saw how the guys all meshed, I thought then, ‘Oh, this could be pretty special.'”