By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
The 2020-21 basketball season was so much fun that Washburn University star point guard Tyler Geiman jumped at the chance to do it all over again.
Geiman, who will be honored Wednesday night as TopSports.news' Washburn Co-Male Athlete of the Year, has already earned his bachelor's degree and had several other options he could have explored.
There were other Division II stars who opted to transfer to the Division I level while Geiman could have also looked into playing professionally, but for Geiman the choice to return to the Ichabods for one last go-around was an easy one.
"I'd say it was pretty much a done deal,'' the 6-foot-1 Geiman said. "I wanted to get my masters so I was like, 'I don't want to be working on that and not still play basketball,' so it worked out really well actually because now I can still do both.''
Washburn star point guard Tyler Geiman will be honored Wednesday night as TopSports.news' Washburn University Co-Male Athlete of the Year. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
Geiman earned third-team NCAA Division II All-America honors this past season, leading the Ichabods to the MIAA Tournament championship and a second-round appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
Geiman, who still has one year of eligibility remaining due to COVID-19, has played in 115 career games for the Ichabods, scoring 1,392 points and ranking No. 2 in career assists with 558.
Geiman, a former star at Blue Valley High School, ranks fourth at WU in career-3-pointers with 208 and became the first Ichabod to have at least 1,000 career points, 500 assists, 500 rebounds and 100 steals during the 2020-21 regular season and recorded the first triple-double in school history with 17 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists against Northeastern State.
Now, after leading the Ichabods to a 20-7 record in '20-'21, Geiman will be looking for the Ichabods to scale even higher heights this coming season.
"I feel like we can only go in one direction if we stay hungry and stay on top of it,'' he said. "Last year we had pretty close to a full season, but it still didn't feel the same, so I'd say there will definitely be a new energy this year. Some guys last year ended really well, like Tyler Nelson and J-Lew (Jalen Lewis), so I think they can really build off that and we should be tough to beat.''
And as good as he was last year, Geiman knows he can also make improvement in his own game.
"My biggest thing is just taking the next step as far as leadership and mentally to run my team in the right way and set guys up to be successful and closing out the end of games and closing out the end of halves and having more control of the game,'' he said.
"Last year I didn't shoot the ball as well as I wanted to, so I'm definitely going to try to take a better step in that direction.''
Geiman admits that he's been a little surprised at what he's a;ready been able to accomplish at Washburn, and credits Ichabod coach Brett Ballard, who took over at WU the same year he arrived, for being a key factor in his success.
"One of the things at Blue Valley that made me successful was me and my coach had a relationship that allowed me to be comfortable on the court.'' he said. "Coming into here Ballard was new and I didn't really know him, so I was a little nervous about that, but me and Ballard have grown really close and that's one of the biggest steps that I've taken each year. We've gotten closer and closer and he's had more confidence in me and I feel like that's helped me.
"It's a little weird that I'm still around, but it's fun. It's better than working 8 to 5. I'm still in school and playing basketball. You can't complain about that.''
