The world of sports is ruled by super-athletic alpha males with more muscle and energy than they know what to do with. The adrenaline rush many of them strive for is something that non-athletes may never understand.

It is no surprise, then, that men’s basketball senior forward Alex Bausley enjoys the thrill-a-minute world of video role-playing games.

Well, maybe that is a surprise.

“I play a lot of video games when I’m not on the court,” Bausley said. He said that he has the recently-released role-playing game Final Fantasy XII on reserve and is just waiting for an opportunity to pick it up.

That’s not the only thing that might surprise about the 6-foot-7, 235 pound Bausley. He knows he can score. He knows that his skills allow him to do things that others can only do in their most unrealistic dreams. But what does Bausley really want to do? He wants to lead his team to a conference championship.

Now, as a senior, he has his chance.

After being overshadowed by players like Jason Harris and DaShawn Freeman, now departed, the team is his. Its chances of making history hinge on how he decides to lead it. So what does Bausley think of his new pressure-packed role?

“I love it,” he said, grinning. “I like making my teammates better. I like that more than scoring.”

In an era of increasingly ‘me-first’ score-a-holics in basketball, Bausley would rather lead than fill up the stat sheet.

“It’s fun for me to make my team better. The coaches want me to stay aggressive to make sure I get my stats too,” he said.

But don’t be fooled, he’ll get his. Bausley made a name for himself last season after leading the Hornets in scoring (13.2), ranking second in rebounds (5.2), second in steals (64) and second in assists (56). Those numbers earned him first-team all-Big Sky honors, thus validating his individual talents.

The stats speak for themselves, but this year he has to do more.”Coach (Jerome Jenkins) wants me to be more vocal and come out of my shell a little bit and show some emotion on the court,” he said.

Bausley appears reserved by nature, which might make it difficult for him to lead. However, his teammates and coaches have already seen him taking the responsibility.

“He has already taken over the role of leader,” Jenkins said. “He’s in great shape and he’s talking (to his teammates) a lot on the court.”

“He has definitely stepped up as leader,” junior forward Davon Roberts said. “He gets on us when we make mistakes, and that’s what you need from a leader.”

“He took control of the team at the end of last year, actually,” sophomore guard Loren Leath added. “We fed off of him at the end of the year.”

Bausley thinks that he has learned from last year’s disappointing finish and will try to make strides to end this season on a more positive note.

“Last year was a lot different than other years because people expected us to win,” he said. “We weren’t used to those expectations.”

“In a way it was good for us, but it definitely added pressure to perform every night.”

One of the biggest changes Bausley hopes to make is attention to detail. Last year the team lost conference games by three, two, six, three, one, five and five points. Had some of those games gone the other way, the season might have turned out differently for them.

“The biggest unknowns this year are if we can come together as a team and do the little things that win games,” he said. “That’s why we came up short last year. It came down to that one last shot or box out and we didn’t do it.”

Bausley ended that statement with something else not normally heard from an athlete…acceptance of blame.

“A lot of the failures of last year come down on me,” he said.

The team went through quite a turnaround in the offseason. Out are last year’s seniors, including Freeman and Harris, and in are seven newcomers. Bausley admits that the team was not cohesive right off the bat.

“At first, it was a split right down the middle,” he said. “It was like old guys versus new guys. But we’re getting closer every day. The more we sweat together and hurt together the better we’ll be.”

“We want to win the regular season championship and then the Big Sky tournament championship. I think it’s a reality, and that’s our goal.”

There’s no telling how the season will turn out for the Hornets. But if the things Bausley’s teammates and coaches are saying are true, there may be no better leader for this expedition into the unknown.

Benn Hodapp can be reached at [email protected]