Tburg’s Grunder begins second Cortland season

Austin Grunder’s list of accomplishments on the basketball court is impressive. While playing for Trumansburg before his 2017 graduation, he racked up 1,900 points, the third most in Section IV history, and was named to the All-State team three times. Despite that, he decided against playing basketball in his first year at SUNY Cortland. He then joined the Red Dragons as a sophomore in 2019 and quickly returned to dominance.

Grunder was named the SUNY Athletic Conference Rookie of the Year and the D3Hoops.com East Region Rookie of the Year after averaging a double-double in his first college season. His stats jumped off the page with 21 points per game and 15 rebounds per game. Then, of course, the following season was canceled due to the pandemic.

Now a junior, Grunder is “hungrier than ever” to get back on the court and to contribute to Cortland’s victories. He talked about having last season canceled.

“It was definitely difficult for sure,” Grunder said. “Everything closed down, and we couldn’t even get into the gym at all. We were trying to sneak in, but it just obviously wouldn’t work. Then, as things slowly got better and better, we were able to do some lifting once or twice a week. Then, we were able to get up and get some shots. Then, we had a couple practices where we were all sectioned off at different hoops.”

There was no game action at all last year, and that was a difficult adjustment as Grunder continues to try and improve. He spoke about being responsible for his own development prior to this season.

“I took a lot of time during the summer and during workouts just trying to hone in on my shot,” Grunder said. “I think every single year, my shot is slowly progressing. I feel like that’s the one thing that really lacked. I could usually get to the rim with ease. I really focused on my dribbling and just trying to hone in every aspect of my game throughout workouts over the summer.”

Now in just his second collegiate season, Grunder is a captain for the Red Dragons. He discussed having that role on the team.

“I’ve always been somewhat vocal, but I haven’t been the most vocal leader because I’ve always been a younger guy on the team,” he said. “I’m embracing that role as a captain and I’m still learning along the way. I’ve always been a scorer ever since I started playing basketball. But this year, I think that not only do I need help with the scoring and rebounding, but I also think I need to be doing a better job at facilitating and getting other guys open so we can get this thing moving.”

It’s been a slower start to the season than the Red Dragons would prefer, going 3-4 through the first seven games after a 17-9 campaign last season. Grunder talked about getting the team on the right track.

“We are really young and inexperienced, but we can’t be using that as an excuse all semester,” he said. “I think that we just all have to mature as one whole team, and it starts on the defensive side. I think we’re doing a fairly decent job on the defensive side of things, but our offense has got to start clicking. With the talent that we have on our team, sooner or later, the shots are going to be going down that we’re accustomed to making during practice and during workouts.”

Grunder himself has been impacted by that slow start. With two double-doubles through seven games, he hasn’t reached the heights he did in his first season. The junior is determined to get to a place where he can dominate once again.

“I’m accustomed to scoring a lot,” Grunder said. “I feel like I’m off to a little bit of a rough start. I don’t want to make any excuses or anything of that sort, but I think eventually once we start building chemistry and solidifying roles on this team because there’s still a lot up in the air, I think that not only will our team statistics start doing better; I think individual statistics for myself and the other guys will start to drastically improve.”

Cortland has just two games left before the calendar turns to 2022, leaving plenty of time for improvement in practice. With so much unknown about opponents due to the cancellation of last season, self-improvement is the key for Grunder and the Red Dragons this season.

“I think it’s more self-focused than focusing on other teams at this point,” he said. “Obviously, we’re scouting and we’re understanding what’s going on in the SUNYAC and who we’re playing, but we’re still trying to figure out who we are. It’s not going as well as we would have liked, and I still think that we’re working out the kinks, but eventually, the ship’s going to start to sail. We’ve got a lot of potential on this team.”

Cortland is coming off a 72-55 win over SUNY Fredonia in which Grunder led the way in points, rebounds and minutes. They’ll hope to ride that momentum into a Dec. 8 matchup against SUNY Geneseo looking to even up the season record to 4-4.

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