By Justin St. Peter
Nov. 18, 2015
After losing nine players from last year’s 24-4 team, including all five starters, the Warhawks men’s basketball team will have an uphill battle to get back to the top of the WIAC.
Among the nine players lost, guard Quardell Young, and forward K.J. Evans were both NCAA Division III Final Four Most Valuable Players.
With all of the departures, the Warhawks do have 11 brand new players to the program.
“We have a nice influx of incoming freshmen and returning players that make up our team,” head coach Pat Miller said. “The challenge is going to be getting them all on the same page.”
With all of the new players, Miller said it will take time for them to adjust to playing with each other and for him to find the right lineups for the tough games down the road.
On top of that, Miller said that multiple players have been injured, so the current lineup is not set in stone yet.
“There will be changes,” Miller said. “When those guys become available and healthy, it will give us a couple additional options.”
Junior guard Drew Bryson is the only returning player that saw action in all 28 games last year, averaging 3.4 points and 2.1 rebounds in 20 minutes per game.
Miller, who became the fastest active coach to reach 300 career victories in his 15th season last year, will have plenty of teaching to do if the the ’Hawks are to win its third national championship in five years.
“For people that have never played a sport like basketball, it’s hard for them to understand the enormity and concept of getting our system back, our fundamentals, our footwork, terminology, our strategy, how we approach scouting, how we approach games, how we manage games,” Miller said. “It’s just so much for them to learn that unfortunately is impossible in a four or five week schedule.”
The Warhawks have been picked to finish second in the WIAC by the league’s coaches and athletic communications personnel, behind the UW-Stevens Point Pointers, the perennial challenger to the ’Hawks WIAC dominance.
“I really believe that until otherwise, Stevens Point has to be the biggest challenge,” Miller said. “Over the past 12-13 years, it’s been Whitewater and Stevens Point at the top.”
The Pointers are ranked No. 9 in the d3hoops.com men’s Top 25 preseason poll, while fellow WIAC rival, UW-Oshkosh, is ranked No. 23. The ’Hawks received votes but fell short of the Top 25 poll.
Big second half fuels come-from-behind win
The ’Hawks wasted no time acclimating all of the new players to the program’s winning tradition, dispatching Ripon College 74-60 in the team’s first game of the season on Nov. 13.
After being down 28-19 at halftime on the road, the ’Hawks reeled off 55 second half points to get the first win of the year.
Spurred on by 71.4 percent shooting from the floor in the second half, UW-W shot 51.9 percent from the field and held the Redhawks to 38.5 percent.
Senior forward Trinson White, a transfer from UW-Milwaukee, made the most of his Warhawks debut with 21 points, 20 of them in the second half.
Freshman guard Andre Brown had 13 points and Bryson chipped in 12.
Brown and junior guard Ethan Guske, a transfer from D-II Augustana [South Dakota], led the ’Hawks on a 19-0 run to take the team’s first lead with 7:46 left on the clock at 51-50.
After a flurry of baskets to stretch the lead to double-digits, White salted the game away at the free-throw line.
The ’Hawks host Davenport College [Michigan], the No. 2 team in NAIA at 7 p.m. on Nov. 20 in Rachel Gymnasium. The team then hosts Finlandia University [Michigan] at 7 p.m. on Nov 21.
“It will be a good weekend for us, especially playing back-to-back with the injuries that we have had,’ Miller said. “That will be one of the challenges for us to manage.”
