Posting Up - Scoreboard - Top 25 - Features - Notables - Team of the Week - Live Audio

Features

An in-depth look at Division III

Posted March 18, 1999

By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

William Paterson coach Jose Rebimbas in Salem.

In 1988, then-Seton Hall junior walk-on Jose Rebimbas had the chance to guard University of Texas-El Paso freshman phenom Tim Hardaway in a first-round NCAA tournament matchup.

"That was his coming-out party, that game against us," said Rebimbas, with a laugh. "I pretended like I was (guarding him). From what I recall, I locked him down -- for three minutes."

Eleven years later, Rebimbas, who played on the 1989 NCAA runner-up Pirates squad, is still holding his own against the lightning-quick guards with the devastating crossover dribble. It’s a little different now, though. Rebimbas is the head coach of the men’s basketball team at William Paterson. And the guard who has caught the attention of the nation is named Horace Jenkins.

Rebimbas and the Pioneers take on defending champion Wisconsin-Platteville on Friday in the Division III semifinals. The winner plays in the championship Saturday against the winner of Hampden-Sydney and Connecticut College.

The Pioneers (19-10) are by far the most unlikely challengers for a national title of the four squads in contention. They didn’t win the New Jersey Athletic Conference. Heck, they finished in third place in the regular season and didn’t get out of the first round of the conference playoffs.

So how did they end up making the trip to Salem?

William Paterson started the season 2-5. Among the early season games were a loss to Rutgers-Newark, a team that won two games all season, and a defeat against The College of New Jersey in which the squad played the first half wearing TCNJ road jerseys because the team left its uniforms in Wayne.

The most entertaining aspect of those early games was Rebimbas, whose fiery style makes a matchup against William Paterson like that of one against Arkansas -- only it’s instead called "40 Minutes of Yell."

But things turned around with the arrival of Jenkins, a 22-year old sophomore transfer from Union County College. Jenkins amazed onlookers with his amazing quickness and his ability to shoot off the dribble. Fans and opponents have called him 'The Allen Iverson of Division III.'

His arrival not only made fellow starters David Coleman, Kevin Fleming and fellow UCC transfer Mufeed Thomas better players, it made practices tougher for Rebimbas, who scrimmages with his team every day.

"I was doing a lot better this year," said Rebimbas, "but my scoring average is down since we picked up Horace."

Jenkins, a rarely-used player on the high school level, had dropped out of school to help support his parents. He re-enrolled and got through a semester at UCC before coming to William Paterson in the fall. Rebimbas didn’t allow Jenkins to play until he had a semester under his belt.

"I wanted to make sure," said Rebimbas, "that he was coming to school for the right reasons. Hopefully his successful on-court performance will make him continue to work hard in the classroom."

Jenkins proved himself academically and has since removed any doubts about his playing ability. The Pioneers won a Christmas tournament at Springfield College and haven’t looked back. Breaks began to go their way, such as having the Rutgers-Newark defeat replaced with a forfeit victory due to the use of an ineligible player. Jenkins averaged 22 points-per-game and was named the NJAC Player of the Year. He also established himself for being particularly clutch when the team goes to its standard isolation setup late in games.

"One thing (former coach) P.J. Carlesimo taught me," said Rebimbas, "was that at the end of games, just give the ball to your best player and get out of his way."

After a first-round NCAA win against Staten Island, WPU avenged two previous defeats to NJAC champion Rowan by winning a three-point thriller. Ray Ortiz hit the game-winning basket on a foul-line jumper in the closing seconds to cap off a furious rally from a 10-point second half-deficit. In the Sweet 16 game against Catholic, the Pioneers blew a 19-point lead, then came back from nine down to win. In the quarterfinals against Richard Stockton, a team that had beaten the Pioneers three times previous, WPU rallied from a 14-point second-half deficit to win on two free throws by Fleming with 15 seconds remaining.

Cardiac comebacks have been the theme all season, so what better way to get to the Final Four? During the regular season, WPU came back from 20 points down with 8:20 left to get a win against Ramapo. That made the other rallies seem a lot easier to achieve.

"We’re immature," said Rebimbas. "We don’t know how to put a team away. But that also gives us the strength of mind not to give up."

It’s exactly the type of team no one wants to face come tournament time. These Pioneers don’t think of themselves as this year’s Cinderella. They know they’re capable of playing at the highest level. There’s no better way to start than with a Wisconsin-Platteville team that Rebimbas guesses has lost as many games in five seasons as his team has in one.

"That mystique is worth six to eight points at the beginning of the game," said Rebimbas. "They are going to cause a lot of problems for us. Their guards are big and strong. I’ve never seen a team that well built in my eight years of Division III. Every kid has a bicep and a tricep muscle that is visible.

"We’ve never seen 12 kids like these."

Something that a few opponents might be saying about his team in the next few days.

1998-99 Stories
– Michael Schantz Eyes Overseas Game
– George's Zen for
the Lakers
– Inside the Mind of Bo Ryan
– A View from the Top
– Thundering Herd
– Jim Moore's
Weekly Release
– Emory's Lewis Satterwhite Skips Game for Interview
– Whitman's Will Washington Mixes Medicine and Basketball
– Gallaudet Women March Toward March

1999-00 Season
Men's Final Four site
Conference Standings
Season Previews
Statistics
Men (NCAA site)
Individual | Team
Women (NCAA site)
  Individual | Team

More Features
Archives
Danbury '99 Coverage
Features
Rivalry Day '99
Salem '99 Coverage
Salem '98 Coverage
Season Previews

Sites By Region
Rankings and links
to all D-III teams

Northeast	M	W
East	M	W
Atlantic	M	W
Middle Atlantic	M	W
South	M	W
Great Lakes	M	W
Midwest	M
Central		W
West	M	W

Contact Us
About us
Feedback
Privacy Policy
Send Game Scores
Send Press Releases
Team of Week Nominations
User Survey