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Posted Nov. 13, 2008

Last year, the Wash U. men started the season as the preseason No. 1 team in the nation, and with good reason. They had just come off a 25-5 season and a run to the Final Four, and with two All-Americans returning with a year of Salem experience under their belts, the Bears were poised to win it all in 2008.

But one of those All-Americans was their point guard, Sean Wallis, then a junior. And when Wallis went down with a season-ending leg injury just three games into November, the Bears were forced to adjust, moving on without a player who’d led them both on and off the court.

Like a true team, the Bears won it all anyway.

Photo by Ryan Coleman, D3sports.com Bears' wing Aaron Thompson scored 34 points in the two games in Salem.

Now they’re No. 1 again. And with Wallis back in the fold, one can expect that the defending champions are ready to tighten their grip on that top spot.

"I think we're a little more comfortable with it than we were last year,” said Wallis, now one of four team captains. “Last year, we knew we had that X on our back, but now, the way teams came out ready to play against us last year -- I think we really understand what that X brings. But we're a little more comfortable with it this year, now that we've been there before.”

Despite his injury, Wallis was as big a part of the Bears’ Salem run as ever. With Ross Kelley, then a sophomore, entrenched in the starting point guard role, Wallis shifted gears to become an assistant coach -- and his influence was felt in more ways than one. Not only did he work with Kelley on improving his skills at the point, but he helped with playcalling and even became a scout. He extensively studied the defending-champion Amherst Lord Jeffs in the days leading up to the Final Four, and his work on the Jeffs’ scouting report helped bring tangible results on March 22: Wash U 90, Amherst 68. The program’s first title.

"It was a great experience being a part of the program's first national championship,” Wallis said. “I would have liked to have been on the floor obviously, but still, being able to be a part of it was very special.”

The silver lining for Wallis was that on the sidelines -- not at the end of the bench, but between his fellow coaches -- he was able to develop his basketball instincts from another angle.

“He had a lot of good insight, particularly in the execution of our offense,” said coach Mark Edwards, who won his first title in his 27th season at Wash U. “He would see things happening on the floor from a player’s perspective … I think it helped him from a player’s standpoint, making him privy to how things evolved. As a coach, you’re trying to get something across to the players, and now he’s seen both sides of that, and it’s helped him.”

While Edwards gains an All-American with the return of Wallis from his injury, he loses another. Big man Troy Ruths, the Most Outstanding Player of last year’s Final Four and the national Player of the Year, has moved on, taking his UAA-leading 20.5 points per game with him. Replacing him will be no easy task.

“I think that’s a work in progress,” Edwards said. “Obviously you’re not the same team when you don’t have a Troy Ruths, or someone that’s contributing 20 points a game, or someone that as an offensive presence, demands that everyone’s aware of him … But  at the same time, I think we have a lot of different weapons so that we can readjust.”

That readjustment may begin with Tyler Nading, a captain who earned First Team All-UAA honors as a junior last year and scored in double figures in all six NCAA Tournament games. Nading scored 14.7 points a game last season and with his 6-7 frame, he’s a natural successor to Ruths as the Bears’ imposing presence in the paint. His coach, however, insists that it isn’t that simple.

“Tyler is a totally different type of player,” Edwards said. “Tyler was just as much responsible for us getting a national championship as anyone else on the team, and that includes Troy … Tyler brings an element to the team of passion and intensity to win that you just can’t teach a team -- but you can pass it on, and that’s what he’s done.”

With Nading and Wallis as the lone seniors on a young but talented team, they will join forces with two juniors, Cameron Smith and Aaron Thompson, to captain this year’s Bears. Both Smith, a 6-5 forward, and Thompson, a 6-4 guard, were honorable-mention All-UAA picks last year; both will see an increased role now.

The team’s four captains will be expected to keep the team unified and focused. These Bears have won it all before, but they’re determined to do it again.

"Two years ago, we went to the Final Four for the first time in our program's history,” Wallis said. “Before that, every year Coach Edwards says our goal is to win the national championship, but we may not have really thought it was achievable. Now that we've been to Salem twice and even cut the nets down, everyone understands that it's a realistic expectation, not just a pipe dream."

As for being No. 1? It’s nice to be the favorites again, but in the big picture, what happens on the court is more important.

“It’s a nice recognition,” Edwards said. “It’s a recognition of their potential to achieve, in that they’re legitimate contenders. But obviously it doesn’t mean anything as for who’s going to ultimately emerge as the national champion.”

“Last year, we were preseason No. 1, and at the end of the year we ended up No. 1. But the path we took in between was very circuitous … Being No. 1 is pretty cool, and it does put a target on your back, but isn’t that why you play the games?”

It is.

Those games start Saturday.

HPU'S NEW BALLGAME: St. John Fisher coach Phil Kahler's retirement continued the biggest theme of the women's basketball offseason in Division III -- the departure of some of the sport's best coaches. In case you forgot, they included:

Stefanie Pemper at Bowdoin, who left for Navy, replaced by former Swarthmore coach Adrienne Shibles

Gary Fifield at Southern Maine, who retired to become associate athletic director, replaced by assistant Mike McDevitt.

Janice Quinn at NYU, who resigned due to health reasons, replaced by interim coach Chris Kosiba.

The combined record of those four alone (and that doesn't even include Concordia-Austin's Linda Sharp, whose best years came winning national titles at Division I USC): 1,986-432. They won a whopping 82 percent of their games.

Those schools had something in common. Each hired someone that was familiar with the Division III level as a replacement.

The most interesting coaching hire of the offseason came for defending national champ, preseason No. 13 Howard Payne, which lost head coach Chris Kielsmeier to Division II Wayne State (Neb.). His replacement: 30-year-old Joshua Prock.

Prock is an intriguing selection in that he is a total neophyte when it comes to the position, learning everything on the fly. He has never been a head coach of either a collegiate team or a varsity high school team. He has never coached in any position at the Division III level. And he has never coached women's basketball. In fact, this is the only women's basketball head coaching job Prock has ever applied for. Prock's familiarity with Howard Payne came from having grown up for part of his childhood in Brownwood, Texas. Prock's father was a pastor at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church, not far from the school, which Prock attended for a year, before transferring out.

Joshua Prock succeeds Chris Kielsmeier, the 2008 D3hoops.com Coach of the Year.

This is the kind of situation that is unique to Division III. Imagine a major Division I program making a hiring of that kind.

"Josh comes to us with both Division I and Division II experience," said Howard Payne athletic director Mike Jones. "His on-court, recruiting, and promotion experience in those programs will serve him well as he comes to the Division III level and makes the move to coach women. There will certainly be some adjustments as he moves to the women's side but I am a firm believer that coaching basketball is coaching basketball regardless of the gender."

Prock's experience came from seven seasons with the Division I Oklahoma men's team, which won three Big 12 titles and went to three Sweet 16s during his tenure as student assistant, graduate assistant, and director of basketball operations. He then spent a year as an assistant at Division II Kentucky Wesleyan, and two years as an assistant coach at Ryan High School in Denton, Texas.

And now he's the head coach of the defending women's Division III champ.

"I'm comfortable in these kinds of situations," Prock said, referring to the pressure of the situation. "I'd rather have a job that has high expectations than one that doesn't."

Prock has had to get used to a few things with coaching women. The first question he was asked at the first meeting was if he knew how to text-message (he can). Every so often, practices come to a pause for a few seconds so that a player can fix her ponytail.

"I have a buzz cut, so I don't have to worry about that," Prock said with a laugh.

But the one thing he's found is a very open-minded group.

"The kids hit this with a great amount of optimism," Prock said. "They've been great because of how well they've listened, and how disciplined they are. These (women) are much more detail-oriented. They wanna know the whys. With guys, you just tell them to do something, and they'd do it. Our offense (the dribble-drive motion, best executed by Division I Memphis' men's team during its run to the national title game last season) involves a lot of reads. These players want to know why we're doing this instead of that.

"It's been really special to see the heart that these kids have," Prock said. "This has got to be what they really want to do. When you're at Oklahoma, every now and then you have a kid who takes it for granted, but these kids love what they're doing."

Prock retained Lindy Hatfield, whom he greatly praised, as associate head coach. She's been the one to get Prock familiar with the likes of Hardin-Simmons, McMurry, and Mississippi, and all the ins-and-outs of the job.

The basketball operations role at Oklahoma taught Prock the little things with which he has to get familiar. Working with a coach like Kelvin Sampson showed the importance of knowing the ins and outs of every offensive and defensive system. Prock isn't sure yet if he'll be much of a yeller on the sidelines. His will be a developing style.

"I really want to maintain an even balance as a coach (in terms of demeanor)," said Prock, whose wife being due with twins in May should help in that regard. "You have to love the coaching demeanor of guys like Roy Williams or Nick Saban. I make a conscious effort to let the players know. Some mistakes are unacceptable, but you also have to let them know when they're doing a good job."

"Chris (Kielsmeier) said he didn't have any magic secrets," Prock said. "His advice was ‘Just coach ‘em up.' Chris did a great job. These girls have been coached. They understand the game and they know what to do. Now I'm trying to sustain what he built."

Prock's enthusiastic touch has been well-received. He had been working through the first few weeks of practice with one player trying to get her to execute a new post move. Many repetitions bred eventual success, and Prock was so excited, he ran up for a celebratory back-bump, and nearly knocked his player over. That drew a lot of laughter.

"We're glad to have him," said Howard Payne junior forward Hope Hohertz, one of a small group back from last year's unbeaten national champs, which graduated national player of the year Meia Daniels. "He stays on us hard and he keeps us focused. He reminds us that it's all about what we do this year."

REAWAKENING TRADITION: The Pioneers (19-7, 12-4 WIAC in 2007-2008) were the team of the 1990s in NCAA men's basketball, winning national championships in 1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999. But while Platteville has been to nine NCAA tournaments, they haven't been there since the 1999 national championship game.

Last year's Platteville team was close to breaking the playoff drought. If not for a four-point upset loss at home to UW-Eau Claire in the first round of the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament; the Pioneers could have gotten an at-large invitation to the NCAA tournament.

"We were obviously disappointed when we lost in the conference tournament, especially at home because we had played so well all season at home," said sixth-year Platteville coach Paul Combs. "That's the thing about the WIAC. You've got to protect the home court and try to steal a few on the road because the league is so demanding. All our guys have used that as motivation. We certainly know the best way to get into the NCAA tournament is to win your conference tournament. Nothing else is promised."

"There's a huge motivation," said Platteville senior center Jeff Skemp. "Charlie Lohoff cut the article out of the student newspaper at Platteville after we lost to Eau Claire in the first round. He's got that hanging on his wall.

"We're a veteran group that's never been there and definitely want to get Platteville back on the map. That's a big motivation for us knowing that now is the time."

Jeff Skemp and the Pioneers of UW-Platteville had a longer offseason than planned to focus on 2008-09.

Once the final buzzer sounded on the 2007-08 season, the coaches wasted little time worrying about the past. They had planned a trip to Ireland to experience international basketball with a 24-second shot clock, and learn about another country's culture and customs.

"When you lose at the end of February, first of March, that feeling lingers to the middle of October," Combs said. "For us, we had 10 practices in May and then we took a 10-day, three-game trip to Ireland and played three competitive teams in three different cities. That got us a chance to get back together, refocus and try to take that next positive step. It allowed us to move forward and understand that we did learn from some of the things that didn't go our way.

"We talk about the Platteville family and the basketball family," he added. "That's something that started a long time ago and has carried through the last 20 years. Anytime you win a conference championship, you're really tight, but this program in 1990's won four national championships. Those guys have a bond and a commitment to one another and to this university that is just not seen too often in college sports. You're playing for a bigger cause and you're representing the former players. Trips like that allow you to bond."

The chemistry Platteville players formed in Ireland was evident in the offseason. Many of the players worked out together and refocused their efforts to become a good team.

Even star players such as Skemp, who averaged 15.2 points and 8.3 rebounds per game, increased their efforts to come into the season ready to chase down a championship from day one.

"Part of it was a bigger commitment in the offseason by guys to do more," Skemp said. "I lived with Mike Shaw this summer in Madison and worked out with him. I did more this summer than I've done in any of the past seasons as far as workouts. That stays true for Charlie Lohoff, Nick Allen.

"Curt Hanson and Mike Shaw are both gym rats," Skemp continued. "That's what they love to do. That core group of guys motivated me to get in the gym a little bit more. Charlie and I have a greater commitment to what we were doing and what we believed in. That little extra work will hopefully carry over to success now that the season's underway."

Though they are without the services of Josh Langenfeld, who suffered an injury over the summer, the Pioneers are ready for a tough schedule. While the game was officially an exhibition, UW-Platteville visited NCAA Division I Bradley in its final tune-up of the preseason.

Behind strong first half field goal and free throw percentages and 24 points from Hanson, the Pioneers claimed an 84-79 victory over Bradley.

"At times, he just put us on his back and hit clutch shots one after another," Combs said of Hanson. "It's a family-oriented team, but it's a selfless group. It's more about sticking together and doing whatever helps to get the outcome that we're looking for.

"We're not allowed to publicize scrimmages, but we went down Friday and played at Augustana, who's got a great team," Combs added. "We respect everyone and fear no one. Our guys really took that mentality into the game. I was most pleased with their poise throughout the game. We took several roundhouse punches. Bradley gave us fits. They fought and played their top guys a lot of minutes. It was a great environment."

Instead of hunting down a playoff berth, the UW-Platteville Pioneers find themselves as the hunted.

"We always felt like when we would leave our conference to go play non-conference teams, that was the game they circled," Skemp said. "Teams want to beat the team that beat a Division I team. We've got to keep that in mind and know that we're going to get everybody's best shot every time we take the floor. We're going to have take a look at that, do the right things and take the proper steps to stay mentally fresh to prepare for every game."

TOMMIES' DEEP THOUGHTS: Health and depth are keys to success in league and national postseason tournaments. The St. Thomas Tommies are in good physical shape and have several lines of players back for a run at another Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship.

The Tommies (23-5 overall, 17-3 MIAC) are taking a page out of another winter sport's playbook. They are not building individual players, but rather are making sure each athlete fits the four others on the floor. In short, St. Thomas is building lines of players, much like those in hockey, that will be able to attack opponents while the starting five gets rest on the bench.

"We not only have our top five, we have our top 12 back, so it's even more rare," said St. Thomas coach Steve Fritz. "You take off at a different point than you do when you're starting over or starting with less starters back. Though we made some tweaks to what we did in the past, everybody has the basic knowledge of what we're going to do on offense and defense."

The bench players averaged more than 27 points per game in 2007-08. "They were very important to our efforts last year and they're going to be even more important this year," Fritz said. "Many of them were young, so we expect them to step up to another level this year.

"We're not very big and we do rely on our depth as a big part of how we attack people," he added. "It's very important that our first five and our next five are on the same page and all can add to what we're trying to do."

After winning the MIAC tournament with a 76-73 victory against Gustavus Adolphus, the Tommies were rewarded by the NCAA. They were selected as the host school for three first and second round games. But in round one on its floor, St. Thomas was defeated by Buena Vista 72-70.

While the Tommies sat home watching the rest of the tournament, Buena Vista advanced to the Sweet 16 of Division III.

"We don't consider the season a loss," said Fritz. "We were very successful in the sense that we had a good record, won our conference and conference tournament.

"Anytime you get to host and you don't get out of your own gym, it's very, very disappointing," he added. "Even though we had a good game with Buena Vista and they went two more rounds and lost in overtime to Wash U, there's no doubt you could look at it and say ‘That could be us if we'd have played just a little bit better.'"

The theme for offseason workouts involving St. Thomas players was to improve on the experience in 2007-08. While they were happy to play in the NCAA tournament, they were not pleased with the results. Usually, in single-elimination tournaments, only one team is happy when the season is over.

"I don't expect any complacency because they do feel there's a little bit undone from last year," said Fritz. "You only have 200 minutes to work with and everybody's a little bit more veteran. It's a matter of balancing, keeping people in their roles and making sure we have the right people at the right times.

"You try to forget the past, but you also use it as some unfinished business," he added. "You can't live in the past because everybody you're going to play this year is a new opportunity sitting in front of you. You use it as a challenge to be better than you were a year ago, but you leave it at that. We have a lot to prove on our own right now."

Guard Joe Scott is back in the fold again this year. Scott averaged 15.9 points per game on 48 percent shooting from the floor and 40.8 percent from long distance. He was second on the team in rebounds and third in steals while logging the most floor time of anyone on the team.

Though Scott, a former Division II player, attracts the most attention from opponents, depth is what won games for St. Thomas. They out-shot, out-rebounded and out-scored the opposition in terms of season average last year. They scored nearly ten more points per game while holding opponents to 35 percent from three-point range.

If the Tommies want to make the postseason again and advance further this year, Scott and the team defense will be keys to success.

"Joe's our go-to guy," Fritz said. "Joe really has an all-around game. He is a very good shooter. He's got some quicks and Joe can legitimately play at that [Division II]. He certainly brings something extra special to the team, but also the higher expectations from him. He's the guy that's going to be there every night for us.

"When you talk defense, you've got to have everyone there every night," Fritz concluded. "If we can throw a good first five and second five at people, in Division III, you're not going to find a lot of teams that are 10-deep. I do think we're 10-deep."

If you have a tip or note, send it to atn@d3hoops.com.

2008-09 columns
Feb. 20: York (Pa.), no cliche
Feb. 13: St. Thomas writing history
Feb. 6: George Fox on hunt
Jan. 30: Brother, brother
Jan. 23: Growing a program
Jan. 16: Dudek's rare feat
Jan. 9: Ravin' about Anderson
Dec. 18: Chicago marooned at 0-9
Dec. 12: De Luca back on track
Dec. 4: Ithaca surprises
Nov. 21: Augie gets some delp
Nov. 13: Is repeat possible?

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