Notables

The Hamline community is mourning the passing of Joe Hutton Jr., a member of Hamline’s 1949 national championship basketball team and the 1952 Minneapolis Lakers world championship team. He passed away suddenly Monday night at age 81.

A 1950 graduate of Hamline, Hutton was inducted into the Hamline University Pipers’ Athletic Hall of Fame in 1972. His late father, Joe Hutton, Sr., and his younger brother, Tom ’62, are also Hamline Hall of Fame members. The family legacy of Hamline graduates includes his sisters Catherine Hutton Gabrielson ’51 and Barbara Keenan ’56.

“The Hutton Family has a distinguished place in the long history of Hamline University, as does Joe Hutton, Jr.,” said President Linda Hanson. “A university could not ask for more from one of its alumni. Joe not only cared deeply about his alma mater, he cared about doing everything he could to make the world a better place. We will miss him and his deep commitment to service to all he touched.”

While at Hamline, Hutton lettered all four years in basketball and baseball and one year in track. In basketball, he was a three-time all-conference team member, and in 1949 he earned All-American honors as Hamline won the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Championship.

Hutton was coached by his father during his years at Hamline. Joe Hutton Sr. was head basketball coach and athletic director from 1930-65 and is the namesake of Hamline’s basketball arena. At his retirement, Hutton's 591-207 (344-91 conference) record placed him sixth among all college basketball coaches in the country. In 35 years, his teams won nineteen conference titles, three NAIA championships, and were three-time NAIA runner-ups.

After leaving Hamline, Hutton Jr. played on the 1951-52 Minneapolis Lakers championship team. That year, the Lakers defeated the New York Knicks in the NBA finals in seven games. From 1954 to 1962, he taught and coached basketball in the Minneapolis school system, winning conference championships at North High School in 1957 and 1962. After leaving North, he coached and taught at Bloomington-Lincoln High School where his teams won 70% of their games over a ten-year period and finished with a third-place trophy in the 1972 class AA basketball tournament.

Billy Clapper has been hired as men’s basketball coach for Penn State-Altoona. Clapper was an assistant men’s basketball coach at Pitt-Johnstown from 2007 to 2009, helping the team to back-to-back NCAA Division II Tournament berths. The Mountain Cats earned the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season championship in 2008 and the WVIAC tournament championship in 2009 while they posted a 47-16 record during his time with the program.

Prior to joining the UPJ staff, Clapper held assistant men’s basketball coaching positions at Penn State-Altoona from 2005 to 2006, where he was active in recruiting some of the players currently on the team, and Indiana State, where he worked as a graduate assistant from 2006 to 2007.

Clapper began his college playing career at Mount Aloysius and continued on to Division I Youngstown State. He holds a master’s degree in Educational Technology from Indiana State.

Clapper has delivered instruction as a clinician at over 225 basketball camps, including camps at universities such as Dayton, Duquesne, Louisville, North Carolina State, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Rhode Island, Rutgers, West Virginia and Xavier. He is the founder of Billy Clapper Basketball LLC., and he created the instructional basketball video “Ball Handling at Its Best.”

Clapper was also the regional basketball coordinator of the Pennsylvania Keystone State Games, where he served as a head coach, planned team tryouts and oversaw the recruitment of athletes in a seven county region.
Clapper is a strong advocate for community involvement by his players.

“Billy has a true passion for the game of basketball, and he brings a great deal of enthusiasm to our program,” said Penn State-Altoona athletic director Fredina Ingold. “We look forward to him continuing the growth and success of our men’s basketball program.”

Two-time defending national champion Wash U got all 25 No. 1 votes in the D3hoops.com preseason men's basketball Top 25.

After that, however, there was no consensus.

At No. 2, but nearly 100 points behind Wash U, is John Carroll, which returns its top 11 scorers from last season's Sweet 16 team that finished 25-5. The Blue Streaks are just nine points ahead of Guilford, which won at John Carroll last March and loses two starters, one of whom essentially was a ceremonial starter.

It's just another 17 points down until you find St. Thomas at No. 4, having lost two starters, including its top defender, not to mention its home floor from last year's 30-1 team. The Tommies will spend this season playing at Concordia-St. Paul, a Division II school about two and a half miles away. National runner-up Richard Stockton is just two points behind St. Thomas at No. 5, followed by Franklin and Marshall at No. 6, the last of five teams clumped within 37 points.

The full D3hoops.com Top 25.

The D3hoops.com Top 25 is entering its 11th season. It's the only men's basketball Top 25 voted on throughout the season. The D3hoops.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 coaches, Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly.

The D3hoops.com women's basketball preseason Top 25 will be released later this week.