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| Will DeBerg and Tyler Tillema
lead their teams in scoring headed into Friday's matchup. Tillema
missed the Pointers' last game with injury. Photos by Ryan Coleman and Larry Radloff, d3photography.com |
St. Thomas and UW-Stevens Point have had and will have their share of great matchups this season in men’s basketball.
On Friday, however, the two schools have their own showcase game as the No. 5 Pointers travel to No. 4 St. Thomas. It will be the third year in a row in the regular season the nationally known programs, winners of the 2010 and 2011 Division III national titles, respectively, will square off against each other.
"I think it's really good for Division III or a program like St. Thomas and Stevens Point playing each other in a long term series," Pointers coach Bob Semling said.
It's a game that won't make or break your season, but it sure can tell you where you are as a team.
"We look at these games as a great barometer," St. Thomas coach John Tauer said: "You hope you can play with them. If you can play with them you can play with any team in the country."
Both teams are coming off of recent big wins to stay undefeated. St. Thomas (8-0) won a thriller at Bethany Lutheran Dec. 10 where the Tommies made a unlikely comeback to send the game in overtime. While trailing by five with 6.6 seconds remaining in regulation, the Tommies got a layup and then Will DeBerg nailed a 26-footer as time expired. The Tommies prevailed in the extra session 94-91.
"It was good for us," Tauer said. "We had won a lot of games handily. They gave us everything we wanted and more."
On the other side, the Pointers (9-0) knocked off then second-ranked and defending national champion UW-Whitewater 72-61 on Dec 12.
"We're off to a good start," Semling said. "It's been a challenging schedule with six of our frst nine games on the road. We've met and embraced each challenge."
Senior Tyler Tillema leads the Pointers with an 18.1 average per game and is the heart and soul of the team according to Semling, although he has missed time with an injury.
"He's a dynamic player for this level," Semling said. "He can create a lot of offense for himself and his teamamtes at a very efficient level."
Stevens Point also got some inside help with the addition of 6-8 junior Clayton Heuer, a transfer from Division I UW-Green Bay. Heuer is the Pointers second leading scorer wth 13 points a game and leads the team in rebounds with 5.6
"He gives us credibility," Semling said. "That was a key piece for us to pick up Clayton and makes us a legitimate contender."
The Pointers also feature Joe Ritchay, who averages 11.8 points per game, Trevor Hass with 11.4 and Austin Ryf with 8.1.
"They all have taken a significant step from the level of play last year," Semling said.
Balance is the key for the Tommies as the top five scorers are all within five points of each other. DeBerg leads St. Thomas with 13.8 points, followed by Conner Nord with 10.1, Tommy Hannon (9.8), John Nance (9.4) and Erik Tengwall (8.8).
"We go 10 to 12 deep," Tauer said. "We've got 10, 11 guys that could lead us in scoring on any given night. We don't showcase one guy, it really is a team in the truest sense of the word."
One of the biggest factors for the success of the Tommies is that DeBerg, Hannon, Nance and Noah Kaiser, who leads the team in assists, are all seniors.
"We went from a young inexperienced team and had a lot of close games last year to this year where we have a look at a veteran team," Tauer said. "They have a high level of trust and that's a wonderful thing to have."
A positive system change
North Central women's basketball coach Michelle Roof decided the time was right to get her athletes to change to way she saw basketball being played at when she was at Grinnell: The System.
So far it has worked favorably for the Cardinals as they sit with a 6-3 record and will face UW-Oshkosh Thursday morning at the Las Vegas Hoopla tournament. North Central also faces Goucher on Friday morning in its trip to the desert.
Last season the Cardinals finished with a 7-18 record and have nearly matched that win total already.
"There's just a different mentality, a different level of confidence," Roof said. "They're hungry, they want to win. They believe in themselves and they believe in their teammates. They're having fun and they're enjoying themselves. When they do that, I feel their effort stays very high."
North Central has been scoring in bunches as well. The last two games the Cardinals have eclipsed the 100 mark, including a school record 110 points in the thrashing of Dominican on Dec. 15.
Having a new system has certainly helped and also a new assistant coach Doug Porter, who had a successful career as a head coach at Olivet Nazarene. Porter was known for his fast paced offenses while at Olivet Nazarene.
"I've always wanted to run the system," Roof said. "I've known Doug for a lot of years, when I asked him, he said 'Asolutely, he'd be on board.' We had pretty good personnel to run it, there was no turning back at the point. We needed some enthusiasm and excitement. I think we're set up pretty well right now. There's a few pieces to it that's we're missing right now. We're real close to having what we want to be successful at it."
The players rotate in and out about every 50 seconds and are asked to sprint the floor as hard as they can and attempt a 3-point shot and then get back to play defense. A new rotation comes in, giving the previous wave a break and then they get back on the floor again. The Cardinals attempt significantly more 3-pointers as they attempted 45 against Dominican and on the last game of 2011-12, against Millikin they attempted 15.
The pace is very similar in practice.
"Everything we do is a sprint," Roof said. "It's more competitive, it's more interesting. We don't run any sprints in practice, we just run our system in practice and that conditions the players themselves."
And there are no stars either. The top scorer, Jenny Swanson at 10.4 points per game is separated by just 5.3 points by the 10th leading scorer, Amanda Hoye with 5.1.
"That's one of the areas we struggled in terms of rotation," Roof said. "For a conventional system we were playing too many kids. We were even from a talent standpoint. We had to get out and run and wear teams down. We've got a lot of depth. "
And the players were on board from the minute Roof told her squad they were going to change philosophies.
"Our players love it," Roof said. "Every team wants to play up-tempo. This takes up-tempo to a new level. Their eyes lit up from first team meeting. From a team morale standpoint, when players know they're going to be counted on, the team morale, the team chemistry goes through the roof."
