Scots Aiming for Eighth Al Van Wie Rotary Classic Title

WOOSTER, Ohio — Four teams all coming off of winning seasons (a combined record of 82-42) are gathering at The College of Wooster's Timken Gymnasium to kickoff the NCAA Division III basketball season with the 11th annual Al Van Wie Rotary Classic. While it will be the debuts for traditional Div. III Ohio powers Ohio Northern University and Wooster, NAIA programs Campbellsville (Ky.) University and Ohio Dominican University have a handful of 2004-05 games under their belts. We'll see if that extra floor time reaps dividends, as Friday's first-round match-ups, which are slated to start at 6 p.m. and 8 p.m., pit Campbellsville versus Ohio Northern and Ohio Dominican at Wooster.

Friday's winners will meet in the championship game on Saturday night at 8 p.m., preceded by a consolation contest at 6 p.m. An awards ceremony, including the announcement of the all-tourney team, will follow the championship.

Below is a brief capsule on each team:

Campbellsville comes into this weekend's action with an advantage, as the Tigers have already played five times. Through the first four, they were 3-1 with the lone loss coming to Cedarville University (82-83), the preseason favorite in Ohio Dominican's conference. It's been an impressive start to say the least, considering Campbellsville only returned one starter and two other letterwinners from last year's 18-14 team. Leading the way thus far has been freshman Zach Allendar, who is averaging 19.3 points, including hitting 8-of-14 from 3-point range (.571), and 8.3 rebounds. The top player in the backcourt of Keith Adkins' squad is sophomore Chad Robinson, who has been scoring at a rate of 11.5 points while making six steals during the early going.

Ohio Dominican is certainly prepared for the Al Van Wie Rotary Classic after having faced a challenging preseason to 2004-05 that saw the Panthers play exhibitions against three NCAA Div. I schools - Cleveland State University (78-100), Wright State University (75-77), and Miami (Ohio) University (56-93). Jeff Bridges is in his first year as head coach at Dominican, but the four-year assistant with the program has the luxury of four returning starters and six other letterwinners. The Panthers offered a balanced attack last season with five players averaging in double figures and four of those are back in Haze Massey (12.6), Micah Stith (12.6), Mike Fiebig (11.9), and Donta Patterson (10.5).

Ohio Northern may have lost more talent to graduation than any other team in the Great Lakes Region, making Joe Campoli's final season on the bench maybe his most challenging. Campoli announced that he'll retire at the conclusion of the 2004-05 campaign following 30 years with the Polar Bears, including the last 13 as head coach. The legendary mentor's current squad is missing four starters from 2003-04, the most noteworthy of which being guard Jim Conrad, who averaged 21.0 points and 2.9 assists en route to Great Lakes Player-of-the-Year honors. Northern's top returnees are 3-point specialist Greg Badenhop and post Mark Killian, who averaged 8.6 and 8.1 points, respectively, last season.

Wooster has four starters as well as six additional letterwinners back from a group that won 26 games (26-4) and came within a few minutes of advancing to a second-straight “Final Four” in the NCAA Div. III Tournament. In order to carry over that success, though, head coach Steve Moore is looking for someone to step up in place of all-region shooting guard and current assistant coach Rodney Mitchell, who averaged 13.6 points, 4.9 rebounds, and 3.4 assists last year, as well as fill the shoes of super sixth-man Ryan Snyder and athletic forward PJ McCloud. The Scots will likely lean on Tom Port, who paced the team in scoring (14.4), rebounding (6.4), and assists (3.7) last winter. However, Moore always emphasizes balance, and 2004-05 should be no different with the likes of all-conference players Matt Schlingman at center and Kyle Witucky at point guard, as well as Blake Mealer, who is entering his third season as the starting power forward.