Battle-Tested Field In Place for 2005 Tip-Off Tourney

Tim Vandervaart will begin as one of the Scots' frontline starters this season.

Representatives from three of the best NCAA Div. III men’s basketball conferences — the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference — are in town to challenge host College of Wooster for the season-opening Al Van Wie/Rotary Classic. Kalamazoo College is a member of the MIAA, which has sent teams to the “Final Four” twice already in the 2000s, the University of St. Thomas (Minn.) is part of the MIAC, which also includes the Gustavus Adolphus College Golden Gusties who were in the 2003 national title game, and the University of Wisconsin-Stout is in the WIAC, the same league that has produced the last two national champions.

This year’s event, the 12th playing of the Al Van Wie tournament, tips off on Friday, Nov. 18, at 6 p.m., with West Region foes St. Thomas (Minn.) and Wis.-Stout matching-up at Wooster’s 3,400-seat Timken Gym. Then, the nationally-ranked Fighting Scots will look to avoid being knocked off by Kalamazoo again. The last two meetings between the two regional opponents has seen the Hornets emerge victorious, defeating the then-14th-ranked Scots 79-72 on Dec. 29, 2003 and then-No. 6 Wooster 62-54 Dec. 18, 1999. In the 2005-06 preseason rankings (D3hoops.com), Wooster is No. 3, while St. Thomas (Minn.) and Wis.-Stout are both in the “others receiving votes” category.

What follows is a team capsule on each of this weekend’s competitors:

Kalamazoo, coached by alum Rob Passage, is coming off a seventh-place finish in the MIAA and 7-18 overall record. Passage welcomes back 12 letterwinners from that young squad who hope to build off that experience and again become a contender in that league. Two of the Hornets’ top veterans are senior guards Tim Herman and Kyle Konwinski. The latter averaged 9.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and a team-high 4.0 assists, while Herman chipped in 6.2 points and 3.6 assists per game last season. Tyler Worst, another guard, headlines a deep junior class, having dropped in 5.6 points on a .477 3-point percentage (21-44) before missing seven games due to injury. Up front, Kalamazoo will look to junior Phil Weaver for consistent production, as well as classmates Adam Bezemek and Brad Brinkman and sophomore Mat Kellogg.

St. Thomas (Minn.), winners of the 2001 Al Van Wie Classic and back at Wooster for the third time in five years, is one of the favorites to win the MIAC, along with No. 19 Gustavus Adolphus. Long-time coach Steve Fritz, also an alum of St. Thomas, appears to have his best squad in place since the 2001-02 Tommies advanced to the NCAA Div. III Tournament second round. They are a veteran team, which returns most of a group that went 17-9, and are led by 6-8 Isaac Rosefelt and 6-6 Joey Shimek, who averaged 13.7 and 12.7 points, respectively, last winter. Noteworthy, Rosefelt ranked ninth in Div. III in rebounding (11.8 rpg) and 40th in blocks (1.9 bpg). On the outside, the Tommies are led by sharpshooter Bryan Schnettler, who pumped in 10.8 points during 2004-05 on 49.3 percent 3-point shooting (71-144), and point guard Sean Sweeney, who dished out 5.4 assists per contest to go with 9.7 points.

Wis.-Stout, under the direction of an alum in Ed Andrist, has to have one of the tallest teams ever at the Div. III level, with three 7-footers on the roster, including junior twins Jacob and John Nonemacher. Jacob is coming off a season in which he was 23rd in the nation in blocked shots (56) to go with 5.5 points and 5.8 rebounds, and will be looked to for even more production in 2005-06. While the Blue Devils possess a lot of height, with 7-0 freshman Jesse Piehl and 6-10 freshman Jake Augustine joining the Nonemacher brothers, their leading scorers from a year ago were all guards — Ryan Stangl, Adam Chandler, and Terry Farmer. Despite being freshman, Stangl and Chandler each hit 40-plus 3-pointers while putting up 10.7 and 10.0 points, respectively, while Farmer, one of five seniors on this squad, did a little bit of everything, scoring 9.8 points on a .550 field-goal percentage, grabbing 5.3 rebounds, and totaling 19 steals.

Wooster, winners of eight North Coast Athletic Conference championships and a participant in the NCAA Tournament 14 times during the 18-year tenure of Steve Moore, has a bit of a new system in 2005-06. Typically, the Scots center the offense around a dominant post player, however, they’re aiming to employ a more up-tempo scheme because the bulk of the returning talent resides around the perimeter. Highlighting Wooster’s individuals are seniors Kyle Witucky and Tom Port, who were first-team All-NCAC last season. Witucky, a fourth-year starter at point guard, made 64 3-pointers helping him average 10.0 points, while Port, an athletic forward, has led the team in scoring each of the last two seasons, including 13.5 last winter. Wooster’s other all-conference player, Tim Vandervaart, will likely be the team’s top player in the paint after contributing team-highs of 6.7 rebounds, 30 blocks, and 39 steals.