Wittenberg Men's Basketball Ranked In National Preseason Polls
The Wittenberg University men's basketball team, which returns four starters from last year's 20-9 team, once again has experts believing it has the talent to make a run at a national championship. The Tigers are ranked 21st by DIIINews and 11th by d3hoops.com in preseason NCAA Division III polls released recently.
Springfield, Ohio — The Wittenberg University men's basketball team, which returns four starters from last year's 20-9 team, once again has experts believing it has the talent to make a run at a national championship. The Tigers are ranked 21st by DIIINews and 11th by d3hoops.com in preseason NCAA Division III polls released recently.
The Tigers reached the second round of the 2011 NCAA Division III Tournament before losing on a last-second shot to Marietta, which opens the season ranked in the top five in both polls. Wittenberg placed second in the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) with a 12-3 record before bowing out of the conference tournament with a championship game loss to eventual national runner-up Wooster.
The 2011-12 season opens with great promise thanks to the return of seven letterwinners, including five with at least 20 collegiate starting assignments on their resumes. The top returning player is forward Clayton Black, class of 2012 from Lancaster, Ohio, who averaged 15.2 points per game a year ago en route to first-team All-NCAC and third-team All-Great Lakes Region from d3hoops.com honors a year ago. He is joined in the post by Alex Brandt, class of 2012 from Lewis Center, Ohio, who is coming off a breakout season in which he led the Tigers with 6.0 rebounds per contest and 88 offensive caroms, tops in the NCAC.
The 2011-12 season opened with a fruitful preseason training trip to Canada Oct. 15-18. Wittenberg played four games against schools with much larger student populations, culminating with an 83-51 victory over the University of Western Ontario.
The season officially gets under way Nov. 15 with a home game against NAIA scholarship program Indiana University-East. Wittenberg, which has more all-time victories than any other NCAA Division III men's basketball program, is shooting for its 56th consecutive season without a losing record, 30th conference championship and 26th NCAA Division III Tournament appearance in 2011-12.
Written By: Ryan Maurer
Photo By: Erin Pence
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