CSR (NCAA III Men's Basketball Sectional Tournament Preview)

Albion to host NCAA D-III Championship Sectional Tournament
    
(The following preview was written by Albion Sports Information Director Bobby Lee and is being resubmitted by permission of the Albion Sports Information Office)

Albion College will serve as one of four host sites for sectional tournament play in the NCAA Division III Men's Basketball Championship. Amherst (Mass.) College, Ramapo (N.J.) College, and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point will also host sectional tournaments March 11-12, with the survivor of each advancing as one of the final four teams to the Division III national semifinals in Salem, Va., March 18. The NCAA's small-college national title game is set for March 19 in Salem.

In the Albion sectional, semifinal games will be played at 5 and 8 p.m. Friday, and the winners will advance to the title contest at 7 p.m. Saturday. Calvin College, the automatic qualifier from the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, will square off against Mississippi College, an at-large team from the American Southwest Conference, in Friday's first game. After the fans from the first game have cleared out of 1,400-seat Kresge Gymnasium, new fans will enter to watch the John Carroll University, an at-large team from the Ohio Athletic Conference, meet the host Britons.

Led by ninth-year head coach Kevin Vande Streek, Calvin advanced to the Albion sectional with a pair of road victories in the opening week of the NCAA Tournament. The Knights eked out a 75-74 victory over Wheaton (Ill.) College and then used a second half surge to subdue Aurora (Ill.) University, 71-59. Vande Streek, who boasts a 184-66 record at Calvin, is no stranger to long NCAA Championship runs, leading the Knights to the 2000 national title.

A pair of seniors provides Calvin with great leadership. Dan Aultman, a senior forward, is a two-time all-MIAA first team selection who averages 16.0 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Aultman scored the game-winning basket against Wheaton with less than three seconds remaining. Ricky Shilts, a senior point guard, was selected to the all-MIAA second team after finishing second in the league in free throw shooting (85.7 percent), and ninth in assists per game (3.0) and three-point field goal percentage (.407).

Mississippi College, the second-oldest Baptist College in the United States, will be making the long trip to Michigan from Clinton, Miss. The Choctaws, who hail from the South region, advanced to Albion after receiving a first round bye and defeating Maryville (Tenn.) College, 68-62, on the road in second round action.

Head coach Don Lofton is in his 21st season with the Choctaw men's basketball program, and his third as the head coach. He has led Mississippi College to a 63-22 record and was recently honored as the ASC's East Division Coach of the Year.

First-year forward Tyler Winford, an all-ASC East second team selection, scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half to lead the Choctaws past Maryville (Tenn.) College. He connected on 7-of-9 attempts from the field in the game. Though Winford is the only Mississippi College player to post a double-figure scoring average, junior forward Lonnie Vasquez is an efficient offensive threat with a 51.1 shooting percentage from the field and an 8.2 scoring average.

John Carroll University is in the midst of its seventh NCAA Championship appearance under the direction of 13th-year head coach Mike Moran. The Blue Streaks are 3-0 in sectional semifinal contests during the Moran era, turning back Hampden Sydney in 1998, Mississippi College in '99, and Maryville College last March.

Sophomores Brandon Mimes and Pete Moran were selected to the all-Ohio Athletic Conference team. Mimes, a 6-4 forward/center, earned first team status after leading the Blue Streaks in scoring (16.8 points per game) and rebounding (8.3 rebounds per game), as well as field goal percentage (.602). He is the first sophomore from John Carroll to be accorded all-OAC first team status. Moran, who played in 26 games and started 11, was voted to the all-conference second team following a season in which he averaged 8.7 points, 3.3 assists, and 2.5 rebounds per game. He also connected on 75 percent of his attempts from the free throw line.

Albion won its first NCAA Tournament game since 1978 when it sneaked by The College of Wooster, 59-58, in a second round contest played in front of more than 1,150 fans at Kresge Gymnasium last Saturday. Mike Turner, who is in his 31st year as head coach, led the Britons to a third place finish in the '78 NCAA Championship. Turner-led teams also made NCAA trips in '79 and '98.

The Britons placed three players * senior forward Travis DePree, senior guard Mike Thomas, and junior forward Brandon Crawford * on the all-MIAA first team. DePree, who was tabbed as the MIAA's most valuable player, is the school's all-time leader in assists (393), rebounds (798), and steals (259). Thomas, a three-time all-MIAA first team honoree who has scored 1,354 points in his collegiate career, is two points shy of moving into second place on Albion's all-time scoring ladder. Crawford boasts a team-best 14.7 scoring average on 62 percent shooting from the field.
 

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Tue Mar 8 21:19:07 2005