Heading into the 2005-06 season, the four seniors on the Wittenberg men’s basketball team had a long list of accomplishments but also one glaring omission from their collective resume. It had been four years since Wittenberg had won an NCAA Division III Tournament game, and no player on the roster had ever tasted victory in the “Big Dance.”

The lack of national tournament success wouldn’t be particularly noteworthy at most schools, but Wittenberg isn’t like most schools, and its men’s basketball program can be seen as the standard bearer in small college hoops. Since 1955, Wittenberg men’s basketball has not had a losing season, averaging a phenomenal 22 wins and four losses per season. Wittenberg has the most overall wins and highest winning percentage of any NCAA Division III men’s basketball program, and the Tigers have made more national tournament appearances and recorded more tournament wins than any of the more than 430 schools that compete in NCAA Division III.

In the long and hallowed history of Wittenberg men’s basketball, the 2005-06 season can now stand among the greatest ever after the Tigers made their NCAA Division III-record seventh appearance in the national semifinals. The ride ended a breathtaking two seconds from a third national championship as the Tigers were defeated by Virginia Wesleyan College, 59-56, in the national title game on March 18 in Salem, Va.

Wittenberg, which defeated Amherst College in the national semifinals, took an early lead against Virginia Wesleyan and held it until the final two minutes. With the score tied at 56, the Marlins’ Ton Ton Balenga stunned the partisan Wittenberg crowd with a game-winning three-pointer with 2.1 seconds left.
The loss did little to diminish the breakthrough season the seniors – Dan Russ, Dane Borchers, Phil Steffes and Kenny Brady – enjoyed as they willed their team to the program’s best finish in 23 years. Wittenberg made its first national semifinals appearance since 1994 and its first national championship game appearance since 1983, winning a school-record-tying 30 games along the way, against just four losses. The Tigers spent three weeks ranked No. 1 in the nation for the first time since 1994 and the third time since joining the North Coast Athletic Conference in 1989.

In the last four years, Wittenberg compiled an overall record of 99-17, won one NCAC regular season title, two NCAC Tournament crowns, made three appearances in the NCAA Division III Tournament and reached the 2006 national championship game.

Russ ranks No. 9 in career scoring at Wittenberg, and he finished his career with three All-NCAC designations, including the 2005 Player of the Year and Tournament MVP awards. He also was a two-time first-team All-Great Lakes Region honoree by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, a third-team All-American in 2005 and a second-team All-American in 2006, as selected by d3hoops.com.

Borchers, who during the national championship game became the 29th Wittenberg player to score 1,000 career points, has committed to playing another year in the Red & White due to a medical red-shirt. He has been a second-team All-NCAC selection each of the last two years, and he picked up NCAC Tournament MVP honors in 2006.

Brady finished his career with 940 points, not bad for a guy who played sparingly as a freshman and missed much of his junior season with a preseason injury. He was the perimeter shooting complement to Russ and Borchers, the “twin towers” who intimidated opponents in the paint and led the Tigers in scoring and rebounding the last two years. Brady was a second-team All-NCAC honoree in 2004 and an honorable mention all-conference selection in 2006.

Steffes came into his own as a junior after two years as a reserve, stepping into the starting lineup in part due to Brady’s injury. He became a stalwart defender while starting every game in 2005 and 2006, during which time the Tigers compiled a 55-8 overall record.

Not to be overshadowed is Head Coach Bill Brown, and his ever-growing list of accomplishments. With the win over Amherst in the national semifinals, Brown tied Larry Hunter for Wittenberg coaching victories with 305, and his winning percentage is now .813, behind only Ray Mears and Dan Hipsher in the Tiger coaching annals. Brown has now led Wittenberg to nine national tournament appearances and a pair of Final Fours in 13 seasons on the bench, and his teams have won six NCAC regular season titles and four NCAC Tournament crowns.

– Ryan Maurer