Dane Borchers

The Wittenberg men's and women's basketball teams are set for a make-or-break weekend:

SETTING THE MEN'S SCENE: The Wittenberg men's basketball team squares off with the Wabash College Little Giants in the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinals at the College of Wooster tonight at 5:30 p.m. Wittenberg is the tourney's No. 2 seed after finishing second in the regular season, while Wabash is the No. 3 seed.

The Tigers swept the two regular season meetings with Wabash and stand 23-3 overall. In the last week, Wittenberg defeated Allegheny twice, on Saturday in the regular season finale on the Gators' home floor and on Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the NCAC Tournament back home in Springfield. Wittenberg ranks fifth in the nation currently, but the Tigers have slipped to third in the Great Lakes Region rankings, placing added importance on this weekend's conference tournament.

Friday's semifinal round winners will advance to Saturday's NCAC Tournament title game, also at Wooster. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. Wittenberg has won four tourney crowns since joining the league in 1989-90 and Wooster has won nine, including five of the last six. The Tigers and Scots split two games during the 2004-05 regular season, including a Feb. 12 triple overtime thriller in Springfield won by Wooster.

SETTING THE WOMEN'S SCENE: The Wittenberg women's basketball team may have taken a somewhat circuitous route, but the Tigers are right where they want to be at this time of the 2004-05 season. The two-time defending North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament champions are seeded third in this year's tournament after tying for second place in the regular season standings, and the Tigers are set to tip off against second-seeded Denison at 5:30 p.m. tonight.

For the first time in four years, the tournament is not hosted by Wittenberg, which comes in with a 17-9 overall record and a mark of 12-4 in the NCAC regular season. Kenyon, regular season champions for the first time in nearly a decade with a 14-2 NCAC regular season record, is the host, and the Ladies will face fifth-seeded Ohio Wesleyan at 7:45 p.m. Friday in the other semifinal.

Friday's semifinal winners will advance to Saturday's NCAC Tournament title game, also at Kenyon. Tip-off is slated for 3 p.m. Wittenberg has won seven tourney crowns since joining the league in 1989-90, including the last two.

IMPORTANT TICKET INFO: Tickets sales for the NCAC men's basketball tournament at Wooster's Physical Education Center have been conducted since Thursday. Remaining ticket window hours for pre-sale (no telephone reservations accepted):

Friday: 4 p.m. - 8:30 p.m. (games at 5:30 p.m. and 7:45 p.m.);
Saturday: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. / 5 p.m. - 7:45 p.m. (game at 7:00 p.m.).

Ticket Prices:
Friday semifinal ticket prices*:
Adult: $8
Faculty/Staff (with I.D.): $5
Children (age 6 and up)/Student (with I.D.): $3
*One ticket good for both games

Saturday championship ticket prices**:
Adult: $8
Faculty/Staff (with I.D.): $5
Children (age 6 and up)/Student (with I.D.): $3
**Ticket prices are set by the North Coast Athletic Conference

RANKINGS: Wittenberg's men are ranked No. 5 nationally after starting the season at No. 10 and dropping down with losses to Washington University and Denison University in the first month of the season. The No. 5 ranking is the highest of the season for the Tigers. Wooster checks in at No. 1 nationally for the third time in school history. Wabash and Earlham, the other two semifinalists, are unranked.

The Tiger women are not ranked this year after reaching No. 22 late in the 2003-04 season. No women's team in the NCAC has been ranked at any time during the 2004-05 school year.

SCOUTING THE TIGER MEN: Wittenberg is a veteran team with a unique combination of talent and experience at both the perimeter and interior positions. The names that jump off the statistics sheet are juniors post players Dane Borchers and Dan Russ and senior wing Andy Bucheit and junior wing Kenny Brady, the team's leaders in most offensive categories. Borchers and Russ, listed at 6-8 and 6-9 respectively to form one of the most imposing frontlines in NCAA Division III, average more than 14 points and seven rebounds apiece to lead the Tigers in both categories. Bucheit is the team's top three-point shooting threat for the third straight season with 71 treys and a .438 shooting percentage from long range. Brady 8.8 points and 3.8 rebounds per outing off the bench.

Balance is the key to any great team, and the Tigers have that. On the perimeter, the Tigers have several offensive threats, starting with Bucheit and Brady, who also likes to step outside and shoot the three-pointer. Senior point guard Danny Brywczynski, who set the school record for three-point percentage in a season in 2003-04, has 33 triples this year and is shooting .423. He also an outstanding assist-turnover ratio of 87-33. Junior guard Phil Steffes, who has started all 26 games in 2004-05 after playing sparingly his first two seasons in the Red & White, senior guard Brett Bowen, sophomore guard Billy Bowen and senior point guard Kenny Molz are all solid options offensively as well.

The Tigers are averaging 75.4 points per game, good for third in the conference. But it is the Tiger defense that has excelled and helped the team dominate opponents. Wittenberg is ranked first in the NCAC and NCAA Division III in points allowed at 54.8, which is almost eight points less than the second-best team, Wooster. That scoring total obviously is inflated by a double-overtime loss at Denison (89-79) and a triple-overtime defeat against Wooster (102-95). Without them, the defensive average drops near 50 points per game.

Kathy Hittle

SCOUTING THE TIGER WOMEN: Wittenberg's women are extremely young, but they have continually made steps forward in 2004-05, harkening a bright future indeed. Five of the team's top six scorers are either freshmen or sophomores, and the 10-player rotation regularly includes just two seniors and two juniors.

Sophomore post Kathy Hittle has been tremendously consistent in 2004-05, stepping up her play to average team-bests of 9.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. She also set a school record with five blocks in a game against Ohio Wesleyan on Feb. 1. She is joined on the interior by freshman posts Ali Rohlfs and Katie Gregorevich and sophomore post Rachel Clark-Haggy. Those three have split the 26 starting assignments opposite Hittle almost evenly.

At the point, junior Brittany Landreth and sophomore Andrea Hackett have played well in their first season guiding the squad. Both have an equal number of assists and turnovers, and they rank 1 and 2 respectively in assists on the team. Landreth has 58 steals to lead the team by a wide margin. Also on the perimeter are sophomore guard Megan Miller, who has come alive with back-to-back 21-point games off the bench, and seniors Alison Nahrup and Emilie Schmid, two outstanding leaders who know what it takes to win. Schmid is the team's second-leading scorer and was a volleyball All-American.

As a team, the Tigers are outrebounding their foes by nearly 10 boards per game and they have forced a whopping 565 turnovers.

ON THE RADIO: The Tiger faithful can turn their ear to the radio or internet for live coverage of men's and women's basketball games. The Voice of the Tigers in 2004-05 is Scott Leo, who also is the voice of minor league baseball's Richmond Roosters. Leo has been calling games in several sports at Wittenberg since 2000, and he has been instrumental in making the transition to the student station, 89.1-FM WUSO in the last year.

Leo will be on the microphone for the men's game against Wabash, while Wittenberg junior Sean Golden is manning the station for the women's game against Denison since there is an obvious time conflict. On Saturday, if both teams advance to the championship games Leo plans to be on hand in both locations to call all of the action, possibly joined by Golden for the women's game.

On the internet Wittenberg fans around the globe can enjoy streaming audio thanks to Wittenberg's partnership with Stretch Internet. Wittenberg fans do not have to pay to listen to the internet broadcasts, and anyone with a computer and internet connection can log on and listen.

NCAA RANKINGS: Based on numbers compiled at the beginning of this week, the Tiger men are ranked in the top 20 nationally in several key statistical categories and in the top 50 in eight of the 10 listed categories. The Tigers lead the nation in scoring margin (20.2), and they rank second in rebound margin (12.9) and team defense (55.2). The only categories in which Wittenberg is not in the top 50 (out of nearly 400 NCAA Division III programs) are team offense and free throw percentage.

Individually, Borchers is 10th in the nation in field goal percentage and Bucheit is 22nd in three-point percentage.

PROGRAM LANDMARK: Wittenberg is the winningest NCAA Division III men's basketball program by total wins and winning percentage, and the Tigers recently reached a program landmark of 1,500 all-time victories. Coming into the 2004-05 season, Wittenberg's record was 1,482-605 for a .710 winning percentage. Second place in the victories category is Illinois Wesleyan with 1,374 (prior to this season) and second in the percentage category is Cabrini at .698. Wooster is No. 3 in victories with 1,368 and 12th in percentage at .651.

THE COACHES: Wittenberg men's basketball is led by Head Coach Bill Brown, a 1973 graduate from Wittenberg, Brown has posted a 273-65 record at Wittenberg since taking the helm in 1993. Brown's teams have won six NCAC regular season championships and three NCAC tournament titles and have appeared in seven NCAA Division III tournaments. Brown's career record, including one year at Wooster, five at Kenyon and 12 at Wittenberg, is 333-164. He has been named NCAC Coach of the Year five times, including in 1986 while at Kenyon.

Brown's 273 wins are the second-most of any Wittenberg head coach, behind only Larry Hunter, who compiled a record of 305-76 between 1976-89. His .808 winning percentage is second in Tiger men's basketball annals to Ray Mears, who was a sparkling 121-23 between 1957-62, good for an .840 mark.

The Wittenberg women's program is in the able hands of Head Coach Pam Smith, a 1982 Wittenberg graduate. The six-time NCAC Coach of The Year has compiled a 367-149 record since the beginning of the 1986-87 season. She has led the Tigers to eight appearances in the NCAA Division III tournament and won 10 NCAC regular season championships. In 1999, Smith was inducted into the Wittenberg University Athletics Hall of Honor for her standout playing career, leadership in the athletic department and consistency as a winning coach. She is far and away the winningest coach in the program's history.

Related Links: Wittenberg Men's Basketball Home Page Wittenberg Women's Basketball Home Page