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Red Hawks Hope Youth + Experience = Winning Formula
At first glance, the 2007-08 Ripon men's basketball team may not scare a lot of people. They lost six players from last year's squad that finished the season 13-10 overall and in third place in the Midwest Conference standings. Those six players made up 67 percent of the team's scoring last season, with four of them playing significant minutes, including three starters. Due to the departure of last year's senior starters, Bo Johnson, David McMullen, and Brian Schmitting, Ripon's philosophy may vary from last season, which won't necessarily be a bad thing.
"Our style of play is going to be different because of the players that we have on this year's team," head basketball coach Bob Gillespie said. "With our size last year, we tried to guard from the three-point line. This year, we're going to try to play full court defense and pressure the ball because we're athletic enough to do that."
The Red Hawks ranked seventh in the conference last year in both points allowed and field goal percentage defense. Due to this year's more athletic team, expect Red Hawk defenders to be surrounding the ball at all times, which could lead to more turnovers, giving them more opportunities to score.
"Our athleticism and quickness is very much improved, so I'm positive that we're going to be better defensively," Gillespie said. "There were games last year where if we didn't outscore teams in a shootout, we weren't going to win. This season, our defense is going to be able to keep us in games, which will take some pressure off of us at the offensive end of the floor."
Leading the way on both the offensive and defensive ends will be senior Paul Wise (11.6 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.9 apg). He is the most experienced player on the roster, having started every game in the last two seasons. Wise will be looked upon to score even more this year, after losing three of the top four scorers from last season.
"Wise is one of our best defenders and always guards the other team's best perimeter player. He has the potential to become a first team all-conference player," Gillespie said. "He has to have a great year for us if we're going to contend for a conference championship."
Another player that will be looked at for an even bigger contribution is the only other returning starter, senior Chris Kellett (8.7 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.1 apg). Kellett was one of the surprises on last year's team, leading the Red Hawks in three-point shooting by making 38 percent of his shots from beyond the arc. That was a 24 percent improvement from his previous season. With one more year under his belt, Ripon will expect Kellett to contribute even more this year.
"Kellett is a great competitor and will guard anyone and any position that we ask him to, and will do a good job no matter who he faces," Gillespie said. "He also has three-point range and has excellent basketball awareness."
Senior forward Tyler Fischer (2.7 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.7 apg) and junior Rich Cloeter (1.0 ppg, 0.6 rpg, 0.4 apg) will also see plenty of action, as they'll both move up in the rotation. Fischer is a slashing forward that will help out on the boards, while Cloeter will try to kill opponents from the perimeter, as one of Ripon's premier shooters.
"Fischer will be counted on for rebounding and to pick up some of the scoring that we've lost. He's gotten some playing time in the past two seasons, so that experience and awareness will help us," Gillespie said. Cloeter will also see plenty of time and it would be a big help if he could come in and make perimeter shots for us, which is what he does best."
Sophomore Josh Bailen (0.6 ppg, 0.5 rpg) will be another Red Hawk that will see more action this season, thanks to his athleticism. He will battle for playing time with juniors Shawn Karsten (0.2 ppg, 0.3 rpg), and Grant Oleson (0.5 ppg, 0.5 rpg).
The two biggest question marks for the Red Hawks are at arguably the two most important positions on the floor. The first being at the center position, where Schmitting departed due to graduation, after a season that saw him average a double-double, en route to being named Second Team All-Region.
That question mark will be answered by a pair of freshmen, Alex Tomsheck (Michigan City, Ind./Michigan City) and Martin Esters (Germany/St. John's Academy). That duo will split time in the post and will have their work cut out for them, but both seem ready for the task at hand.
"I thought Schmitting was the best offensive post player in the state last year. In crucial situations, we knew that if we could get him the ball, he would be productive with it," Gillespie said. "We will have two freshmen playing center this year, so we're going from a first team all conference player to two players with no experience at the college level. There's no way a freshman's going to come in right away and do the things that Brian did, but I think that both of the freshmen post players are very good prospects."
The second question mark is at the point guard position, where McMullen had held the starting spot for each of the last four years. Eric Wright (1.1 ppg, 0.6 rpg, 0.9 apg) and Andy Perrine (0.8 ppg, 0.1 rpg) are the only two returning point guards on the roster.
"Wright has played point guard the past two years, but he'll see some time at off guard because he is a very good shooter," Gillespie said. "He is one of four seniors that will provide important leadership for us."
Wright and Perrine will be joined by two talented freshmen that will see a lot of playing time at the point. Scott Gillespie (Ripon, Wis./Ripon) and Mike King (Seymour, Wis./Seymour) will each get a chance to run the offense, as they'll hope their successes in high school will carry over to their college careers. King won a state championship at Seymour High School, while Gillespie led the state of Wisconsin in scoring last season at Ripon High School, averaging 26 points per game.
"We have some depth at the point, with a good mix of experience and talented young players, but it's going to come down to gaining experience throughout the season," said Coach Gillespie.
That will be the true test of this Ripon team - how much they improve from day to day and week to week. If all goes as planned, the Red Hawks hope to put a team on the court in the final months of the season that looks nothing like the team they put on the court during the first month of the season.
"I think we'll be much better in late January than we are in early December. We have good leadership, but we only have two players that have done much scoring at the college level, so we're going to have to find some other people to score," Gillespie said. "The other teams in our conference are probably thinking that we're a year away from competing, but that's really not the case. If our players play like I know they're capable of, then we'll be alright."
Guards Andrew Handeland (Mequon, Wis./Mequon) and Garret Weisenbeck (Wisconsin Rapids, Wis./Assumption) and forwards Matt Nelson (Willowbrook, Ill./Willowbrook) and Marc Leisgang (Seymour, Wis.) round out the talented group of freshmen for the Red Hawks.
"This is as good a freshman class as I've ever had at Ripon College," Gillespie said. "Handeland was player of the year last year in his league and is another player who's very athletic. Nelson is an excellent three-point shooter and has the potential to be a good player for us at some point in time. Leisgang and Weisenbeck will also be looked at to contribute in any way they can."
It may be tough to tell at this point whether or not this year's Ripon team has what it takes to win a conference championship and earn the Red Hawk's 11th trip to the NCAA Division-III Tournament. The one thing that is certain however is that the Midwest Conference race is more open than it's been in some time, meaning the championship is there for the taking.
"Our league has improved every year and we will be involved in some great games this season. Any one of five teams can win the conference and there's another three more that could qualify for one of the four spots in the conference tournament," Gillespie said. "That makes for an exciting year. We're going to have a say in the conference championship, either by either knocking someone off, or by being in the hunt ourselves, and we have a chance to be a lot better than some people think we are."
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