Walking off the court after their 63-61 loss to Wittenberg University in the second round of the North Coast Athletic tournament, players on DePauw’s men’s basketball squad were confident that their season wasn’t coming to an end.
While the Tigers wouldn’t earn the conference’s automatic bid to the national tournament, the team was still confident that the NCAA selection committee would still award them an at-large bid. Instead, the Tigers had to sit by and watch as Wittenberg and Ohio Wesleyan University, who both finished behind the Tigers in the regular season, received the bids.
“Based solely on that, we must have been extremely close to getting into the NCAA tournament,” junior Mark Johnson said. “We just had too many ‘bad’ losses last year to teams we should have beaten.”
Instead of focusing on the negatives, however, the team is looking to use that disappointment as motivation for their upcoming season that tips off tonight at Franklin College.
“We were in the War Room expecting to be one of the last 4 teams invited to attend the tournament, but our bubble was busted,” senior Bob Dillon said. “Although it was extremely disappointing, I think our team learned a lot from the experience and will remember that feeling of missing out on the tournament as we try and make it this upcoming season.”
There still won’t be obstacles to overcome in the coming season, however, after their impressive 19-8 (13-5 NCAC) record a year ago.
The Tigers will be without four players from last year’s team who graduated. Among that lost height from the likes of Pat Haggin and Cameron Burns and play-making ability from Michael Wilkison and Jeff Sustarsic.
The Tigers will have to find replacements in the starting lineup for Haggin and Wilkison.
“In the wake of their graduation, it has been clear that all of us improved facets of our individual games over this past summer,” Johnson said. “With that said, I expect players such as Bob Dillon, Mike Onuorah [senior], Clint Cunningham [sophomore], Luke Lattner [sophomore], and myself to see increased roles this season. We all seem prepared to help our basketball team which is exciting.”
As far as size, the Tigers will certainly notice the absence of the six and a half foot Haggin and the six foot nine inch Burns. DePauw will look to senior Tommy Fernitz, who is the same height as Burns, to be a force down low.
“Yeah, Pat and Cam were definitely big bodies to have in the middle which helped our interior defense so we will miss them but... I think we have the guys and size to replace them and still continue to be a dominant defensive team,” Fernitz said. “As for me, I don't think much will change, I'm still our team's rim protector and I take great pride in helping our team defense.”
The first team all-NCAC Fernitz will look to improve on his impressive numbers from a year ago. He led the team in both points and rebounds per game with 14.8 scored and 9.9 boards each night. His 238 rebounds came up just one shy of averaging a double double on the season.
Another year of development for Fernitz and the added depth from seniors like Dillon, Onuorah and Frank Patton III helped the NCAC decide to rank the Tigers as second in the conference’s preseason poll behind the College of Wooster.
Fans won’t be able to see the Tigers play at Neal Fieldhouse until Nov. 25 against the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology when they return home after a three-game road trip to open the season.