College Basketball: Outlook promising for BHSU

By Mike Besso, Lawrence County Journal | Friday, October 26, 2007

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SPEARFISH — Led by the nucleus of six returning lettermen and a solid group of newcomers, the 2007-08 outlook for the Black Hills State University men’s basketball is promising.

BHSU tips off the season at Montana Tech in Butte, Mont., today.

“Montana Tech returns its top two shooters in the Frontier Conference from a year ago,” Yellow Jacket coach Paul Sather said.

“They shot 27 three-pointers against Calgary. They run an offense similar to Air Force.”

Sather enters his third season as head coach of the Yellow Jackets.

“I’m really excited,” Sather said. “We have a young team with some key veteran players.

“Our depth will be better than the last two years. We have some good athletes. We’ve improved our athleticism, depth and size.

“This can really be a good team. Our depth could be a strength. Our new players will all play for us. We could play 13 guys in the first half (season opener versus Montana Tech today.

“Even though we return veteran players, we have a lot of inexperience,” Sather said about his area of concern for the team.

“I want us to be more up-tempo than last year. We couldn’t rebound or get defensive stops last year. An added year of experience will help.

On defense, Sather said BHSU will pick up opponents with full-court pressure and man-to-man.

BHSU has a favorable schedule with 14 games in the friendly confines of the Young Center.

After opening the home season on Nov. 3-4 against Mount Marty and Dakota Wesleyan, the Green and Gold play six straight games on the road, including the South Dakota School of Mines Classic on Nov. 23-24.

The Jackets play five of their six games in December at home. Young Center contests include NCAA Division II foes Chadron State College and University of Mary. BHSU entertains Dordt College on Dec. 28 and Montana State-Northern on Dec. 29 in the Perkins Classic.

“Our non-conference schedule is very competitive,” Sather said. “We’ll have a lot of fun games for our fans to see. Hopefully, we’ll go a great job of competing.”

BHSU begins the Dakota Athletic Conference season on Dec. 5 at South Dakota School of Mines.

Coach Sather listed Jamestown College and Minot State as the conference favorites.

“Jamestown has the most returning players in the conference,” he noted. “I think Minot State is right there with them.

“There are a lot of teams with a lot of new people. I think we can contend for the DAC championship.”

Returning lettermen for the Yellow Jackets are seniors Forrest Dorr, a 5-foot-11 guard; Parfait Nayigihugu, a 6-foot-3 guard; Corey Doolan, a 6-foot, guard; Sam Kim, a 6-foot-4 guard; juniors A.J. Fodness, a 6-foot-6 forward; and Randy Herman, a 6-foot-7 forward.

Newcomers on the BHSU squad are freshmen Spencer Childress, a 6-foot-1 guard; Jeff Smith, a 6-foot guard; Clay Potorff, a 6-foot-3 guard; Cain Atkinson,a 6-foot guard; Luke Enos, a 6-foot-7 forward; Will John Johnson, a 6-foot-8 forward; and Kyle Semin, a 6-foot-9 center.

Andre Goldberg was the lone starter lost to graduation off last year’s team.