Basketball Preview: Rockers to bounce back

By Brad Blume, South Dakota School of Mines | Saturday, November 03, 2007

Previous Page

Share

• del.icio.us
• Digg
• NewsVine
• Fark

Print

Email

RAPID CITY — The South Dakota School of Mines men’s basketball team will start out the 2007-08 season with a lot of young, fresh faces on the Hardrocker team.

The ’Rockers lost five players to graduation, including the Dakota Athletic Conference Most Valuable Senior (Casey Schmitz), along with all conference second team (Schmitz) and two third team selections (Brandon Lord, Matt Lyndoe), two 1,000 point scorers (Lyndoe and Schmitz) and a lot of leadership, depth and talent (Blake Tideman, Brandon Fredrickson).

The experience of the upperclassmen paid off as the Hardrockers finished last year with a 16-15 overall record (9-5 in DAC) which netted them a second-place finish in the conference. They made a good run in the postseason, making an appearance in the conference championship bout. The ’Rockers lost the game to eventual NAIA national runners-up — the Mayville State Comets.

Third-year Hardrocker head coach Jason Henry has to start fresh this year, rostering 11 freshmen, one sophomore, two juniors and a senior.

“Over half of our roster consists of freshmen, but four of those guys were in our program last year as redshirts,” Henry said. “And our two juniors were also redshirted while in the program.”

The lone senior on the team is Tom Schmitz, a 6-foot-6 forward from Rapid City. He was a three-year starter for the Hardrockers, but did not play last year because of injury. He is back for one final tour with Mines. Although he is coming off knee surgery from a preseason injury, he will hopefully be ready for conference play in January.

The juniors on the roster are Donny DeGooyer, a 6-foot-6 forward, and Brandon Smith, a 6-8 forward. Both saw limited time last season, but will be the core of this year’s team. They have the skills and experience needed to take the ‘Rockers on their journey.

“They are really seniors playing as juniors,” Henry said. “They have to step up this season, and play a lot of minutes. It is important to us for them to have a good start to the season.”

The only sophomore on the team Robbie Fedor. The 6-foot-1 guard started for the Hardrockers last year and did well in his role at the point. He scored slightly less than 200 points in 2006-07 and was 40 percent from the field. Henry said he hopes to utilize Fedor’s touch from the outside by giving him a new role.

“Robbie played all point guard for us last year, but he is more comfortable at the two-guard spot,” Henry said.

Henry said that DeGooyer, Smith and Fedor will be the key group to bring the team together as Fedor attacks on the perimeter and the two forwards work inside and outside.

“We will have to lean on those three guys for their scoring ability and leadership.” Henry said.

Freshmen Kyler Ludwig (6-foot-4 forward), A.J. Trennepohl (6-foot-2 guard), Brent Cass (6-foot-4 forward) and Mark Reding (6-foot-3 guard) all redshirted a year ago. They start this season with an understanding of the Hardrocker program and provide depth at all positions.

Ludwig has great leaping ability and can cause some damage going to the basket, while Trennepohl is one of the best long-range shooters on the team. Cass is somewhat of a physical player, and Reding works well in a two-guard spot.

“These four guys traveled with us a lot last year as redshirts,” Henry said. “We are looking to have them carry some of the weight.”

The rest of the team consists of recruits, all of which are freshmen — Michael Ross (6-foot-3), Tanner Friesen (6-foot-6) Kaleb Rehmer (6-foot-5 forward), Jordan Schmitz (6-foot-5 post) and Scott May (6-foot-2 guard).

“Scott is a good point guard that had done very well in high school. He is a great leader on the floor,” Henry said. “Ross is athletic and can run the floor well. Rehmer is already pretty strong and can handle the physicalness of college ball. Tanner and Jordan look good too and should get a lot of playing minutes.”

Mines will redshirt Jeremy Carlston, a 6-foot-11 post and Austin Wilbanks, a 6-foot-8 forward.

No matter what type of player a coach has, there is always an adjustment period going from one level to the next, and Henry expects nothing less as the Hardrockers start this year’s campaign.

“We have some very coachable kids. We might struggle early in the year, but I feel we will be competitive and fun to watch,” Henry said. “And the good thing about these guys is that they are willing to get better. What we lack in experience we make up for in enthusiasm and effort.”

Looking at the conference, Jamestown College is expected to have a stellar year and was picked as the preseason favorite. Minot State is picked to finish second and Mayville slides in at No. 3.

The Hardrockers were predicted to finish seventh, just ahead of Dakota State. Black Hills State is fourth in preseason, Valley City State, fifth, and Dickinson State, sixth.

Henry said that the ’Rockers’ ranking was because of his team’s obvious youth and inexperience, but looks can sometimes be deceiving.

“We will surprise some teams,” Henry said. “We may struggle early, but at conference time, we want to be able to compete and knock off some of these teams.”

And because of all the new players and their different athletic traits, the Hardrocker game plan must be tweaked as well. Mines was primarily a team that was strong in the post in past seasons. This year, they will rely on the play of its guards and play from the perimeter.

“We are expecting the guards to do a lot of the scoring,” the coach added.

The defense will also be modified. The Hardrockers will apply a lot more pressure and try to speed up the game.

“We will have to press the ball, gamble a little and keep the tempo of the game high,” Henry said.