Season Preview: Men's Basketball hopes to carry last year's hot finish into 2014-15 campaign
By Tim Glon
ADA — The Ohio Northern men's basketball team enters its 2014-15 campaign looking to continue the season-ending success from the 2013-14 season.
The Polar Bears welcome back two starters, seven regulars and nine lettermen from last year's team that went 16-10 overall and finished fourth in the Ohio Athletic Conference with a 12-6 record.
Northern went through the second half of the OAC's double-round robin schedule with a sizzling 8-1 record and third-year head coach Kevin Byrne is hoping to feed off of that late-season success.
"We had a great run at the end of last year and we hope that we can pick up where we left off this season," Byrne said. "We graduated three All-Conference players and will need to replace that leadership. But we feel like we have a good talent base returning and we are excited about our incoming freshman class."
Here is a breakdown of the 2014-15 ONU men's basketball team, by position:
Back Court
Byrne has a wealth of talent and experience at the guard positions with five lettermen returning.
Senior Isaiah Roux started at point guard in 2013-14 and had a standout year in his first season as a starter.
Roux averaged 9.6 ppg and started all 26 games at the point.
He led the Polar Bears and was third in the OAC with 109 assists and led the team and was fifth in the OAC in steals with 38.
Senior Jordan Martin has been a regular in the rotation each of the past three seasons and will likely step into the starting lineup this winter.
He averaged 9.2 ppg and was second on the squad with 33 steals.
Sophomores Devon Allen (4.3 ppg, 20 3FGs), Joey Hurless (2.6 ppg, 66 assists) and Jordan Matusik (0.5 ppg) all lettered as freshmen last season and will battle for a starting spot this year.
A wealth of talented incoming freshmen will also battle for playing time in the back court.
Front Court
Senior Lucas Pennington returns as a two-year starter in the front court.
Pennington has started the last 52 games at forward and finished third on the team in scoring at 10.2 ppg and was also third in rebounding at 4.0 rpg.
He led the team with 47 made 3-pointers and 14 blocked shots and was second with an 85.7 free throw shooting percentage.
Senior Mitchell Kosier and sophomores Alex Radkiewicz and Aron Thress are returning lettermen on the front line.
Radkiewicz averaged 4.0 ppg and 3.0 rpg and made 59.5 percent of his field goal attempts in 16 minutes per game of playing time as a freshman.
Thress, a 6-7, 230-pound center, tied for team-high honors with 14 blocked shots while averaging 3.0 ppg and 1.6 rpg in nine minutes of playing time per game.
Kosier is a four-year member of the squad and looks ready to assume an increased role in the rotation this winter.
The trio will battle a strong incoming freshmen class for starting positions up front.
Overview
Northern played 10 players in the rotation last season with four freshmen and a junior on the floor at the same time most nights.
Those freshmen will be asked to play more meaningful minutes this year and Byrne thinks that will be the key to the team's success.
"Our freshmen got a lot of minutes last season," Byrne said. "But that the end of games, we were able to put three senior All-Conference players and two juniors on the floor to close out games. This year, some of those freshmen will be asked to play in those crunch-time situations.
"They have the talent to be successful, they just need to play well consistently. When that happens, we will have a chance to be a pretty good team. "
Ohio Northern won the 1993 NCAA Division III National Championship, reached the 2000 NCAA Division III Final Four and won OAC Championships in 2001, 2000, 1999, 1995, 1993, 1988, 1982, 1976.