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LOCATION: Dayton, OH
CONFERENCE: Midwestern Collegiate
LAST SEASON: 9-18 (.333)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 4-10 (7th)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 3/2
NICKNAME: Raiders
COLORS: Hunter Green & Gold
HOMECOURT: Ervin J. Nutter Center (10,632)
COACH: Ed Schilling (Miami-Ohio '88)
record at school 19-36 (2 years)
career record 19-36 (2 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Will Rey (Northeastern Illinois '76)
Rod Foster (UCLA '83)
Mike Dahlem (Maryland-Baltimore County '78)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 13-14-7-10-9
RPI (last 5 years) 154-118-265-185-255
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in conference first round.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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Wright State coach Ed Schilling figures to be asked this question roughly a gazillion times before the start of this year: Who will replace the lost scoring and all-around contributions of Keion Brooks? The 6-2 Brooks had as much star power as Garth Brooks (obviously, no relation) in these parts last year as he averaged 20.7 points and 5.6 boards. If Schilling can effectively answer this question, then this won't be a lost season. "No one's going to replace Keion by himself," said Schilling, a former right-hand man to John Calipari at Massachusetts. "But I definitely feel Kevin (Melson) has got all the makings of becoming a tremendous college basketball player. I'm sure glad that we've got him for two more years." A natural small forward, Melson, a 6-6 junior, fit best with the Raiders at the four-spot, where he supplanted UMass transfer Inus Norville seven games into the 1998-99 season. When Norville did return to the starting five, it was as a center because Melson had nailed down the power-forward slot. Name a category and chances are Melson was near the top of it among MCC players. Melson was sixth in the MCC in scoring (14.6 ppg), third in rebounding (6.7 rpg), sixth in field-goal percentage (.503), fifth in steals (1.66 spg) and fourth in blocked shots (1.07 bpg). "If people aren't excited about Kevin Melson, they're not basketball fans," Schilling said. Melson is just half of Wright State's "M and M" boys. Like Melson, 5-10 sophomore guard Marcus May was a member of the 1999 MCC All-Newcomer team. May (9.4 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 110 assists, 45 steals) is blessed with broad shoulders and a thick frame, which enables him to overpower most MCC guards and get into the lane. In addition to his team-high 110 assists, May is also an efficient long-distance shooter, nailing 35-of-99 threes last season (.354 3 PT). After coming off the bench in Wright State's season-opening loss to Old Dominion, May became a full-time starter in the second game of the season and never looked back.
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT C+ BENCH/DEPTH C
FRONTCOURT C INTANGIBLES C
Wright State will miss the all-around skills of Keion Brooks (20.7 ppg), the 6-2 guard who filled up all sorts of columns in the scorebook. Even without Brooks, the perimeter should remain a strength for this team as Wright State coach Ed Schilling (a John Calipari disciple) has two players he can turn to in the clutch in 5-10 sophomore point guard Marcus May (9.6 ppg, 4.1 apg) and 6-6 junior small forward Kevin Melson (14.7 ppg, 6.8 rpg). May and Melson were both 1999 MCC All-Newcomer selections. If this year's batch of newcomers (especially highly-regarded 6-3 freshman guard Vernard Hollins and 6-9 freshman forward Thomas Hope) are half as good as last year's M&M boys (Melson and May) were, then Wright State could be on the right track. Call it a fifth- or sixth-place finish for the Raiders in 1999-2000. |
Melson and May will be the building blocks for Schilling. But one wonders who will fill in the three vacancies in the Raiders' starting lineup. At center, Schilling has two returnees, 6-10 sophomore Israel Sheinfeld and 7-foot junior Bruno Petersons, to choose from. Sheinfeld (4.0 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 10 assists, 10 blocks, 10 steals), a native of Tel Aviv, Israel, landed at Wright State through Schilling's Five-Star Basketball Camp connections (Schilling was a long-time station master at Howard Garfinkel's infamous hoops boot camp and Sheinfeld played there during one summer session). The 23-year-old sophomore spent three years in the Israeli Army, so trading elbows down low in a MCC game shouldn't be any problem. He'll get one of the first cracks at replacing Norville, who averaged 9.0 points and 5.0 boards for the Raiders last season. Battling him for minutes at center will be the 7-foot, 244-pound junior Petersons (1.2 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 15 blocks, 9 steals). Petersons started 16 games last season, but he isn't exactly the second coming of Tim Duncan on the low blocks. But he is a big body (remember the old saying "You can't coach height") who will hit the glass and throw his weight around inside. Sophomore Emmanuel Stone, a 6-9, 220-pound transfer from Division II California (Pa.), is another remote possibility in the pivot. In his one season at California (Pa.), Stone averaged 4.0 points and 2.5 boards. He was able to practice with the team a year ago and could play in short doses this season. Schilling's other frontcourt players are of the tall-but-skinny-as-a-Q-tip variety. The most promising of that threesome is 6-9, 210-pound freshman Thomas Hope, a much-talked about Canadian import. Hope averaged 23.0 points and 15.0 rebounds for his high school team, Bluevale Collegiate Academy in Waterloo, Ontario. In some recruiting circles, Hope was considered the second- or third-best high school player in the Great White North. So how did Schilling get him? You guessed it, those old Five-Star connections helped him here, too. Hope has a solid all-around game and will be a player in time, but right now he's as skinny as Kate Moss on Slim-Fast. He must, repeat, must spend some serious time in the chow line in the school cafeteria and in the weight room in order to fulfill his vast potential. And Hope shouldn't be the only one hitting the weight room on a regular basis, because sophomore Onone Scott-Emuakpor (6-7, 206) and freshman John Watkins (6-8, 205) are in the same boat. Scott-Emuakpor's shooting is about as accurate as the editorial content of most supermarket tabloids (.302 FG, .111 3 PT), but the 6-7 junior has some serious spring in his legs. After averaging 2.7 points and 2.7 rebounds and notching 10 assists and eight steals, Scott-Emuakpor needs only to stay healthy and gain some serious pounds to earn more quality playing time. He was limited early last season because of hip and achilles tendon injuries. Watkins, a slender sharpshooter from DeKalb (Ind.) High School, came on strong at the end of his high school junior year (he averaged 15.0 points as a junior, 20-plus as a senior). He could be a redshirt candidate, so he can work on strengthening his frame as well as adjusting to the physical nature of college ball. The only other frontcourt option is 6-4 sophomore swingman Louis Holmes (2.5 ppg, 0.5 rpg). Holmes saw time in 15 games, averaging just a shade under 10 minutes. He missed some games because of a fractured foot, but scored a career-high 11 points versus Prairie View and five points apiece versus Kentucky and Sacred Heart (Conn.). While May is a lock to start at the point, Schilling must come up with a two-guard to replace the do-it-all Brooks. Melson has the frame to play the two-spot (6-6, 195), but he's needed down low. So, Schilling will turn to 6-3 prized freshman Vernard Hollins as the Raiders' new shooting guard. Hollins is quite a catch for Wright State. Penn State and Notre Dame tried to get involved late with Hollins, who averaged 23.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 assists last year at North Side High in Fort Wayne, Ind. But Schilling had formed a long-term relationship with the talented guard and his family and that relationship paid off in a commitment. Oddly enough, replacing Brooks is old hat for Hollins. Huh? It turns out that Hollins and Brooks, WSU's second all-time leading scorer, both went to the same high school. Freshman Joe Bills and senior Steve Yeagle should both serve as backcourt reserves. Bills, a two-time Ohio Division IV Player of the Year, averaged 21.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 3.0 steals last year. The 6-0 Bills finished fourth in the Mr. Basketball voting in Ohio and was voted the second-best point guard in the state by Ohio Roundball Magazine. He'll back up May at the point and may even play together with May (who will be moved to the two-guard in that situation). The 6-4 Yeagle (1.7 ppg, 0.7 rpg, 13 assists, 5 steals) appeared in 24 games last season, including one start. He'll play 10 minutes or so per night and can give the team a lift with this three-point shooting (10-21, .476). Rounding out the guard line is 5-11, 163-pound sophomore walk-on Tyson Freeman. A former team captain at Scott High School in Toledo, Freeman will work hard in practice and will only see action in the tail end of blowouts.
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