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LOCATION: Evansville, IN
CONFERENCE: Missouri Valley
LAST SEASON: 23-10 (.697)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 13-5 (1st)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 1/4
NICKNAME: Purple Aces
COLORS: Purple & White
HOMECOURT: Roberts Stadium (12,300)
COACH: Jim Crews (Indiana '76)
record at school 255-160 (14 years)
career record 255-160 (14 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Lennox Forrester (Evansville '92)
Kirk Sarff (Millikin '84)
Marty Simmons (Evansville '87)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 18-13-17-15-23
RPI (last 5 years) 85-120-89-190-50
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in NCAA first round.
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Before last season, Evansville had much to prove to the Missouri Valley Conference. Since joining the league in 1994 as a perennial Midwestern Collegiate Conference contender, the Aces had not finished higher than fifth, had not won more than 18 games and had not won a conference tournament game. Picked to finish sixth last season, Evansville emerged from its middling status. The Aces stormed to the regular-season MVC championship by a two-game margin at 13-5. They advanced to the title game of the conference tournament, losing to Creighton. And they captured a rare at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament with a sparkling 23-9 record before losing a mostly competitive first-round game to Kansas, 95-74. Guard Marcus Wilson won the league's player-of-the-year award and coach Jim Crews copped MVC Coach-of-the-Year honors. The Aces were second in the nation in free-throw percentage (.772), third in field-goal percentage (.505) and third in three-point percentage (.407). "Evansville puts such a premium on recruiting good shooters and Jim is a great teacher," Bradley coach Jim Molinari said. "Every day last season, our players came to practice with the idea of making their teammates better," Crews said. "That was always their attitude, and that's why they accomplished so much." Gone from that championship season, though, is MVC Player of the Year Marcus Wilson, whose 20.7 scoring average was second in the league and whose .897 free-throw percentage was fifth nationally. But as much as his scoring, the Aces will miss the leadership provided by Wilson and the other departing senior, sixth man Curt Begle (7.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg).
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT B BENCH/DEPTH C
FRONTCOURT C+ INTANGIBLES B
The defending league champions will have a hard time replacing the scoring of guard Marcus Wilson and the leadership of Wilson and sixth man Curt Begle. But the four returning starters and nine lettermen learned two valuable lessons last year how to win a championship and advance in postseason play. Along with the return of wily veteran coach Jim Crews, the Aces could make a strong run at the title again. This year's version is much bigger with the potential to improve its inside game. The returning players combined to shoot 50 percent from the field and that's with perhaps the team's best shooter, Kyle Runyan, injured much of the season. Last year, the Aces were the league's surprise team. But, as defending champions, they won't be able to sneak up on anybody this year. Then again, if they shoot like they did last season, they won't have to worry about it. |
"Wilson used to say that Curt was the pulse rate of our team," Crews said. "Leadership is instrumental for any team and with those two gone, it's something that is an unknown for us now. We have a lot of guys who eventually will be very good as leaders. We won't have one guy come in and take over Marcus' 20 points, but everybody on our team who played last year will be able to score more." It starts with 6-7 junior forward Craig Snow (13.4 ppg, 5.7 rpg), who shot 50 percent from the floor and 43 percent on three-pointers while leading the Aces in blocked shots with 13. Snow was honorable mention all-MVC and also made the all-MVC Tournament team. "Craig had a good year, but he'll have to do more for us this year," Crews said. Snow will have plenty of veteran help up front. Six-foot-eigth senior center Kwame James (9.4 ppg, 3.6 rpg) managed to shoot 62 percent from the field while battling through an injury-and illness-plagued season. "Kwame's gotten better every year for us," Crews said. "And he's going to get better this year. Last year, he ran the floor well and gave us good energy at the start of games." Chuck Hedde, a 6-8 sophomore (3.3 ppg, 1.7 rpg), made great strides during his freshman season, as evidenced by his performance (19 points, 12 rebounds) during the three-game league tournament. Also returning in the frontcourt are 6-9 senior Matt Vidoni (1.9 ppg, 0.6 rpg), a native Australian who broke his foot last year and played just eight games, and 6-10 redshirt sophomore Zack Anderson, who played in 10 games as a freshman. That sizeable group is joined by a couple of big freshmen 6-10 Dan Lytle (Edwardsville High/ Edwardsville, Ill.), who averaged 20.5 points, 14.1 rebounds and 5.9 blocked shots last season, and 6-9 Faruk Mujezinovic (Jasper High/Jasper, Ind.), a Bosnian native who averaged 21.1 points and 10.8 rebounds last season. "It's as big of a team as we've had since we've been in the Valley," Crews said. "We used to have some big teams (in the MCC). That's part of the fun for us as coaches to put (a system) around their talents. We need to maximize their talents." Still, the Aces almost certainly won't stray too far from what has largely been a successful formula a rugged man-to-man half-court defense and a well-oiled motion offense featuring a dazzling array of screens and cuts and precise passes. The player who will make that offense go is 6-1 junior point guard Jeremy Stanton (3.8 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 148 assists), who lead the league with his average of 4.5 assists per game. Returning starter Adam Seitz, a 6-3 sophomore (6.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 79 assists), joins him. Seitz shot 53 percent from the field and 31 percent from three-point range Clint Keown, a 6-2 sophomore, scored 5.4 points per game off the bench. Then there's 6-5 junior swingman Kyle Runyan (5.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 43 assists), a sharpshooter who has been hampered by a series of injuries in his two seasons. Runyan averaged 10.8 points as a freshman, hitting 58 three-point shots for a 43 percent ratio from beyond the arc. "Kyle's had a lot of bad luck and we're hoping he can be injury-free for us this year," Crews said. "Jeremy needs to be a more complete player and look to score more. Seitz and Keown had a very good freshman years and are capable of being even more productive." Senior guard Drew Church played in just seven games last season, averaging 1.6 points. Newcomers to the backcourt include 6-3 junior Kris Stoneking (Abingdon High/Abingdon, Ill.), a transfer from New Orleans where he averaged 3.5 points, and 6-3 freshman Nick Baumgart (Evansville North/Evansville, Ill.), who averaged 16.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 5.9 assists as a senior. Stoneking suffered a torn ACL in his knee during the spring. He has rehabilitated well and is expected to be ready for the start of the season. "Of the newcomers, Lytle has size and good hands, Mujezinovic has good footwork and likes to bang," Crews said. "Baumgart is a blue-collar kid from Evansville and Stoneking is a good player who helped us a lot in practice last year (while sitting out). How much they help this year, I don't know. The jury's still out on the freshmen." But the jury's not out on the Evansville program any more. Crews, a starter for Bob Knight on the last undefeated national championship team at Indiana in 1976, usually downplays most aspects of his program and is no different when discussing last year's league crown. "It has meant a lot and we should feel good about ourselves," he said. "But we talk about being humble a lot. The team was like that during the year and they were this summer, too. They should be proud of what they accomplished, but that's in the past now. It's time to move on. "I have seen a similar attitude in this year's team. They also realize that success one year doesn't automatically translate to success the next year. They know they'll have to work for everything they get."
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