The Warriors are the preseason favorites in the division and return eight of their top 10 scorers from a team that won a share of the PSAC East regular season title, was nationally-ranked for six straight weeks and played in the NCAA Division II Tournament for the second time in school history.
ESU, sixth in last year’s preseason poll, received four of the eight first-place votes this time around, but head coach Jeff Wilson must replace a pair of All-PSAC guards in Robby Pines and Andy Heimbach. And for the first time in at least four years, the preseason favorite in a PSAC poll doesn’t have a player on the six-member all-conference team.
Without a proven superstar, Wilson, the PSAC East and NABC Atlantic Region Coach of the Year, will go back to the same formula that brought a school-record 24 wins last year – balanced scoring, a pressing defense and chemistry that saw the top nine players in the rotation average at least 15 minutes per game.
Senior forward Mike Tobin, the top returning scorer (10.2 ppg) and rebounder (7.2 rpg), senior guards Mike DeMarco and Micah Covert, junior forward Eric Bryan and a trio of sophomore forwards in Marcus Brown, Duane Johnson and Terrance King – the reigning PSAC East Freshman of the Year – give the Warriors a number of valuable pieces who came together to produce one of the outstanding seasons in school annals.
In the backcourt, junior Russell Graham III replaces Pines as the catalyst of the PSAC’s top scoring offense which averaged 79.1 points per game last season. A transfer and two-year letterwinner at New Hampshire, Graham III was fifth in Division I in assist-to-turnover ratio last season and should excel in the Warriors’ fast-paced attack.
He steps into a role where Pines thrived last season, finishing eighth in Division II with 6.4 assists per game after placing sixth in assist-to-turnover ratio the previous year. Defensively, Graham projects as an outstanding on-ball defender and should flourish in the Warriors’ running, pressing style.
Sophomore Blair Ramsey, a transfer from Division III Adrian College (Mich.), will be the backup point guard and played in high school in Detroit with current ESU sophomore Gerald Bridges, Jr. Ramsey’s year of experience and hard-nosed approach should make him a valuable contributor off the bench.
At the two wing spots, DeMarco, Covert and Johnson should see the bulk of the minutes for the Warriors and bring varied skill sets to the floor. All three will be counted to replace the perimeter shooting that Heimbach provided in his four-year career. A first team All-PSAC East selection, Heimbach set school records with 236 three’s in his career and 76 last season, when he led ESU with 12.6 points per game.
DeMarco is a two-year starter, making 49 career starts, and is a proven scorer in the PSAC with 7.7 and 8.0 points per game over the past two years. He led ESU with 15 points vs. West Virginia State in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and is well-rounded on the offensive end, works hard on the glass and has improved as a defender during the course of his career.
Johnson opens his second season at ESU as a starter after turning in an impressive freshman year that included three PSAC East weekly awards. He averaged 6.9 points and 3.4 rebounds in just under 18 minutes per game off the bench, shot 47.1 percent from the field and was second on the team with 17 blocked shots. As a sophomore, Johnson should be one of the best perimeter defenders in the PSAC, rebound at both ends with his 6-6 frame and excel in both the halfcourt and fullcourt game.
Covert brings a veteran presence to the Warriors’ lineup as a combo point guard/shooting guard and was fifth on the team in minutes (20.3 per game) last year despite making just one start. He scored 7.8 points per game, shot 38.3 percent from long distance and had more than two assists per game. His outstanding basketball IQ and role as a shooter and finisher was crucial last season as he was often on the floor in crunch time.
Bridges, Jr. will see increased minutes in his second year with the Warriors as a valuable long-range shooter. He played in 25 games last season, most notably sparking a comeback from a 15-point deficit with a pair of big three-pointers in a double-overtime win at Bloomsburg, and has good size to be able to help on the glass from the wing.
Two players round out the wing contributors in redshirt sophomore Matt Labick and freshman Will Brown. Labick knows the Warriors’ system in his third year in the program and saw action in eight games a year ago, and Brown is an outstanding shooter and scorer who played on a state championship team at Penn Wood with Duane Johnson and led the team back to the state finals last winter.
Tobin holds down the power forward spot in ESU’s system and is consistently one of the toughest match-ups for opposing defenders in the PSAC. While he appears undersized at the position at 6-4 and 190 pounds, Tobin was the Warriors’ leading rebounder last season on a team that was second in the PSAC in rebounding margin. He used his quickness and aggressiveness to get to the foul line 132 times, has improved his range as a three-point threat and is one of the best conditioned athletes in the country. His 26.4 minutes per game last season trailed only Pines for the most on the club.
If Tobin is one of the top-conditioned players in Division II, King may be one of the most athletic. The PSAC East Freshman of the Year averaged 8.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game, was fourth in the PSAC in field goal percentage (56.8), eighth in blocks per game (1.4) and had a number of highlight-reel dunks – all in less than 18 minutes per night. This year, he has added to his skill set to step towards the perimeter and added strength, meaning he may be even more explosive in his sophomore campaign.
Bryan and Brown will back up both of the post positions and guarantee that there won’t be a drop off in production when Wilson goes to the bench.
Bryan is a two-year letterwinner and continues to improve as he hits the second half of his four years at ESU. He averaged 5.2 points and 4.0 rebounds per game, including 10 points and six boards in the NCAA Tournament, and shot an outstanding 83.7 percent from the foul line in 49 attempts. He is a physical post defender and is in outstanding shape for an interior player, a must in ESU’s up-and-down system.
Brown produced 7.0 points and 5.0 rebounds last season, edging King as the top freshman rebounder in the PSAC. He has a rare combination of post-up and perimeter ability for a 6-5, 225-pound forward and attacks the offensive glass, posting two offensive boards per game while averaging about 16 minutes as a freshman. He was a two-time PSAC East Freshman of the Week as Brown, Johnson and King combined for 11 of the 15 weekly awards for first-year players.
A pair of redshirt freshmen, Dan Clapp and Andre Howard, will provide depth in the post and may take some of the minutes played by Preston Ritter, the Warriors’ third senior on last year’s record-setting team. Clapp is from Chichester High School, and Howard played with Marcus Brown at Engineering and Science High School in Philadelphia.
The 2010-11 Warriors will face one of the top non-conference schedules in both the PSAC and Atlantic Region, including PSAC crossover games against Slippery Rock, Mercyhurst, California and defending national runner-up IUP.
They will also take on Edinboro and Felician at the 46th Annual Pocono Classic presented by State Farm on December 3-4 at Koehler Fieldhouse, and will play in a tough two-game tournament at the Porreco Cup at Gannon on December 29-30. The first night brings a match-up with GLIAC foe Wayne State, followed by a consolation or championship tilt against host Gannon or Seton Hill.
At the end of the season, Wilson’s goal remains the same – to take a battle-tested team into the PSAC playoffs with an opportunity to earn a spot in the NCAA Tournament. A rugged 26-game schedule awaits the Warriors as they look to use last year’s success as the springboard to a run at their second-ever PSAC title.
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