College hoops has started, so check the rosters
College basketball season is again at its tipping point – the start of the season.
The major colleges featured about 100 games Monday night. Many of them were one-sided affairs that played out while fans tried to figure out who is on their favorite team’s roster and what happened to the players they rooted for last season.
That’s the same situation California men’s head coach Danny Sancomb finds himself in these days. He has to be wondering who are these guys wearing the Vulcans’ uniforms?
When last season ended, Cal had completed an injury-riddled 18-12 campaign and advanced to the PSAC tournament semifinals. It was quite an accomplishment considering there were times when four of the Vulcans’ starters were sidelined with injuries.
With all of the players the Vulcans had sidelined last season eligible to return, and the young players who gained valuable experience as their replacements, it appeared that Cal had the makings of a team that could not only challenge for a PSAC championship but a national title as well this winter. But we know that college rosters flip over faster than pancakes these days.
Three players from Cal’s team a year ago – Donald Whitehead Jr., Keith Palek and Cam Polak, transferred to Division I programs for their final year of eligibility. All three made their debuts at the major college level this week.
Polak scored nine points for Youngstown State in a loss at Pitt on Monday. Palek, a 6-9 forward, had the best debut of the trio. He was in the starting lineup for Missouri State and scored 21 points to go with six rebounds in an 88-70 win over Missouri Southern, a Division II program, on Tuesday. That same night, Whitehead Jr., who was the PSAC West’s player of the year a season ago, was in the starting lineup for UNC-Greensboro and scored six points and had four assists in a loss to Kansas State.
* Three local college basketball teams will start their seasons this weekend. The California women will play Northern Michigan on Friday in the D2 Tip-Off Classic at Edinboro. The Waynesburg men will play host Hilbert on Friday in the Hawks Against Hunger Tournament in Hamburg, N.Y. The W&J men open Saturday at Lancaster Bible.
The W&J women will play their opener Monday in Erie against Penn State Behrend.
The Cal men and Waynesburg women both begin play Nov. 14.
* W&J’s football game Saturday at Geneva will likely decide the Presidents’ Athletic Conference title. If W&J wins, then the Presidents clinch the title and a spot in the NCAA Division III playoffs.
Geneva has made one of the most interesting conversions in college football. For years, the Golden Tornadoes were a land-locked triple-option team. This year, Geneva has changed its offense to the pass-happy Air Raid. You can’t find a more drastic change in offensive philosophy. And it has worked. Geneva is averaging 40.8 points per game and scored 137 points over its last two games.
W&J, however, hasn’t lost in PAC play and averages 41.3 points per game.
It should be a good ballgame.
And a high-scoring one, too.
Sports editor Chris Dugan can be contacted at dugan@observer-reporter.com