STEVENS POINT, Wis. – The UW-Stevens Point men's basketball team hits the road to open the 2016-17 season when they face St. Olaf in Northfield, Minn., on Tuesday night. It will be the first of four games away from Bennett Court to begin the year.
THE BASICS
Who: UW-Stevens Point (0-0) at St. Olaf (0-0)
When: Tuesday, November 15 – 7:00 p.m.
Where: Skoglund Center – Northfield, Minn.
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LAST TIME OUT
UW-Stevens Point saw its 2015-16 season end in the opening round of the WIAC Tournament with a 72-66 loss at UW-Eau Claire. The Pointers finished the regular season 3-2 over the final five games. Both losses were by two points, including an 81-79 overtime loss against UW-River Falls. In the final four regular season games, UWSP held its opponent to 64 points or fewer in each game.
BOTH WAYS BUBLITZ
Sophomore
Ethan Bublitz (Jackson, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran) was one of the top performers in the WIAC last season. He was ninth in the league in three-pointers made per game while ranking 18th in the conference in scoring average. Defensively, he ranked third in steals per game and 15th in rebounds per game.
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The 2016-17 Pointers enter the season looking to fill the void left by two seniors who played a ton of minutes in their final season in a UWSP uniform. Tops among the returning squad is sophomore
Ethan Bublitz (Jackson, Wis./Kettle Moraine Lutheran). He started all 26 games last season and the team with 38 steals and 87 defensive rebounds. At 10.0 points per game, Bublitz in the leading scorer among returners. Junior
Zack Goedeke (Valders, Wis./Valders), second among returners at 6.7 points a game, led the team with a .550 field goal percentage and 15 blocked shots.
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St. Olaf looks to replace its three highest scorers from a season ago. Senior Austin Majeskie is tops among the returners at 8.0 points per game. Majeskie led the Oles with 25 blocked shots and was one of three SOC players with more than 100 rebounds. The Oles graduated a ton of talent from its NCAA-Tournament team in 2015-16, but hope senior forwards Majeskie and Robert Tobroxen can keep St. Olaf in MIAC championship and NCAA title contention again in 2016-17. St. Olaf was picked to finish sixth in the MIAC preseason poll.
SERIES HISTORY
UWSP leads the all-time series, 3-1. Last season, the Pointers held off a second-half charge from the No. 15 Oles for a 68-65 win in Stevens Point. Bublitz led UWSP with 20 points in the win on 5-of-6 shooting from behind the arc. Seniors
Sean McGann (Baraboo, WI/Baraboo) and
Stephen Pelkofer (Hales Corner, WI/Whitnall) added 19 and 17 points, respectively, for the Pointers.
THE COACHES
Bob Semling is in his 12th season as the head coach at UW-Stevens Point and has won four national championships with the Pointers. He led the Pointers to national titles in 2010 and 2015 as a head coach and was an assistant on the back-to-back national title teams of 2004 and 2005. Semling has a career record of 256-66, including a 139-33 mark in WIAC play. His .795 career winning percentage entering this season was the highest among active Division III coaches and ranks ninth all-time among all divisions for coaches with at least 10 seasons as a head coach.
St. Olaf head coach Dan Kosmoski will be in his 23rd season at St. Olaf in 2016-17. Last season Kosmoski took the Oles to their third-straight NCAA Division III tournament appearance after defeating eventual national champion University of St. Thomas in the MIAC Playoff title game. Kosmoski led the Oles to three-straight runner-up finishes in the MIAC and holds a career record of 277-282.
UP NEXT
The Pointers travel to Baltimore, Md., this weekend to play in the Hoopsville Classic on Stevenson University's campus. UWSP will play Christopher Newport on Friday at 7:00 p.m. CT and Lynchburg on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. Both teams were in the NCAA Tournament a season ago with CNU reaching the Final Four.
