Season Preview
Men’s basketball anxious to take court

The Scotty Wood Tournament is always a highly anticipated start to the season, but this year the Muhlenberg men’s basketball team is looking forward to it even more than usual.

That’s because the Mules, who open up with Hunter tomorrow night, are looking to atone for the

MacIntosh has played in all 76 games the last three years, starting 40.

end of the 2007-08 season, when they lost their last five games. The skid turned a 10-10 record into a 10-15 finish, and Muhlenberg ended up one game behind the last playoff team.

“Ending it like that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth,” said Darrell Roth, one of four seniors on the team. “That’s why we’re so anxious to get back out there. We can’t wait for tomorrow to come so we can show what we’ve got.”

What they’ve got should look pretty similar to what they had last year: Only one player was lost to graduation. At the core of the team are the seniors and four juniors, most of whom saw their first significant varsity action last year.

“A lot of people played last year who didn’t have experience,” said Roth, who is a perfect example. He played a total of 32 varsity minutes his first two

Roth averaged 9.2 points in Centennial Conference games last year.

seasons but emerged last year to average 8.5 points per game, good for fourth on the team. “Coming back this year with all that experience, and we have so much talent, we have high expectations.”

Joining Roth in the backcourt are senior Chris MacIntosh and junior Brian Frankoski. MacIntosh started all but one game at point guard, leading the team with 74 assists and finishing third in the Centennial Conference in assist-to-turnover ratio. Frankoski earned his first varsity letter, averaging 15.3 minutes and 4.7 points per game.

Senior Mike Bernardini and junior Ryan Foster give the Mules versatility with their ability to play guard or forward. Bernardini led Muhlenberg in scoring, averaging 13.6 points per game, and showed the ability to carry the team in spots, most notably when he scored 30 points in back-to-back games. Foster made a team-leading 41 three-pointers and averaged 11.8 points.

Junior center Peter Barnes hopes to carry his strong finish over the 2008-09 campaign. He averaged 10.3 points and 7.7 rebounds while shooting 62.9 percent from the field over the last 10 games. Backing him up will be senior Tim Murray, who gave the Mules good minutes off the bench, averaging 3.4 points and 3.9 rebounds.

Junior forward Obi Nwizugbo enjoyed his best season last year, averaging 9.1 points (third on the team) and 5.1 rebounds (second) while posting a pair of double-doubles.

All told, Muhlenberg returns 95.7 percent of its scoring and 92.3 percent of its rebounding from last year. And the Mules hope to return 100 percent of what they learned.

“We were a real streaky team last year,” commented Roth. “We’d play well for a few games, but when we lost one or two it would kind of snowball and we’d lose four or five. When things aren’t going well we need to be able to fight through it and stick together.”