Men's Basketball Preview: Ready for more

SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio – Notre Dame Men’s Basketball hit a big goal last season when the Falcons advanced to post-season play for the first time since the program was instituted by NDC in 2001.  What happened in the post-season, however, has Head Coach Kevin Bille, the coaching staff, the players, and NDC fans believing that this is a program ready for another step.  Ready for more.  Ready for more games in late February…and maybe even March.

The Falcons went 19-14 a year ago and advanced to the finals of the American Mideast Conference (AMC) Qualifying Tournament.  Notre Dame’s 19 wins were the most in program history.  And two of those wins stand out above all others - Feb. 20 versus Geneva (PA) and Feb. 24 vs. Mt. Vernon Nazarene.

Rewind
With those two contests, and their combined 90 minutes of thrill-a-minute basketball, the Falcons won two improbable overtime games with a mix of clutch defense, long 3-pointers, dead-eye shooting, frenzied Murphy Gymnasium crowds, and a buzzer-beater against the No. 10 team in the country. For two games, the Falcons were the Cardiac Kids of College Road. 

Jerome Pierce (Sr/Toledo, OH) hitting for 45 points against Geneva, 36 over the game’s final 16 minutes.  Keith Bowden’s (Sr/Akron, OH) 10 rebounds against an oversized MVNU frontcourt.  Kyle Miller’s arcing game-winner against the ranked Cougars – “the Shot Heard ‘Round College Road.”  And Karim McFarlane’s (So/Portmore, Jamaica) 9-of-12, 21-point, 9-block performance rallying the home crowd against MVNU.

That NDC quartet led to the Falcons’ improbable match-up with Walsh in the circuit final – a game that the Blue & Gold would lose, 78-61, on the doorstep of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Tournament.  But the two home playoff wins could very well stand as a springboard for better things to come for the program.  They were two games that took place in front of a packed house in Murphy Gymnasium.  Two games that ended in delirium on College Road.  And that’s where the Falcons 2007-08 story begins.  At home.

Returnees
Notre Dame will open their season Friday, Nov. 9, on the very same home hardwood where Pierce, Bowden, Miller, and McFarlane resuscitated back-to-back cardiac comeback wins eight months ago.  And that core of talent returns to College Road to make another run at the AMC. 

Pierce returns for his senior season in Notre Dame blue and gold.  The veteran point guard heads into the 2007-08 season ranked No. 2 on Notre Dame’s all-time scoring list.  Pierce, who averaged 20.0 points per game last season as a junior, has scored 1,664 career points.  He trails Dave Hilborn (2001-05) by less than 200 points on the NDC career list; Hilborn scored 1,828 points in his four-year career.  Pierce has averaged 18.5 points per game over his 90-game collegiate career, and he’s been named First Team All-AMC North each of the last two seasons.

Bowden also returns for his senior season.  The forward from Akron, Ohio, earned his first All-Conference nod last season when he was tabbed for an Honorable Mention on the All-AMC North squad.  Bowden, who started all 33 of the Falcons’ games in 2006-07, averaged 5.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per game – all while shooting 53.7 percent (87-for-162) from the floor and playing outstanding defense.

He’s joined on the other wing by Miller, who enjoyed an excellent sophomore season last year.  The 6-foot-2 Piketon, Ohio native earned Third Team All-AMC North honors by averaging 14.8/4.9/3.5 (P/R/A).  Miller also connected on 44.6 percent (45-for-101) of his attempts from beyond the 3-point arc, which led the NDC squad.

During pre-season camp, Pierce, Bowden, and Miller were named tri-captains for this year’s team.  The veteran Blue & Gold triumvirate has a combined 211 games of experience at NDC.  The tri-captains were selected by a vote of NDC players.

Those three are joined by McFarlane, who’ll once again be expected to man the lanes as NDC’s top post player.  Last year as a freshman, McFarlane was recognized as a Second Team All-AMC North performer.  The 6-foot-7 Portmore, Jamaica native averaged 11.8 points and 6.2 rebounds per game.  McFarlane also shot 60.9 percent (162-for-266) from the floor and swatted away a school record 83 shots (2.5 blocks per game, 2nd-AMC).

Senior guard Casey McNeill (Ocala, FL), junior guard Jeff Johnson (Akron, OH), and sophomore center Danny Wright (Collins, OH) also return for NDC.  All three logged significant minutes on the Falcons’ bench last season.

Replacements
Joining that returning cast is a group of newcomers who could crack an eight or nine man rotation as the season progresses.  The fresh faces on this year’s team include junior forward transfer Dan Jones (Niles, OH), freshman forward Zach Jacobson (Windham, OH), freshman guard Eric Maag (Columbus Grove, OH), and freshman forward Paul Spencer (Mandeville, Jamaica).  Both Jacobson and Maag averaged over 18 points per game as high school seniors last year.

When the vets and newcomers alike take the floor on Nov. 9, against Ohio Dominican, they’ll be in friendly confines: the Falcons notched a 16-3 record on their home hardwood at Murphy Gymnasium last season.  The Falcons closed out their 06-07 home schedule with seven straight victories, including the last two (the post-season wins over Geneva and Mount Vernon Nazarene).  NDC will host a pair of early-season tournaments (Nov. 16-17 and Dec. 14-15) and play eight of their first 11 contests on College Road.

The Falcons will once again compete in the North Division of the 14-member American Mideast Conference.  AMC schools participate in the NAIA; 151 schools from 16 athletic conferences sponsor men’s basketball in the NAIA.

Ready
The goal of those AMC and NAIA schools is to make the field of 32 invited to the annual National Championship Tournament.  And judging by one particular measure, the NAIA Pre-Season Poll, Notre Dame is not going to sneak up on anyone in a drive toward 20 wins, a division crown, or a tournament bid.  The Falcons appeared at No. 14 in the poll, their first-ever appearance in the nation’s Top-25.

"I don't get into pre-season polls much because it's more important where you are at the end of the year," said Falcons' Head Coach Kevin Bille, who returns for his fifth season at the helm of the program. "But we're happy to be picked there, because we think we're going to be good. It's a nice sign of respect from other coaches. It's a big credit as well to the players, the coaching staff, and others at NDC who have put this program in a position to win. They all work extremely hard in order for us to be successful."

Notre Dame College is a co-educational liberal arts institution in South Euclid, Ohio. The Notre Dame Athletics Department sponsors the Falcons' participation in 17 men's and women's sports. The College is affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) and the American Mideast Conference (AMC), which is the largest NAIA conference in the country.

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