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Warhawk basketball flying high

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Pat Miller

While most of the attention on the UW-Whitewater athletic front has been on the football team, Pat Miller has another men’s basketball team rolling.

The Warhawks have a 5-0 record and are averaging 98.2 points a game as they prepare for tonight’s Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference opener at UW-La Crosse.

Last year, the Warhawks finished with a 23-6 record, losing in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

This year, the young squad will get an early test with four conference games in the next 11 games, including road games at La Crosse (tonight), Stout (Saturday) and Superior (Dec. 12).

If the Warhawks come out of the first four games with their head above water, they will have a home-friendly schedule for the final two-plus months of the season.

The perfect record after five nonconference games has Miller optimistic the team can be successful after losing senior guards Myles McKay (20.2 ppg) and Matt Goodwin (13.1), and forwards Kori Vernon (13.0) and Billy Kolinski (5.7) to graduation.

“I feel pretty good,” said Miller, who has averaged 21 victories a year in his first eight seasons at Whitewater.

“Going into the year, I thought there were a lot of questions to be answered. Would Phil Negri and Dustin Mitchell be able to elevate their games? Would Alex Edmunds, who has been in our program, be able to become a starter and become a contributing player?”

Those questions have been answered in the affirmative after the first five games.

Mitchell, a 6-foot-9 senior forward/center, leads the team in scoring (20.6) and rebounding (10.6). Mitchell, who earned All-WIAC honorable mention coming off the bench last year, has made 40 of 56 field-goal attempts (71.4 percent).

“He has really worked on his game,” Miller said. “He’s gotten stronger. He can step back and shoot the three. He has some very good passers around him, and he has done a much better job getting the ball out of the post.”

Six-foot-6 senior forward Mike Bendall and 6-4 sophomore Alex Edmunds join Mitchell in the starting frontcourt.

Bendall sat out last season with an injury and has averaged 10.4 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

Edmunds has a 9.6-point average, and has made 14 of 18 shots from the field (77.8 percent) and 20 of 24 free throws (83.3 percent).

Negri, a 6-3 junior, and 6-1 freshman Nolan Free start in the backcourt.

Negri started 17 games last season and has averaged 10.2 points and has a team-high 35 assists. He has been slowed by a groin injury.

Free, the top high-school scorer in the state last year at Sheboygan North, has averaged 10 points a game, but also has a team-high eight steals.

“He has been a great addition,” Miller said. “He looks like a junior or senior out on the court. He is a strong kid and makes open shots.”

Janesville Craig graduate Lucas Burns transferred to Whitewater from Concordia-St. Paul. The 6-foot-6 freshman has averaged 15 minutes of playing time, with a 6.6-point scoring average and 2.4-rebound average.

“He keeps getting better,” said Miller, also a Craig graduate. “He passes well, but just has to get a little tighter with the ball in the post. He’ll get better as he goes along.”

D.J. Dantzler, a 6-foot junior guard who transferred in from UW-Parkside, and 6-5 freshman guard/forward Luke Knoble also have provided quality minutes.

The Warhawks have been without 6-3 junior forward/guard Chris Vines the past week with an ankle injury. Vines played in 29 games and averaged 6.3 points last season.

Miller said Vines was scheduled to get an MRI today and has bone spurs, which has hampered him since the season opened. He is hopeful that Vines can return by the time the 2010 portion of the schedule begins.

In addition, 6-foot senior guard Dupree Fletcher will be eligible to join the team for the second semester.

The Warhawks will need all the firepower they have to compete for the WIAC title.

UW-Stevens Point has a 5-0 record, including victories over ranked teams Puget Sound and Whitworth, while La Crosse is 5-1 with its only loss against NAIA Dakota Wesleyan.

Eau Claire is 4-1 with a win over Puget Sound, and River Falls (2-3) lost to ranked St. Thomas by a point and to NAIA Sioux Falls.

Miller says this year’s edition of the Warhawks is different than the ones he has had in recent seasons.

“We’re not as athletic as we’ve been,” Miller said. “We don’t have as many guys that can beat defenders off the dribble.

“But we move the ball much better and will be more difficult to guard because of the way we space the floor.

“The key will be how well we defend and how well we rebound,” Miller said.