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Pointers favored to repeat titles

UW-Stevens Point again appears to a double threat in Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference basketball.

The Pointers are favored to repeat as men’s and women’s champions, according to a vote by the conference sports information directors.

Stevens Point’s men’s team received seven of the nine first-place votes. UW-Whitewater and UW-Oshkosh each got a first-place vote and are picked to finish second and third, respectively.

The Pointers, who return 50 percent of their scoring from last season, go into the men’s season ranked No. 10 nationally by D3hoops.com. It marks the 47th straight release of the poll that Stevens Point has been in the top 25.

Whitewater is No. 13 in the national ratings and has reached double figures in WIAC wins in seven of its eight seasons under coach Pat Miller, a Janesville native and former Craig High School basketball standout. The Warhawks won the WIAC title in 2008 and tied for second place last season.

Stevens Point’s women’s team got five first-place votes in the WIAC preseason poll and is No. 23 in the D3hoops.com ratings. Whitewater, ranked No. 8, received two first-place votes from the sports information directors and is picked to finish second, followed by UW-Eau Claire and UW-Stout, who got the other two first-place votes.

Whitewater has won 52 games in reaching the NCAA Division III tournament the last two seasons. The Warhawks finished third in the national tournament in 2008 after sharing the WIAC title with Eau Claire.

Stevens Point also is coming off back-to-back NCAA appearances—a first in the program’s history. The Pointers have had 20-plus victories eight the last nine seasons.