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What’s the story? Time will tell
for Monmouth men’s basketball
Release Date: November 10, 2006
MONMOUTH, Ill. — The entire
Monmouth College’s men’s basketball team could be an interesting
story this season as coach Terry Glasgow’s Fighting Scots try to
rebound from a disappointing 8-13 campaign.
But if nothing else, the Scots are full of interesting individual
stories. Here are a few of them:
- One of their possible starters,
Don Slach, graduated from high school more than six years ago.
Among the things the former Rock Island star has been doing in the
meantime is serving a year of duty in Iraq with his National Guard
unit.
- Another possible starter, Caleb
Bennett, has also taken some time off from basketball in his
career. Bennett was last on the Scots’ roster in 2004-05, one year
after transferring from Carl Sandburg College.
- A third potential starter is not
currently with the team, but it’s possible that David Price will
rejoin the Scots at the start of the spring semester. The 6-foot-6
Price came on midway through last season and was one of Monmouth’s
steadiest players, averaging 8.9 points and 5.3 rebounds while
shooting 57 percent from the field. Price’s absence is forcing
Glasgow to come up with an entirely new offensive scheme. “It’ll
look different to you,” he promises.
- Yet another possible starter is
Kyle Cook, who gained plenty of area prep accolades while
averaging 20 points per game for North Fulton. Now a college
sophomore, Cook is being counted on to take his game to his higher
level after scoring 46 total points his rookie year. “He’s looked
real good,” said Glasgow. “I’m excited about what he can do.”
- Back on the sidelines this
season is former basketball assistant Roger Sander. The school’s
head baseball coach since 1994, Sander is rejoining Glasgow after
more than a decade away from the hardwood. As a student, Sander
earned All-American honors playing for Glasgow, and the two also
experienced great successes when on the sidelines together,
winning conference championships in 1985, 1988 and 1990. Another
assistant on the team is retired Knoxville High School athletic
director Dave Whiteman.
In a nutshell, the story of last
year’s Fighting Scots was their inability to win close games, due in
part to woeful 59.7 accuracy from the free throw line “that sunk
this ship more than anything,” according to Glasgow. Monmouth lost
four Midwest Conference contests in overtime, and the Scots also
fell by single digits in five other league games, including a
spirited 75-68 loss to a Lawrence team that was ranked No. 1 in the
nation for much of the year.
Monmouth proved it could play with anyone on its schedule, but
proving it can take the next step and beat the teams on its schedule
will be the challenge this year. That schedule will certainly not be
an easy one, especially the 2006 dates. The Scots open at Central
Missouri State on Nov. 18, and Monmouth’s first three MWC games are
on the road in early December against preseason playoff favorites
Carroll, Lawrence and Grinnell. Carroll and Lawrence, in fact, are
ranked in the nation’s top 20 to open the season. If the Scots, who
are ranked ninth, can hang around the league race long enough,
they’ll be rewarded in the end, when they close by playing five of
their last six in the friendly confines of Glennie Gym.
“Our ranking is well-deserved,” said Glasgow. “We’re hopeful we can
come in under the radar. By the first of the year, we’re hoping to
be a force to be dealt with.”
On the floor, Monmouth’s biggest story of last season was Joe
Terwelp. The 6-5 forward opened eyes with a 35-point night in the
Scots’ second game of the season, making 15-of-17 shots against
Eureka. Accuracy continued to be a Terwelp trademark throughout the
year, and he finished as the nation’s sixth-leading shooter at 66.2
percent while leading the team in scoring (14.7) and rebounding
(6.8). With Price out of the lineup, Terwelp will spend the majority
of his playing time as the team’s lone post option.
“He’ll get his points no matter what anybody says,” said Glasgow of
the former Quincy Notre Dame standout.
Another player who might be able to help inside is junior Andy
Moore, arguably the team’s most gifted athlete. He stands 6-5 and
gets off the floor well, as evidenced by his team-best 13 blocked
shots. However, 54 of his 80 field goal attempts last year came from
beyond the arc.
Other players who might help out in the paint are the junior trio of
Jesse Haskett, Wes Wrage and Brett Peurach, and 6-5 freshman Zach
Stuaan (Bushnell-Prairie City). That quartet has just 49 combined
minutes of college experience, however.
“Our weakness will be scoring and size,” said Glasgow, who has a
record of 458-302 in 34 seasons as Monmouth’s head coach “Our
strengths will be our depth, quickness and athleticism. We’re
tougher and quicker this year. We’re not a scoring team, but we’ll
be much, much better defensively.”
As always, Monmouth’s roster features some big-time shooters, and
the best of the bunch is senior guard Raun Singleton. A year ago,
the ICC transfer and former Roseville star made 41 three-pointers on
42 percent accuracy and averaged 8.9 points per game.
Junior Blaise Rogers also showed a good shooting touch, scoring 6.9
points per game while shooting 47 percent from the field. At 6-4 and
possessing some of the same slashing and hanging skills that made
recent graduate Travis Miller such a standout, Rogers could net many
of his points from the paint area.
Those are the proven shooters, but several other Scots are,
literally, waiting on the wing. Junior Scott Scholten, sophomore
Corey Turner and freshman Scott Ubbenga (Hartsburg-Emden) can all
fill it up from outside. Scholten has been a point guard in training
for two seasons, while Turner and Ubbenga, a perennial three-point
shootout finalist in high school, are more suited for the 2 or 3
slots.
Two other players with starting potential are Slach, who is also a
former ICC player, and Bennett. The duo has 58 minutes of experience
at the four-year college level (all by Bennett in 2004-05), but they
both bring solid basketball backgrounds and a hard-nosed edge that
should serve them well in the physical Midwest Conference. Slach is
a 6-2 swingman, while the 5-11 Bennett will be asked to run the
point.
“His return has made a big difference,” said Glasgow of Bennett, who
was recovering from a broken foot last year. “We’ll get better
defense at the point guard position than we did a year ago.”
The Reschke brothers, Josh and Luke, round out the players in
Monmouth’s regular rotation. Luke, the younger Reschke, earned a
starting spot in Monmouth’s scrimmage against Coe, along with
Bennett, Rogers, Moore and Terwelp.
“Both of them bring a toughness to our team that was missing a year
ago,” said Glasgow, who said the same is true of Slach and Bennett.
Rounding out Monmouth’s roster are juniors Chris Walker and Bob
Hoffman and freshmen Tyler Morrow (East Peoria), Matt McElhoe
(Armstrong), Adam Manthe (Geneseo) and Garrett White (Jacksonville).
“In general, last year was a disaster, based on the standards we
have here at Monmouth College,” said Glasgow. “It was a complete
disaster from top to bottom. The coaching was miserable and the
playing was miserable. We never got out of square one.”
The veteran coach promises a different story this year.
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