This year's team looks like it has a lot more depth than the team that won the whole thing in 2012. The Warhawks still have a lot of the key role players from that National Championship run (Quardell Young, Alex Merg, Cody Odegaard, Eric Bryson, Steve Egan, and Charlie Fisher). The thing with the players I just mentioned that proves that this team is a lot better than the team that won it in 2012. Those 6 players have now accepted higher roles on the team.
The Men's Basketball team at Whitewater has what some Division-III teams wish they all had and that is seven guys that can put their team on their back every night. That's different from the 2012 team because that team ran through the D-III National Athlete of the Year in Chris Davis. Quardell Young, Alex Merg, Cody Odegaard, and Eric Bryson were all supporting pieces that year and since the national championship have gained higher roles on the roster.
The big thing about this year's team that is different from 2012 team is that they have depth at all the positions. The Warhawks are loaded with depth at every position. At the guard spots, they got Quardell Young, Cody Odegaard, Alex Merg, KJ Evans, Pat Souter and Eric Bryson. Cody Odegaard will be a player to watch at the guard position. Odegaard was out for half the season last year and could have helped the team a lot down the stretch last year. Odegaard is one of those seven players that can lift the team on any given night. I can remember back to the 2012 Championship run to a playoff game where he went off on like 6 or 7 threes in a half. Charlie Fischer is out for the season with an ACL injury, so he won't factor into this season. In his place, look for Miles Chamberlin to step up. Chamberlin who actually faced Fischer in the State Championship game a few years ago was injured for most of the season last year. In addition to getting both Odegaard and Chamberlin back, the Warhawks added 5 more guards onto the roster. Rudy Bentley (Junior 5-8 guard) transferred to Whitewater from Carroll University. In high school, Bentley was a first team player and an All Big 8 selection at Madison East. In terms of the new recruits, they got four freshman guards that are new to the roster. The biggest name that everyone will recognize on the court is Eric Bryson's brother, Andrew (6-3 guard from Elkorn), who got 1st team All Southern Lakes while averaging 14.8 ppg. Clay Stevens is one of the other freshman guards on the roster as well. He got first team All State while averaging 20 ppg with a game high of 35 at Racine Lutheran. Ryan McBride is also one of the other freshman guards, he played at Brookfield East and was a second team All Metro selection in high school. The other big name freshman guard is Brian Roedl, who is the Warhawks first recruit from Idaho (Malad, Idaho to be exact), averaged 16ppg and 8 assists. So it looks like there aren't too many holes in terms of the Guards/Small Forward positions on the Warhawks roster.
Now onto the biggest question on the team, and it is sort of something the Warhawks had to deal with last year. One of the biggest threats for the Warhawks in 2012-2013 was center Darnell Harris. Harris was a basically a clone of Chris Davis last year. He was great down low in the paint and could hit threes from the arc just like Davis did for the Warhawks during the 2012 run to the National Championship. The freshman transferred out of Whitewater to Northwest Florida State College. Now in my opinion it won't be as hard to replace Darnell Harris as it was with Chris Davis. The biggest help at the center/power forward position with the loss of Darnell Harris is that they still have Reggie Hearn who played a lot of his time last year backing up Luke Knoble, but in a way Hearn is just like Davis and Harris can defend the ball, do well in paint, and also hit threes from the perimeter. I expect Reggie Hearn to take Darnell Harris' spot in the lineup at center and one of the reserves from last year (either Egan, Herum or perhaps the transfer in Bradley to take the power forward spot on the team). I do expect Jack Herum, Steve Egan, and Alex Legault to step up at this position this year to help replace the numbers that Darnell Harris had for the Warhawks last year. In addition to those three, the Warhawks also brought in a transfer from MATC in Terrance Bradley and a freshman from Hampshire, Ill. in Shane Hernandez. Now there's some depth there, but it will be tough to replace Darnell Harris in the lineup.
Darnell Harris wasn't the only person to leave the Men's Basketball program at Whitewater. Out is Lou Chapman in is Nick Bennett. Chapman who was a emotional assistant coach on Pat Miller's staff in past years is taking a year off and it is unclear if he'll return or what will happen in his coaching career. However, the Warhawks replace him with a guy with a lot of experience and coaching in his genes. Nick Bennett comes from a diverse coaching background. Bennett played at UW-Steven's Point under his dad Jack, who coached at Point from 1996 to 2005. Nick Bennett just like a lot of this roster has a lot of National Championship playing experience. Bennett played on two National Championship winning teams at UW-Steven's Point in 2004 and 2005. So he definitely will keep the winning mentality going for Pat Miller and his team. His uncle, Dick Bennett, as many Badgers fans can recall coached for the Badgers from 1995 to 2000. His uncle also coached at UW-Steven's Point from 1976 to 1985 and then coached at UW-Green Bay from 1985 to 1995 before coaching at Madison. His cousin, Tony is a head coach at the University of Virginia. Another cousin of Bennett's is Kathi Bennett, who coaches the Women's basketball team at Northern Illinois University. In addition to all of that, prior to being the new assistant at UW-Whitewater, Nick Bennett coached under Tom Crean at Marquette as well as stops at Florida Gulf Coast and Texas Pan American.
In terms of my expectations for this team. Well if the team stays healthy, I expect them to win the regular season WIAC title. If not that win the overall conference tournament. Those expectations seem like they could happen. Warhawks Men's Basketball Coach Pat Miller has never had a team with a losing record in his tenure (262-79) and none of his teams have ever finished lower than 4th in conference once. But my big predication is after all that to get into the NCAA Division-III tournament and ride their way to possibly hoisting their second National Championship in three years.
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