Ottawa, Sterling picked as KCAC faves

The coaches and media at Tuesday’s Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Basketball Media Day at Garvey Gym in Wichita were close to unanimous agreement.

Defending champion Ottawa was named the men’s favorite while Sterling was picked to repeat as the women’s champion,

In the men’s coaches poll, Ottawa received nine of 10 first-place coaches votes and was one point away from being unanimous. Southwestern was picked second and Tabor was picked third. Tabor took the 10th first-place vote.

Ottawa took 10 of 11 first-place media votes. Southwestern was second with the other first-place vote. Kansas Wesleyan was picked third. Tabor was picked sixth.

Bethel was picked eighth by the coaches and seventh by the media.

Ottawa was 24-9 last season, 14-4 in KCAC play. The Braves lost in the finals of the KCAC post-season tournament to Friends and went 1-1 at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Division II nationals.

The Braves return three starters, including third-team All-American Davis Birch and honorable mention All-American Phil McClintock.

“We had a great team last year, real enjoyable,” said Ottawa coach Andy Carrier, who begins his 19th season. “We have a significant core of that program returning. We did lose five seniors. Two of those were starters. ... I think the league is up. There are a lot of young teams in the league, extremely talented. I want to talk about last year, my guys wants to talk about last year, but I know this year will be nothing like last year.”

Bethel men’s coach Mark Yoder begins the second season of his second tenure, his seventh overall. Bethel was 9-20 last year, 5-13 in the conference. Bethel went 1-1 in the conference post-season tournament, losing to Ottawa in the quarterfinals.

Bethel will be led by the senior cadre of Jordon Regehr, Scott Goering, Brent Stutzman, Todd Rambo, Cody Cole and Dustin Ketchum. Most of them started at one point or another in the season. Several also had injury problems at one point or another.

“We are fortunate to have a pretty good group of seniors back, but they haven’t experienced a lot of success,” Yoder said. “Getting off to a quick start in the season will help. ... We will be deeper. We will be more athletic this year. We will shoot the ball well.”

Tabor coach Micah Ratzlaff begins his second season with the Bluejays, where he was 13-17, 9-9 in the conference. Tabor went 1-1 in the post-season tournament, falling to Friends.

Tabor returns three All-KCAC picks from last season — seniors Aaron Whitelaw and Zack Vanselow and junior Orson Thomas.

“I’m really excited about this year,” Ratzlaff said. “We have 13 lettermen back, so we have a lot of experience. We also have four starters back. It’s nice to have that experience back. It makes my job a little easier.”

The Sterling women were picked by both the coaches and media to repeat. The Warriors claimed nine of 10 first-place votes in the coaches’ poll, followed by Southwestern with the other. Tabor was picked third and Bethel picked sixth.

In the media poll, Sterling was the unanimous pick in the poll. Southwestern was second, Tabor was third and Bethel was picked sixth.

Sterling was 23-8 last season, 17-1 in the conference. The Warriors won the post-season tournament and lost in the first round of the national tournament.

Coach Lonnie Kruse became the winningest women’s coach in college basketball in the state of Kansas last season. In 27 seasons, he is 583-180.

The team returns all five starters, including second-team All-American Ashley Craft, the conference player of the year; and first-team All-KCAC player Hillary Stucky. A top newcomer is Berean Academy grad Catheryn Wiebe, who helped lead the Warriors to a Class 2A state title.

“Basically, I’d like to emphasize for us depth, the number of players we have in our program,” Kruse said. “We have 28 players in our program. There have been a lot of years in my 27 years where we had a lot of player returning, but never as many as this year. We have 12 lettermen back. We didn’t lose anybody. We have four All-KCAC players back.”

The Tabor women, under second-year coach Shawn Winter, lost four seniors from last year, but returns starters Kirsten Watson and Brittany Roth. Chelsea Malone had eight starts last year and Stephanie Silvas had one start.

Tabor was 12-18 last season, 10-8 in the conference. The Bluejays lost to Sterling in overtime in the conference tournament semifinals.

“I’m really excited about this year’s team,” Winter said. “I feel like we lost one of the best four-year players in the conference in a while in Stacie Herman, but like (another coach) said, sometimes a loss like that can make your team better. They wake up and play better. ... I think we’re going to surprise some people this year.”

Bethel was 13-16 last season, 6-12 in KCAC play. Bethel lost to Southwestern in the KCAC tournament quarterfinals.

Bethel returns nine letterwinners, including four starters — honorable mention All-KCAC Hannah Blackburn, KCAC freshman of the year and All-KCAC pick Amanda Hiebert, KCAC All-Freshman team selection Angela Wood and sophomore Rachael Bachman.

Coach Mark Fox begins his fourth season at Bethel.

“It’s a tough conference,” Fox said. “I say that a little bit sarcastically and tongue-in-cheek, but at the same time, it’s a battle day-in and day-out in this conference. It’s been a tremendous learning experience for me in my first three years. ... We have approximately 80 percent of our scoring returning, 65 percent of our rebounding and 70 to 75 percent of our minutes returning.”

One thing Fox won’t have this season is a senior night, unless someone graduates early. Blackburn is the sole junior on the roster. There are seven sophomores and eight freshmen listed.

New coaches introduced for this season include both McPherson College coaches. Men’s coach Tim Swartzendruber spent the past four seasons at Hesston College, where he was 70-56, bringing several HC grads from last season with him.

McPherson women’s coach Shelly Prescott is a McPherson High grad, where she won two state titles. She played in college at Briar Cliff University, reaching the NAIA Division II final four in 2002, but injuries relegated her to a role as a student assistant. She was an assistant at McPherson College the last three seasons.

Jon Bishop begins his first season as men’s coach at the University of Saint Mary. He was associate head coach at Pratt Community College last season and spent two seasons as an assistant at Missouri Western and two seasons at his alma mater Kansas Wesleyan.

The Bethel men open the season Oct. 31 at Northwestern Oklahoma State. The Bethel women open at home Nov. 10 against Central Christian.

The Tabor men open the season Nov. 8 at Rogers State. The TC women open Nov. 4 at Baker.