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Hillsdale College men’s basketball game notes – March 10, 2012

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March 6, 2012 – For the first time in a decade, the Hillsdale College men’s basketball team is dancing.

Now, it’s fairly certain that the players on this 2011-12 Charger men’s basketball team has shown off a dance move or two somewhere along the line in the past 10 years. But this is the best kind of “dancing” any basketball team could do, with moves that only come out in March. The 24-5 Chargers have earned the No. 3 seed in this year’s Midwest Regional Tournament, and will face the University of Indianapolis at noon Saturday at Bellarmine University’s Knights Hall. The Hillsdale-UIndy game will be the first of four regional quarterfinal games on the Louisville, Kentucky campus.

The other first-round matchups are: Bellarmine vs. Lewis, Southern Indiana vs. Kentucky Wesleyan and Northern Kentucky vs. Findlay. The regional semifinals are scheduled for 5 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday, and the Midwest Regional Final will be contested at 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 13. Tickets are $12 for reserved seats, $10 for general admission seats and $5 for students. Tickets will go on sale starting at 9 a.m. Wednesday, March 7, and will also be available at the Knights Hall ticket window the day of the games.

Hillsdale’s first foray into the national tournament since 2002 comes on the heels of a topsy-turvy weekend. The Chargers hosted the GLIAC Tournament for the first time in their history, and thumped Michigan Tech 84-62 in the semifinals, before losing to the University of Findlay 71-52 in Sunday’s championship game. The Chargers finished the season ranked 20th in the NABC Division II Top 25 poll, one of an amazing six teams in this region that are in the top 25 in the country.

Awaiting the Chargers in the first round of the regional tournament is a fairly familiar foe. The University of Indianapolis comes into the postseason with an overall record of 19-8, and the Greyhounds finished 12-6 in the ultra-tough Great Lakes Valley Conference. Hillsdale and Indianapolis played one another four consecutive years from 2004-05 through 2008-09. The teams are 4-4 in eight all-time meetings between one another, though this is the first time these two programs have locked horns in the postseason.

At worst, Hillsdale will finish with a tie for its best-ever winning percentage in a season (.800) this year, and the team claimed its first-ever outright GLIAC South Division championship. The Chargers were also the 2012 GLIAC regular season champions, winning the conference by two games over every other team. The formula for that kind of season comes by mixing in offensive balance, team chemistry, superior coaching and a commitment to defense. Four players average double figures in scoring for Hillsdale, and six different players have registered a 20-point game this season.

Senior Brad Guinane emerged as the team’s leading scorer this season with 14 points per game. He scored a career-high 30 in the conference tournament semifinal vs. Michigan Tech March 3. He was named to the GLIAC All-Tournament Team, along with sophomore teammate Tim Dezelski.

Hillsdale is a well-experienced team, with four of the starters finishing their third season together. Since the middle of the 2009-10 season, the Chargers have an overall record of 58-14, all of those coming with starters Guinane, Tyler Gerber, Nick Washburn and Brent Eaton forming one of the region’s best teams.

Hillsdale will be facing a UIndy team that has enjoyed some spectacular moments during the season. The Greyhounds have defeated two No.1-ranked teams during the season (Bellarmine, Southern Indiana) and are a team capable of some huge scoring games. Indianapolis has 12 games of scoring at least 83 points this season. The Greyhounds have won seven games by five points or less, but have been outscored by an average of 12 points per game in their eight losses.

One matchup to watch in this game will be at the point guard position, where Gerber and UIndy’s Adrian Moss will go head-to-head. Moss is a 5-foot-9 guard with tremendous quickness. He’s averaging 19 points per game, so containing him will fall to not only Gerber, but shooting guards Brandon Pritzl and Darius Ware. Both sophomore guards are strong, quick and lanky.

One interesting note: Hillsdale and Indianapolis, despite never having played in the men's basketball postseason, have been common opponents in other sports in the NCAA Tournament. The last time the Charger women's basketball team made it to the regional tournament (2009), they faced the Greyhounds. The powerhouse volleyball programs from these schools have faced off in the NCAAs four times in the past five years.