Bryson Fonville had some impressive performances last season, including a 38-point game in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Catholic University athletics photo

By Rob Knox

Just because the Catholic men’s basketball team has a single-digit ranking in front of its name as the 2015-16 season dawns, the expectations haven’t changed for one of Division III’s longtime contenders.

Veteran coach Steve Howes has embraced the lofty expectations for his Cardinals. However, the Landmark Conference favorites have grander goals than being ranked in the preseason poll. They are focused, hungry and determined to finish as the last Division III men's basketball team standing in Salem in March.

“It’s great to be recognized preseason and postseason, but we liked to be ranked higher at the end of the year,” Howes said. “The (national ranking) is great for recruiting, university pride and for excitement on campus with the season starting. However, we understand this has to be earned every single day in practice. It does place a big target on you, but we’re excited for the challenges ahead of us this season.

“This is why (my players) came to Catholic – because we have a tradition of excellence. The expectations are always high and dreams are always big.”

After all, Howes has taken the baton from former coach Mike Lonegran, now the head coach at crosstown George Washington, and kept the program at a consistent level. Howes has guided CUA to six 20-win seasons, nine postseason tournaments, three conference championships, two regular-season titles and four NCAA Tournaments. The Cardinals, who won the 2001 national championship, are used to aspiring to compete at an elite level so a little preseason attention shouldn’t rattle them.

“Of course, who wouldn’t want that?” Howes said. “There are years when you’d like to see your name up that high. We have to embrace it and try to do better. Life is short. Our goals are to get to Salem. It’s great recognition of what we have now and the proud tradition of the program from the coaches who been have been here. We’re humbled, excited and hopefully we can play at a consistently high level this year.”

Playing at a high level this season shouldn’t be a concern for the Cardinals, who are loaded, returning all five starters and 13 letterwinners returning from last year's team. Catholic won 23 games, the Landmark's regular-season title and a game in the NCAA Tournament against Alvernia.

The Cardinals have several go-to players, most notably Bryson Fonville (16.7 points, 5.4 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 1.8 steals per game). The senior guard, who earned the Landmark Conference's Player of the Year award and was an honorable mention All-American selection during the 2014-15 campaign, was named a preseason first-team All-American by D3hoops.com.

He is a beast and the engine that fuels the Cardinals high-powered machine. The Greensboro, N.C., native played all 40 minutes seven times last season, going over 20 points on six occasions including a career-high and incandescent 38 in CUA's NCAA Tournament first round victory over Alvernia.

“It’s a good achievement to be recognized, but we understand that it’s just somebody’s opinion,” Fonville said. “Every night we understand that we are playing a different team and have to bring it each in order to reach our goals. (Being named a preseason All-American) is a major accomplishment for me individually, but it only happens because of how well our team does collectively.”

Believe it or not, there was a time when Fonville’s goal was just to earn a few minutes of playing time as a backup, which is a thought foreign to those that have witnessed his mesmerizing and dynamic game. It's comparable to somebody like Beyonce asking just to be a background dancer.

“He’s the best point guard in country and I glad he’s getting recognition,” Howes said. “He’s a humble young man with enormous talent and he does a great job of getting his teammates involved in the game. He’s efficient as a point guard but at the same time he’s an explosive athlete who can get us baskets when they are needed. I remember a young man who was quiet when he first got here and all he wanted to do was earn a spot as a backup. Of course, he goes on to start that year and leads us to the NCAA Tournament. He’s a vocal leader, mature and makes everyone on the floor better.”

Sophomore forward Jay Howard (17 points, six rebounds per game), who was chosen as the conference's Rookie of the Year, is thankful for Fonville. Howard reached double-digits in scoring 10 times last season. The 6-3 Howard also made 53.3 percent of his shots. Junior forward Corey Stanford  (14.6 points, 7.8 rebounds per game) will add production and leadership to a formidable lineup.

“The national ranking really means nothing now,” Howard said. “It’s nice to be sixth in the country now, but we want to be higher in March. For that to happen, we have to work hard and push each other in practice and during games. That will allow us to go far. We also have a group of guys that know when to have fun and are really tight as a group, which allows us to play better as a team.”

The Cardinals aren’t finished with the weapons.

Senior guard Kyle Phanord  (9.8 points, 2.3 rebounds) is the reigning Landmark Defensive Player of the Year. Senior forward Austin Calling  (6.6 points, 4.9 rebounds) is another effective option in the low post.

“We have to be who we are,” Howes said. “That means zero ego. I have a great group of young men who are tight and want to achieve something special. They compete hard every day in practice and enjoy each other. There’s no selfishness among this group. They are an enjoyable group in a me-first culture.”

Of course, Catholic’s opponents may not find the Cardinals so enjoyable on the floor during the season.

Guilford steps onto big stage

Guilford got a chance to play a preseason game on a huge stage. Guilford athletics photo

Like Catholic, Guilford has solidly built a reputation as one of the nation’s premiere programs under veteran coach Tom Palumbo. So it was nice to see the Quakers get an opportunity to compete against preseason No. 1 North Carolina at the Dean E. Smith recently. Predictably, Guilford lost on the scoreboard, 99-49.

However, the Quakers won everything else that evening including the respect and admiration of UNC head coach Roy Williams, who addressed the Quakers following the game. The Quakers social media team did a great job of tweeting photos of Williams addressing the team in the locker room postgame.

“It was a great experience and a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Guilford’s Zachary Houston said. “We were looking forward to the game and it went by rather quickly. We soaked it up and had a good time. It was nice to hear from (Williams) after the game. He told us we did a good job and he’s going to follow us this season.”

Palumbo’s connections in high places helped make this matchup a reality as well as certain Guilford alum with major Atlantic Coast Conference ties, former Wake Forest coach Dave Odom. It also helped that the junior varsity teams for UNC and Guilford consistently play one another.

“One of my former players, Caleb Kimbrough is one of my assistant coaches,” Palumbo said. “He developed a great relationship with their assistant coaches. We had been hesitant to ask for a game. Eventually, we asked and we talked about our basketball history and academic reputation. The associate athletics director said he would talk with coach Williams. We also reached out to Odom, who knew the associate AD and coach Williams. He spoke with both of them and next thing we knew, we got an email asking if we were available on Nov. 6. If we weren’t, we would have made ourselves available. It was pretty cool.”

Quite naturally, the players had a great time snapping selfies, playing in front of 12,000 fans, scoring the first basket against the Tar Heels and gazing up at the rafters at basketball royalty as the jerseys of Jordan, Perkins, Worthy, and others looked down upon Guilford, which is picked fifth in the ODAC preseason coaches’ poll.

Part of the reason for the lower than usual preseason poll position is Guilford will miss 2014-15 ODAC Player of the Year and third team All-American Matt McCarthy from last year’s 18-9 team. 

“That experience is only going to help us,” said Houston who scored a team-high 14 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out six assists. “They are some of the best players and it was a great opportunity for us to get better. We realized if we can compete with them, then we can compete with anybody in Division III. We scored the first basket and was up 2-0 so that’s definitely something I will always remember that.”

Guilford's Will Freeman  scored the game's opening points on an inside basket and the Quakers never stopped working hard. Guilford was within 10 points of the nation's top-ranked team at 26-16 with 8:44 to play after Houston's 3-pointer.

Houston made six of eight shots from the floor and showed no fear when matched up against the No. 1 men's basketball team in the nation. Rookie Trevor Mayo  played beyond his years with nine points and three steals. Freeman finished with seven points with three field goals and a free throw. The Quakers' lone senior did not stop working the entire night, despite giving away inches and pounds to one of America's finest frontcourts.

Guilford has enjoyed an amazing offseason experience as it also played two games in Canada during its fall break.

“We were fortunate to go to Final Four in 2009-10,” Palumbo said. “Playing North Carolina ranks right behind that experience. North Carolina treated us like we belonged. It was just a really cool experience. When you look at it, we won’t play in front of 12,000 fans this season. Being on the same court that’s going to host North Carolina and Duke and competing with them gives us confidence heading into the season. Coach Williams was gracious and spoke to me before the game and said he wanted to get something out of the game. I believe they did. I know we did because we didn’t back down and never gave in.”

Remember the Titans

UW-Oshkosh women are picked to the win WIAC partly because they return 81.7 percent of its scoring from last season’s 23-win NCAA Tournament team. It’s another reason why the Titans are ranked seventh in the preseason D3hoops.com Top 25 poll. UW-Oshkosh fourth-year head coach Brad Fischer (69-17 record) welcomes back four starters and eight of his top nine scorers from last year's squad that won the WIAC tournament for the second straight season.

The Titans led the WIAC in field goal percentage (.429), turnover margin (plus-3.6) and scoring margin (plus-11.7). Returning from last season's starting lineup are guards Ashley Neustifter and Taylor Schmidt, and forwards Alex Richard and Marissa Selner.

Schmidt, who was recently named to the D3hoops.com preseason All-America Third Team, led the Titans with 11 points per game and 93 assists a year ago. She was named to the All-WIAC First Team and D3hoops.com All-Central Region Second Team. An 80 percent free-throw shooter, Schmidt scored 329 points, which was fourth in the WIAC. She ranked 10th in scoring average, fifth in assists, seventh with 53 steals and eighth in free throw percentage.

She has started all of UW-Oshkosh's 60 games in her first two seasons. For her career, Schmidt has averaged 10.6 points, 3 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals per contest while making 78.6 percent (246-313) of her attempts from the free throw line.

Neustifter contributed 7.2 points per contest last season and finished second on the team with 83 assists. Richard averaged 8.6 points last year with team-best totals of 182 rebounds and 36 blocks.

Selner paced the Titans with a .548 (85-155) field goal percentage while listing second with 168 rebounds. Key reserves returning from last year's team is guard Emma Melotik and forwards Eliza Campbell and Madeline Staples. Campbell was second on the Titans with 8.9 points per contest, including a career-high 29-point outburst in the NCAA tournament opener against North Central (Ill.). Melotik and Staples both contributed 3.4 points per game. 

Help me

I am serving as the national columnist this season for D3hoops.com for a second season. To help with telling the best stories, delivering fun and insightful nuggets while providing teams the recognition they deserve, please add me to your email list for press releases and postgame releases at rob.knox@d3sports.com. Don’t worry about flooding my inbox. I am also going to try to get as many names into my column as possible and will do so in the weekly shout-out portion.

Also, feel free to follow me on Twitter @knoxrob1.

Around the Nation was writen by Rob Knox during the 2015-16 season. A former Division III Sports Information Director at Lincoln University, Rob Knox also worked at Coppin State, ESPN, Kutztown and at the Delaware County (Pa.) Daily Times. He was inducted into the Lincoln University Athletics Hall of Fame, named the CoSIDA Rising Star Award College Division winner and won three writing awards for various game stories including the 2007 D-III sectional triple-OT game between Guilford and Lincoln. In the past, he has also written articles for SLAM magazine and the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan, a graduate of Lincoln and is from Chester, Pa.