Marietta hoisted the OAC trophy last season and advanced to the Sweet 16. Many of these players are back. Most will be in uniform Nov. 15 at Denison. Marietta file photo by Mitch Case Photography

After elevating expectations in his first three seasons on Marietta's men's basketball sideline, Jon VanderWal finds himself tempering optimism within the suddenly basketball-crazy community that Marietta, Ohio, evolved into since the Pioneers' unprecedented Sweet 16 run last March.

Especially since one of his two preseason All-Americans will miss the opening stretch of this season.

Following back surgery for a bulging disc earlier this week, senior guard Trevor Halter will miss anywhere from 3-7 weeks, leaving the Pioneers' fourth-year coach to replace the program's first-ever Ohio Athletic Conference Player of the Year and a D3hoops.com Preseason Second Team All-American.

“We're trying to bring some other guys along. We're not going to use that as an excuse by any means,” VanderWal said. “We have a really deep team.”

Although the challenge of replacing Halter's 1,203 career points appears daunting, VanderWal's roster is flush with the type of depth one would expect from a Top 10 team and aspiring national-championship contender. A few offseasons of astute recruiting has stockpiled the type of talent the Pioneers lacked while lingering for years in the lower depths of the OAC standings.

Perhaps this best explains why the other half of Marietta's dynamic duo, Preseason Fourth Team All-American and 6-6 senior forward Kevin Knab, conceded that while losing Halter and his 15.1 points per game is “definitely a bit of a concern” it also offers the opportunity to strengthen the Pioneers for a deeper run through the NCAA brackets this March.

“It's going to give us a chance to develop some other players,” Knab said. “Whether it's three, four, five weeks, we're going to be that much better (when Halter returns).”

Once again, VanderWal's rotation will extend “at least 10 deep again.” To combat the loss of Halter's experience and scoring, he will slot in do-everything senior captain Joe Puch as a starter on the wing while also relying upon 5-11 freshman Brennan McKean – a prospect from Wooster, Ohio, the coach called “a big recruit for us” – to provide some scoring punch.

While Halter heals, Knab (14.8 points per game, 6.1 rebounds, 61.5 FG%) and sophomore point guard Tyler Hammond (11.1 ppg, 3.0 apg) will serve as the Pioneers' primary scorers, although five other returnees averaged between 5.4 and 6.9 points last winter: 5-9 junior point guard Jacob Owens, Puch, 6-4 junior wing J.J. Martin, 6-5 junior forward Jason Humphrey and 6-7 senior forward Connor Kilpatrick.

“When Trevor gets back, we're going to be throwing a lot of familiar faces out there,” VanderWal said.

Faces the Marietta faithful promise to watch in full force beginning with the Marietta Shrine Tournament on Nov. 18-20 that includes games against Methodist and Kenyon. Although the Ban Johnson Arena might not sell out in 45 minutes as it did during the Pioneers' storybook surge to an OAC crown and a spot in the Sweet 16, expectations are bigger than they have ever been in this newfound-basketball hotbed.

And that is just fine with Knab, who spoke for his teammates when he said, “I think we're more driven by the fact that we're a target. We know we're going to get another team's best shot.”

How well Marietta handles being viewed as the big game on every opponent's schedule – especially until Halter returns – could determine whether we see an encore of last season in southeastern Ohio.

“We try to put a positive a spin on everything,” VanderWal said. “If we can weather the storm the first month of the season and then bring Trevor back into the mix, it's go to make us that much more lethal really.”

Meek feeling stronger at George Fox

At this time last year, Michael Meek found himself simply trying to grasp the college game after transitioning from a stellar career guiding Southridge High School to five Oregon large-school championships. Even with all of the experience and talent left behind by Scott Rueck, who piloted the 2009 national championship run before taking the reins at Division I Oregon State last winter, the Bruins' new bench boss was trying to implement new methods to a mostly unfamiliar roster.

“I felt like I came in not know what half our kids, maybe more, could do,” Meek said. “I didn't even know where to be last year because it was a new group. You can go back and watch video but it only gives you so much.”

Eventually, George Fox did last season what it does seemingly every year lately: make noise in March Madness. The Bruins made a third consecutive run to the Elite 8, earned a share of their fifth-consecutive Northwest Conference crown and finished 25-6 – the fourth time in as many years the program recorded 25 victories.

Keisha Gordon averaged 12.7 points per game as a freshman on the Bruins' national title team, one of four players still on the roster from 2009. George Fox athletics photo

With Meek even more comfortable at the controls, and 13 players returning from 2010-11, George Fox is primed from another big tournament run. This fall, the coach has not needed to introduce new terminology to the No. 3 team in our preseason rankings – an important shape-shift from last October and November when the Bruins were learning the demands of their new coach and suffered two setbacks by Dec. 5.

“I have 13 kids that have a very good foundation of what we want,” Meek said. “Now it's just kind of making some changes to some of our new kids.”

Of the newcomers, freshmen guards Dacia Heckendorf and Jami Roos have already impressed: Roos poured in a game-high 23 points to power a 70-67 exhibition victory over Division II Seattle Pacific on Nov. 4, while Heckendorf provided a steady 21-minute, six-point performance off the bench.

Last year, Meek admitted, “We didn't have super depth in our guard play. Both of those kids should help with our scoring depth.”

Arguably, George Fox possesses the nation's best frontcourt pairing in 2010-11 Second Team All-American 6-5 junior center Hannah Munger (16.2 ppg, 10.1 rpg, 3.0 bpg) and senior Keisha Gordon (15.3 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 3.3 apg). Munger (second) and Gordon (third) make the Bruins the nation's only team with two players on the first three D3hoops.com Women's All-American teams.

Although Gordon and Munger are the preseason all-star candidates, they will likely be rejoined in the starting lineup by sophomores Megan Arnoldy (6.1 ppg) and Hayley Cusick (8.2 ppg), as well as senior Arianna Mohsenian (7.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg). In addition to the additions of Heckendorf and Roos, senior guard/forward Carrie Meyers scored 14 points against Seattle Pacific.

Even so, Meek expects the Northwest Conference to prove highly competitive again this winter, which should leave the Bruins plenty battle-tested come tournament time. Just as it did last year, when they reached the Elite 8 after the coach and his new roster experienced some early growing pains.

“I definitely feel like we're in a much different place than we were last year,” Meek said. “I feel like we're in a much better, more confident place as a program right now.”

A powerful preseason

With three teams apiece in our Preseason Top 25 polls, the New England Small College Athletic Conference men and University Athletic Association women are the best of the “power conferences” – the term we like to use to describe Division III leagues that routinely send multiple teams into their respective March brackets. Not surprisingly, the NESCAC dominates the men's Top 5 with No. 3 Williams, No. 4 Amherst and No. 5 Middlebury, while the UAA women placed three teams in the Top 8: No. 2 Chicago, No. 7 Washington University and No. 8 Rochester.

But are these preseason rankings a portent of how the “power conferences” will fare in March? We studied the previous three seasons, comparing prognostications of conferences with two or more Top 15 teams with actual performance.

We will start off with the men last winter, which saw the Old Dominion Athletic Conference place more teams among the Top 12 (No. 2 Randolph-Macon, No. 3 Eastern Mennonite and No. 12 Virginia Wesleyan) than any other league. However, only Virginia Wesleyan founds itself playing in March, advancing to the Sweet 16.

The 2009-10 preseason rankings saw 10 different teams represented in the Top 10. The No. 10 team, UW-Stevens Point, won the national championship, while Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference rival UW-Whitewater was ranked 13th and reached the Sweet 16. A third WIAC squad, No. 17 UW-Platteville, missed the tournament.

In 2008-09, the same three WIAC schools from 2009-10 were ranked among the Top 7 before the season tipped off. However, No. 4 UW-Whitewater, No. 6 UW-Stevens Point and No. 7 UW-Platteville all lost in the NCAA second round.

In the 2010-11 preseason women's rankings, the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (No. 3 Illinois Wesleyan and No. 9 Carthage) and the UAA (No. 5 Rochester and No. 7 Washington) each placed two teams in the Top 10. Although Carthage missed the tournament, Illinois Wesleyan reached the Final Four before falling to national finalist Washington. Rochester succumbed in the second round after a big comeback by Muhlenberg.

In 2009-10, the UAA started off with Washington ranked atop the preseason poll and Brandeis rated ninth. While the Bears won their fifth national championship under Hall of Fame head coach Nancy Fahey, the Judges went 16-8 and missed out on March Madness.

In 2008-09, the UAA had three teams in the Top 11 at the outset. No. 5 Rochester bowed out in the Sweet 16, No. 6 Washington lost in the championship game and No. 11 Chicago did not make the tourney.