Over the last three seasons, the Shippensburg University men’s basketball team has been revitalized. Shippensburg’s 17-14 record a year ago marked the third-straight season that the team has finished with a record of .500 or better and earned a berth into the PSAC playoffs. Over that span, head coach Dave Springer has guided the Red Raiders to 59 victories, the best three-season total in school history.

The team’s production was a testament to the cohesion and compatibility maintained by a class of seniors that not only navigated Shippensburg into uncharted waters, but guided the Red Raiders through the storm while emerging as faster, tougher, stronger and most importantly, battle-tested.

For the last three years, change has been a very good thing, and this transitional flux will not be going anywhere anytime soon. The 2007-08 men’s basketball squad will have to digest through some change of a more difficult standard, however: losing eight seniors to graduation and keeping a roster in flux while still maintaining its well-established competitive edge in the PSAC.

Despite the loss of eight letterwinners, including four starters and seven of the team’s eight leaders in minutes a season ago, Springer and his coaching staff have recruited six freshmen and added three additional newcomers to help encompass a talent-laden roster.

The Red Raiders do not need Rick Pitino to tell them that Chuck Davis "ain't walking through that door," and neither is Todd Johnson or Jamal Williams. The team is well aware of its responsibility: maintain the rock-solid reputation of men’s basketball at Shippensburg and continue to cultivate the groundwork assembled by their predecessors.

"Just like the group that just graduated, this group has to find their identity and that is what we have talked about from the beginning," head coach Dave Springer said of his young and upstart roster. "We talked about it in the very first week of practice: We have to build a new team, and they’ve got to build a new team."

Amidst a group of core veterans at the guard position and two strong, junior-college transfers at forward will be a batch of fresh faces distributed among both positions that will waste no time being integral members of the Shippensburg rotation.

"The new guys are just that, new guys," Springer said. "We have six freshmen and they are going to have to get through their first year. You are not going to be able to count on them every game, so we are going to have to see what we get out of them."

What can be counted on is more of the same high-octane offense of previous seasons. Once the team has become acclimated with one another, opponents will have to fear the size and strength of the team’s forwards while also having to respect legitimate outside scoring threats from the backcourt.

The names may be different, but the results will be the same. Shippensburg men’s basketball has become a legitimate threat in the East Region, and its impact will not be going away any time in the near future.

Guard

Chuck Davis and Jamal Williams are gone. Reserves Roger Castelgrande and Mark Meehan are also gone. Such is a reality that Shippensburg must face and be prepared to confront.

Returning to the backcourt are red-shirt junior Ryan Kraft and senior Alex Jones, two veterans who will stabilize the guard position and be asked to regularly contribute offensively.

Kraft is looking to remain healthy for a full season, as injuries have reduced him to participating in just 23 games over the last two seasons, including a medical red-shirt for 2006-07. When active, Kraft is one of the best guards in the PSAC, having earned the Western Division Rookie of the Year award. In that season, Kraft drained 55 three-point field goals and started all 29 games.

"Sometimes it is going to be a challenge, but we are going to need Kraft to score more. It is going to take time because he has been off for a year and he has got to get back into games," Springer said. "It’s going to be a huge challenge for him, but we’re going to need him to be more productive and score in double digits."

Meanwhile, Jones will once again assume the role of point guard after starting 30 games in his first season with the Red Raiders. After averaging 7.9 points per game and appearing in almost 26 minutes per game, Jones will be busy in the back court and looked upon to continue evolving as a scoring threat.

"Alex Jones has to be a scorer," Springer said. "He is going to see 30-plus minutes a game and we are going to need to get more scoring from his position than in the past. He gives us a different dimension and can hit the three-pointer from NBA range. We need to find him shots within our offense."

Jones drained 52 three-point field goals a season ago and has totaled 146 over the course of three seasons between Ashland and Shippensburg. He will also look to continue the guard success that saw him accumulate career highs in assists (84) and steals (45) last season.

The first guard off the bench for Shippensburg will be the longest tenured member of the Red Raiders, red-shirt senior Malik Parker. After totaling a career high 22.2 minutes per game last season, more than two of Shippensburg’s five starters in 2006-07, Parker will be looked upon to provide stability and consistency off the bench.

Thrifty sophomore Brian Oleksiak will have his role expanded and be asked to contribute at the guard and small forward spots. “He needs to continue to get stronger and be more prepared to shoot,” Springer adds. “Brian can really pass the ball and see the floor in transition.”

Meanwhile, red-shirt freshman David Reisinger will be another integral member of the guard rotation and will see his first collegiate action after red-shirting in 2006-07. He has good range and athletic ability.

Freshmen Justin Minter, Dane Lauber, and Jaren Gembe will all have an opportunity to play based on how quickly they adjust to the college game.

"All three were a part of successful high school programs and know how to play," Springer said. "With our limited depth, they will get a chance to play early."

The Raiders will count on Jones, Kraft, and Parker to be team leaders and help the newcomers improve as the PSAC season begins. Certain roles have changed, yet minor nuisances will be trivial as the players grow accustomed to emerging as Shippensburg’s newest on-court leaders.

"I think the top six or seven guys, including Parker and Oleksiak, have in the first 14 practices done a good job of learning to play as a team," Springer said of his guards.

This cohesion, ultimately, will be the key.

Forward

Todd Johnson, Greg Wojdowski, Gary Vaincoeur and Khalil Abdus-Salaam are gone. With the departure of all the seniors, the leading returning rebounder for Shippensburg is Jones, the team’s point guard, who averaged 1.6 boards per game.

Trepidation, however, has not invaded the Red Raider camp. Much of the fear has been quelled with the arrival of two junior college transfers from Harcum College that are ready to be big and mean rebounding machines for Shippensburg in 2006-2007.

Junior Tariek Belcher, a 6-7 juggernaut who averaged 13 points and 8 rebounds per game last season, will man the post along with his junior college teammate, sophomore Daziah Miller. The duo helped Harcum College win a Region 19 Division II championship while guiding their squad to a 30-3 record.

"Daziah and Tariek are interchangeable," Springer said. "Hopefully, we will get to a point where other teams are going to have to adjust to our size."

While their talent is already well-known, there are elements of the duo’s game that the coaches are trying to refine. Belcher and Miller are both working to improve defensively while adjusting to the contact of the PSAC. They have a chance to be a dangerous combination this year.

"They both play mostly just inside, but the adjustment that they are going to make and what we’re trying to make is moving them out to the perimeter," Springer said. "Both of them have to learn to handle pressure from guards, because other teams are going to put smaller guards on them. They have got to get used to that kind of pressure."

Belcher has already shown some of the promise and talent that he possesses this preseason, leading the Red Raiders in scoring at an exhibition against Division I Robert Morris while virtually manhandling the opposing players assigned to guard him.

"Against Robert Morris, Tariek proved why we recruited him, scoring 19 points on 9-of-15 shooting," Springer said. "He is capable of scoring in a lot of different ways, both in the post and around the perimeter. We like poise and believe he will contribute right away."

Junior Brett Malikowski is a native of Coatesville High School who joins the team as a walk-on. He will challenge for time at the small forward position.

Barring foul troubles, Belcher and Miller figure to be on the court for a majority of the game for the Red Raiders.

Center

For the first time in several seasons, Shippensburg will be operating its offense with a traditional post player in the paint. Red-shirt sophomore Derrick Graff has bulked up both physically and mentally and is ready to assume the starting position at center.

Fresh off a rookie season in which he appeared in 20 games, Graff will now be looked upon to be a scoring threat down low while establishing a defensive presence in the middle. Standing 6-10 and weighing 233 pounds, expect Graff to disrupt guard penetration and become dominant on the boards.

"Derrick will have to play a different role this season. He is going to have to be a bit more dominant and defensive-minded," Springer said.

Graff, along with forwards Belcher and Miller, will see significant minutes this season. When one of the three is substituted, however, Shippensburg will likely shift to a smaller lineup when inserting players off the bench.

"What we will do in the rotation is go smaller," Springer said. "When Graff or one of the two forwards leave the floor, we can take move the other two to a two post offense. That will allow us to use three guards and play more man to man defense. We will need to spend a lot of time on switching from a big lineup to a small lineup."

What that means from a defensive standpoint is Shippensburg will not play as tight as they have in recent seasons. “We’ll probably be playing more zone this year than we ever have,” Springer admitted.

Another option will be to stay big and utilize 6-9 Milan Trivanovic, a red-shirt freshman transfer from Fairmont State. As he learns the system, he will join the post rotation.

Schedule

Shippensburg’s growing cohesion will be tested from the outset. In the team’s season opener, the Red Raiders will open Heiges Field House facing the always difficult squad from Alderson-Broaddus, who is ranked No. 15 entering the season.

Another WVIAC opponent, the Shepherd Rams, will battle Shippensburg two days before Thanksgiving, before the team travels to take on AB once again and then reigning PSAC Champion Millersville.

"We are opening up with Alderson-Broaddus, an NCAA tournament team last year, and Shepherd, who knocked us off last year," Springer said. “We’ll be going up against very good Division II teams, so we’re going to get a taste right out of the gate in our first games. We are going to learn a lot about our team after the first four games."

The one luxury befalling the Red Raiders in the early going is the fact that seven of their first nine games are being played in Heiges.

"Once we get home for five in a row, that’s hopefully where we settle down," Springer said.

The five-game home stand in December will be important in predicting the success of the season. After a PSAC crossover weekend with Kutztown and East Stroudsburg, the Red Raiders will take on Chestnut Hill, Shenandoah and Neumann before rounding out the pre-Christmas schedule with road games at Bloomsburg and Mansfield.

"We need to know what we are doing by December 1 when we get Kutztown here," Springer said. "That is where we have to see improvement and see this team starting to come together. We hopefully will be a better team and understand how we want to play."

After opening PSAC Western Division play with three consecutive home games, the Red Raiders will face a daunting stretch in which it will play five consecutive divisional games on the road, highlighted by a February 9 showdown with Edinboro.

"The real test is going to be in January and February where we have five in a row on the road," Springer said. "We will go from having five out of six at home to five on the road, and that is going to be the test once we get into PSAC play."

In order to march out on the right foot, however, Shippensburg will need to take advantage of its early home games and continue to build off its aforementioned home-court advantage. By using the early home games to improve the team’s cohesion, the Red Raiders will hopefully be battle tested by the time the road stretches emerge.

"You look at the schedule, and we have 12 out of our first 18 games at home," Springer said. "Then, in the final stretch, we have three home games out of nine. We have to take advantage of the first half of the season and the team has got to establish a home-court advantage."

With a new playing surface scheduled for the early season and raucous fans ready to support their Red Raiders, Heiges Field House will certainly be prepared to be a "dungeon" once again. For Shippensburg, there may be a few new faces and a couple of players in different roles, but the expected output will be the same. Expect a lot of hard work and a whole bunch of talent to go a very long way in 2007-08.