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Malone Men's Basketball Undergoes Major Restructuring Under New Head Coach

Release Date: November 3, 2009

Throughout its 52-year history, the Malone University men’s basketball program has certainly had re-building years before.  But with only four student-athletes from last year’s roster participating on the current 15-man squad, it has indeed been quite a while since a restructuring of this magnitude has taken place in the confines of Malone’s Osborne Hall. 

With a 9-20 record last season, under the direction of interim head coach Henry Cobb, the program now has its first “full-time” head coach, in Tim Walker, since longtime Pioneer head coach Hal Smith stepped down prior to the 2008-09 campaign due to health reasons.  For the past seven seasons, Walker had been the head coach at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois and led the Trolls to a pair of NAIA Div. II national tournaments berths during his tenure.  He also posted consecutive 20-win seasons in his final two campaigns at Trinity Christian.  Now Walker intends to bring this same tenacity to a team that battled through a disappointing 08-09 season, including a 5-8 American Mideast Conference record. 

Jeremy Duerr (Sr., Lake H.S.) is the lone starter returning from last year’s squad and is definitely in line to start at the point guard position again this season.  Duerr started in 25 of 29 games last year and averaged 8.9 points per game while posting a team-high 67 total assists and 3.6 rebounds per contest.  He also drilled a team-best 46 three-point baskets at a 36% clip.

Kyle Higgins (Jr., Columbus West H.S.), a transfer from Wheeling Jesuit (WV) College who averaged six points per game last year, will start at the shooting guard slot while Eric Coblentz (So., Lake H.S.), who transferred in from the University of Akron, will fill the starting three-man spot.

Kalamazoo Valley (MI) Community College transfer Nick Watts (6’4”, Jr., Holland, MI), who tossed in 15 points per contest last season, will start at a forward position while 6’5” returnee Mark Young (Sr., Jackson H.S.), who averaged 3.4 points and 2.6 rebounds and who is the only person on the squad currently in his fourth year on the team, will get the nod at the post position.

Ebiowei Porbeni (6’5”, Jr., Plainfield, IL), who played two seasons for Trinity Christian averaging nine points and six rebounds per outing, will be a main contributor off the bench and will battle Young for playing time at that post spot.  In addition, 6’6” Vaso Aleksic (Jr., Bar, Montenegro), who transferred from Long Island (NY) University – C.W. Post, will also see minutes at the post position.

Besides Duerr and Young, the only other two players to return from a year ago are forward Jock Rottman (Jr., Triway H.S.) and guard Cody Miller (So., Lake Center Christian H.S.).  Rottman averaged 7.2 points and 3.2 rebounds while Miller competed in 19 games for the squad.  Both are expected to give solid contributions off the bench as will guard Jordan Lindesmith (So., Jackson H.S.), who played at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University last season.

Others on the 2009-10 Pioneer roster who will look to make contributions include guards Colton Hostetler (Fr., Berlin Hiland H.S.) and Kyle Lodermeier (Fr., Norwalk H.S.), and forwards Nick Sommers (Fr., N. Canton Hoover H.S.), Evan Ferwerda (So., Lake Center Christian H.S.), who played for Malone as a freshman on the 07-08 team, and Oscar Martinez (Fr., Malvern H.S.).

“We have a lot of new faces including some very talented transfers,” commented Walker.  “We don’t have a whole lot of size and so we’ll rely on our perimeter game a great deal.  As a whole, I’m pretty pleased with how our kids have worked, in trying to pick up a new system and trying to learn how to play with each other.  We’ve had a lot of sickness during the preseason and so our early-season rotation will be pretty changeable as players battle for minutes and people get healthy.

“A strength for us this year will be shooting the ball from the perimeter.  We have several guys who are really capable of scoring.  And we have a good core group from a chemistry standpoint.  But a concern for us will be whether we can defend and rebound.  We’re working hard and I’m excited to get the season underway.”

Malone will open its regular season this Saturday (Nov. 7) at Calumet (IN) College of St. Joseph in a 1:00 p.m. CST contest (2:00 p.m. EST).  The Pioneers will face one of the toughest schedules for the program in recent years as four of Malone’s 12 non-conference games will be against top 25 teams including NCAA Div. I University of Akron (away on Dec. 12th) and defending NCAA Div. II national champion University of Findlay (away on Nov. 19th).  Malone’s first home contest will be against Goshen (IN) College on Saturday, November 14 at 2:00 p.m.