National Collegiate Athletic Association

The NCAA News - News and Features

March 3, 1997

Division III

Rowan picks up where it left off after winning last year's championship

Event: 1997 Division III Men's Basketball Championship.

Overview: Defending champion Rowan has barely skipped a beat, sprinting to a 22-0 record and the No. 1 ranking nationally under first-year coach Joe Cassidy. Cassidy took over as the Profs' coach after spending five years as an assistant to John Giannini, who left the program to coach Maine. The Profs' win streak stands at 28 games, dating back to last year's title run. Only one starter returns for Rowan: Senior forward Lamonte Harvin averages 11.7 points and 8.6 rebounds. He is one of five Rowan players averaging double figures in scoring. Senior forward Chris McShane leads the team with just over 13 points a game ... Wisconsin-Whitewater was one game short of tying the school record for consecutive victories heading into a late-season matchup with conference foe Wisconsin-Platteville. The Warhawks, at 21-0, join Rowan as the only undefeated teams in Division III. Whitewater and Platteville are second and third, respectively, in the national polls. Nineteen-year Wisconsin-Whitewater coach David Vander Meulen led the Warhawks to national championships in 1984 and 1989. Wisconsin-Whitewater's top two players are both juniors and played together at the same Milwaukee high school. Forward Michael Stewart averages a league-leading 22.7 points per game and 7.0 rebounds a contest. He shoots 46 percent from behind the three-point line. Tirrell Carter chips in 14.7 points and 8.2 rebounds a game, while shooting 58 percent from the field. Guard Eric Burdette, an honorable mention all-American last year, is averaging just over 10 points a game -- down from his 20.0 point average from a year ago. The 6-2 junior played the first half of the season with a broken shooting hand ... Illinois Wesleyan came within three points of advancing to the championship game last season. The Titans lost to Rowan, 79-77, in the semifinals. Only one starter returns for coach Dennie Bridges' team. Senior Bryan Crabtree averages 24.0 points and 6.7 rebounds. Junior forward Brent Niebrugge leads the team in rebounding with 6.8 boards a game and contributes 11.2 points. The Titans' lone loss in their first 22 games was at North Central.

Field: Sixty-four teams -- eight teams from each of eight regions. Twenty-nine conferences have automatic-qualification privileges. The remaining teams will be selected at large.

Dates and sites: First- and second-round competition will be March 6 and 8 at on-campus sites. Sectional competition will be March 14-15 on the campuses of competing schools. The semifinals, third-place game and final will be March 21-22 at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Virginia.

Information/results: The fax-on-demand telephone number is 770/399-3060 (passcode 1915); request numbers are 1252 for the bracket/schedule, 5059 for semifinal box scores, 5060 for the third-place game box score and 5061 for championship-game results. Game scores and pairings also will be available on the World Wide Web at www.ncaa.org. First- and second-round scores will appear in the March 17 issue of The NCAA News. Sectional results will be published March 24. Championship results will be in the March 31 issue.

Championship note: Illinois Wesleyan, which hosted first- and second-round competition in last year's championship, is 41-1 at its on-campus facility -- the Shirk Center.