SHIPPENSBURG, Pa. – Basketball begins in a big way this weekend from Heiges Field House as the Shippensburg University men's and women's basketball teams compete in the season-opening Wolf's Bus Lines Classic on Saturday and Sunday. A total of eight games will be played in two days.

Shippensburg will have two extremely tough matchups to open the season. SU will face Charleston, a squad loaded with Division I transfers and picked third in the WVIAC preseason coaches poll, at 8 p.m. Saturday. The Raiders will then face No. 6 West Liberty, a squad that lost in the national championship game a year ago, at 6 p.m. on Sunday. A full season outlook is listed below.

Charleston was picked to finish third in the WVIAC. The Golden Eagles finished last season 15-13, but will look to replace first-team all-conference selection Jon Liggins – who averaged 18.4 points per game in 2010-11. They have attempted to do so with the recruitment of five Division I and two junior college transfers, including three players from Marshall.

West Liberty is under the guidance of eighth-year head coach Jim Crutchfield, who guided the Hilltoppers to the No. 1 ranking in the country over the final two months of last season.  WLU's only loss last season came in the national semifinals. The Hilltoppers averaged over 100 points per game and were the only college basketball team in the country to go undefeated during the regular season and eventually won its first-ever NCAA Division II Atlantic Region championship.

East Stroudsburg will be the fourth team competing this weekend and will alternate with Shippensburg against both the Golden Eagles and the Hilltoppers. The Warriors, who competed in the Wolf's tournament two years ago, are once again coached by 10th-year bench boss Jeff Wilson. ESU has reached the PSAC Tournament five times in the last six years under Wilson.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:

Saturday, November 12

3 PM
(Men's Game)
East Stroudsburg vs. West Liberty

8 PM
(Men's Game)
Charleston vs. Shippensburg

Sunday, November 13

1 PM
(Men's Game)
East Stroudsburg vs. Charleston

6 PM
(Men's Game)
West Liberty vs. Shippensburg

MEN's PREVIEW:

The Shippensburg men's basketball team already had motivation for the 2011-12 season after failing to qualify for last year's league playoffs. However, the team got some extra inspiration this preseason when the conference coaches voted Shippensburg eighth in the PSAC Eastern Division poll.

“This is an unproven team, and we know that, and that's why we were picked eighth,” head coach Dave Springer said. “But I don't think we're an eighth-place team. We led the nation in three-point shooting last year and we can score some points. Our problem last year was that we couldn't defend very well. That's been one of our primary focuses during the preseason to put our mind on stopping people and paying attention to that end of the floor.”

Shippensburg returns 10 letterwinners from last season, including four starters. Among that group is senior co-captains Craig Van Scyoc and Jordan Stasyszyn.

“We're going to take it personally,” Van Scyoc said. “Right now, we're definitely going to be the underdog, but we don't plan on being the underdog for very long. Right now we are going to use that as motivation, especially to push us in practice. It's motivation to pick up our defense this year and continue what we are capable of on offense.”

Shippensburg finished the 2010-11 season with a 9-17 record, battling injuries and offensive struggles through most of the season. However, the Raiders were the most accurate three-point shooting team in Division II last season. SU bested the 233 other schools in the national rankings by shooting 41.8 percent as a team from long distance.

SU loses just one starting player from a season ago. Point guard Jaren Gembe finished up a career year as a senior in which he averaged 9.3 points while ranking among the NCAA's Top 30 players in assist-to-turnover ratio. He was also just the second Raider in seven years to finish with 100 or more assists in a season.

Replacing Gembe at the point guard position is freshman Reggie Charles, a newcomer who is expected to make an immediate impact with the program.

“Reggie Charles is a true point guard,” Springer said. “The bottom line is that Reggie knows how to find scorers and he knows how to set people up. He knows how to do it, and he's a gamer.”

Shippensburg opens the season on November 11 and 12 with the Wolf's Bus Lines Classic from Heiges Field House. The schedule is tough from the onset, with the Raiders facing Charleston and national runner-up West Liberty in the first two games of the season. SU then plays IUP and Cal, the two teams picked atop the PSAC Western Division preseason coaches poll, in the second week of the season.

“We're way ahead of the curve,” Springer said. “We've got a 16-team conference where you start to play the best teams in the first week of the season. I don't think there's anything wrong with it. I think if we get a shot to play against a school of the caliber of West Liberty, that's great. We're going to learn a lot about our team by the end of those first two weeks.”

GUARD

Senior co-captain Craig Van Scyoc was the most accurate three-point shooter in the PSAC last season, finishing the year making 63 of 125 (50.4 percent) from long range.  He was eight three-pointers short of the single-season school record and would have been the nation's accurate three-point shooter but fell just a few attempts short of qualifying for the statistic.

Senior co-captain Jordan Stasyszyn spent the summer playing in Europe on a basketball tour with Global Sports USA led by California (Pa.) coach Bill Brown. He is back and will play a big role with the Raiders in his final season. In two years at Shippensburg, Stasyszyn has totaled 304 points — including 45 three-pointers. Last season, Stasyszyn averaged 8.6 points per game.

Senior Dane Lauber, competing as a graduate student after earning his sociology degree in May, is back after averaging 8.0 points and 2.7 assists per game in 23 contests last season. Lauber could also see some time at the point this season but will primarily be counted on for his ability to distribute the basketball and slash to the hoop.
  
Sophomore Ryan Corrigan, a native of Bishop McDevitt High School, will see playing time at guard this season after making his debut a season ago with seven appearances off the bench. Corrigan was a member of a Canadian tour with SU coaches Dave Springer and Eric Rahauser and will enter his second season with significant experience.

Freshman Reggie Charles comes to Shippensburg from Father Judge High School in Philadelphia and will be a major factor this season as the primary point guard for the Raiders. He was an All-Catholic League First Team pick with the Crusaders.

Joining Charles as newcomers in the backcourt are Akil Anderson, Sam Pygatt, and Tyheim Perrin. Anderson and Pygatt could also see time at forward, while Perrin is expected to redshirt.

FORWARD

Senior Will Royal will be a force in the low post and is integral to the team's success. Royal has been an effective post player for Shippensburg in two seasons with the team. The Robert Morris transfer led the Raiders last season with 12.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. He also shot over 52 percent from the floor.

Sophomore Dylan Edgar has bulked up and is geared up for a nightly battle in the paint this season. Edgar adds size and had a solid debut season with the Raiders last year after averaging almost six rebounds per game, including two double-doubles. He will be counting upon for scoring and rebounding this season.

John Corrigan is a junior from an eligibility standpoint but is considered one of the team's five seniors as he plans to graduate after the season is completed and then enroll in law school. The NABC Honors Court recipient shot 52 percent from three-point range a season ago and provided valuable scoring off the bench, appearing in 22 of the team's 26 games.

Fellow sophomore Philip Sasko has made great strides this preseason after playing sparingly in his debut season. The native of Sweden got in just three games last year as a rookie but is expected to see more playing time in 2011-12.

Redshirt freshman Michael Uehlein is a Duquesne transfer and a Hempfield High School graduate. Uehlein is expected to be a solid option for the Raiders in the post with his size and strength.

COACHING STAFF

Dave Springer '91M begins his 11th year as head coach of the Shippensburg University men's basketball team. Over the course of 10 seasons, Springer has recruited and graduated the winningest senior class in school history and revitalized the program into a PSAC Championship contender.

Including one season in which he was the interim head coach at Millersville University, Springer has won 138 games as a collegiate bench boss - including 127 with the Red Raiders. In 2005-06, Springer produced his most successful team, as it won a Shippensburg record 24 games, captured the PSAC Western Division title with an 11-1 conference mark and was a runner-up in the PSAC Championship.

Eric Rahauser '11M, who served as a volunteer assistant for the last two seasons, was named the acting assistant men's basketball coach. Matt Hilton, a 2011 graduate of Ursinus College, joins the Raider coaching staff this season. Hilton scored over 1,300 points in his career at Ursinus. Herb Bowers '79/86M is also back once again as a volunteer on the sidelines.