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DU Home > News & Events > Media Releases > November 2006

MEDIA RELEASES

Contact
Jessica Mackinnon
jmack@dom.edu
(708) 524-6289

Men’s basketball tabbed to finish fourth

The Northern Athletics Conference (NAC) released the preseason men’s basketball coaches’ poll last night and the Dominican University Stars have been tabbed to finish fourth behind top vote-getter Aurora University followed by Lakeland College and then Edgewood College.

The Stars finished last season with an overall record of 13-12 during the regular season, but fell in the Lake Michigan Conference (LMC) Quarterfinals to Edgewood College 72-58. The Stars return ten letter-winners and four starters from a year ago and have added seven new players to their roster, including four junior transfers.

“Last season we were leading at halftime in 19 of the 26 games that we played,” said Head Coach Mark White. “This year we are looking to finish off games the way we have started.”

In order to achieve that task, White will turn to his 11 upperclassmen, including juniors Mike Haiduc (Chicago, IL) and Ivano Clay (Chicago, IL) who earned LMC All-Conference and All-Conference Honorable Mention recognition last season and also led the Stars in scoring.

Haiduc was also named the team’s Most Valuable Player, leading Dominican in scoring with a 15.6 points per game average and .564 field goal percentage. He scored in double figures in 20 of the Stars’ 26 games, including eight 20-plus point performances.

Clay was the Stars’ second leading scorer at 10.3 points per game, leading the team in three point field goals, averaging 2.0 three’s per game. Clay also led the team in assists and minutes played averaging 2.8 assists and 29.9 minutes per game.

Seniors Binyamin Jones (Chicago, IL), Derek Pedersen (South Elgin, IL) and Erin McMillan (Harvey, IL) also return for the Stars. Together they combined to average 22.8 points per game with McMillan leading the way with 9.7 points per game followed by Jones at 6.8 and Pedersen at 6.3. McMillan was also the Stars’ leading rebounder and shot blocker last season averaging 6.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks per game while Jones led the Stars with 32 steals on the season.

Returning guard Troy Tonsil (Chicago, IL) transfers Andre Smith (Cleveland, OH), Rashim Lettsome (Waukegan, IL), Jose Garcia (Kenosha, WI) and Chris Elkin (Geneva, IL) and freshmen Matt Stahl (Manitowoc, WI) and Mike Fahey (Huntley, IL) will all look to log minutes in the Stars’ backcourt.

“We have added experience and versatility to our backcourt for the upcoming season,” said White. “This should allow us to shoot the ball better from the perimeter and cut down on turnovers and those are two areas that haunted us late in games last season.”

“All-in-all I feel like we got a great mix of perimeter and post players that we can count on as a team to bring intensity and energy to the floor every game of the season.”