Expect buckets of action

GREENSBORO, N.C. – Things promise to get hectic early and stay that way at Guilford College’s Ragan-Brown Field House tonight, when fourth-ranked Whitworth University and No. 10 Eastern Mennonite tangle in the third round of the NCAA Division III Men’s Basketball Championship tournament.

And the most frantic person in the building might just end up being the scoreboard operator, as he attempts to keep pace with two of the nation’s highest scoring teams.

Eastern Mennonite (24-4) comes in ranked second, nationally, with a scoring averaging of 88.6 points per game, while the Pirates (26-2) check in at No. 8 with an average of 84.7. But there is a dramatic difference in how the two teams get them, according to Whitworth coach Jim Hayford.

“They’re a pressure team that loves to press you full court,” Hayford said of the Royals, whose top gun is Todd Phillips, a 6-foot-3, 180-pound junior wing, who leads his team in scoring (17.8 ppg), rebounds (7.5 rpg), assists (3.1 apg) and steals (2.2 spg). “

“They’ll probably throw three different presses at us, pressure every pass in their man (defense) and get the majority of their offense from the defense. But if we protect the basketball, we’ll be playing our best defense when we’re on offense.”

The Pirates, who have won a school-record 25 straight games – the most of any NCAA school at any level, are more of a half-court team that can score out of a variety of sets and pick up their share of transition baskets when given the chance.

And they feel the experience they gained from posting a perfect 16-0 regular-season record against Northwest Conference foes this winter, has prepared them for just about anything.

“One of the great things about our conference is that you face it all,” Hayford explained. “There are zone teams, there are full-court press teams, straight man-to-man motion teams, set teams … so, the adjustment we have to make when we get into the postseason is to figure which of those teams our next opponent is most like.”

Style-wise, EMU resembles Whitman, which is another full-court press team that likes to keep the pace bordering on stupid-fast. But the Royals, who do not start anyone taller than 6-5, or weighing more than 200 pounds, do it with more talented and athletic players.

“We know they like to get out and push the ball,” said Bo Gregg, Whitworth’s 6-5 junior forward, who is one of four Pirate starters averaging more than 11 points a game. “They seem a little smaller and kind of guard oriented, but with everything we’ve experienced during conference play, I feel like we should be ready for them.”

With their pressure defense, the Royals have forced opponents into an average of more than 21 turnovers per game, while coming up with 316 steals on the year. And when they’re not scoring in transition, they are feasting at the 3-point line, where they have made 220 of 612 attempts – 84 more than their opponents.

“They’ve got some height, but so do we,” said Hayford, who will probably start three players 6-5 or taller, “and we’ve got some strength, too. We’ve done well this year against pressure teams, so we’ll get familiar with how they bring it, and once we get into our half-court sets, they’re going to have to deal with some Pirate muscle.”