By Mark Simon
D3hoops.com

Welcome back.

This column returns for another season and the word return plays a big part in our coverage this year as you'll see throughout this space.

Nowhere is that more true at Wheaton (Ill.), at which the story of returning sophomore guard Kent Raymond, a D3hoops.com All-American, is fairly unique.

Kent Raymond was Wheaton's leading scorer in 2004-05 as a freshman. Wheaton file photo by Mike Hudson

Raymond, a 6-3 guard, was a second-team All-CCIW selection and the team's leading scorer as a freshman shooting guard two years ago, but decided to sit out last season. At this level, it's not unusual for someone to sit out a season to work, deal with financial obligations, or improve grades, but Raymond's reason for not playing was different from most.

Wheaton is a Christian liberal arts college, with the motto “For Christ and His Kingdom.” Those who attend, like Raymond, tend to be very devoted to their religious beliefs.

“Underlying my decision was my worldview of being a Christian and having a relationship with God,” Raymond said. “It's not as tangible as me being able to hear your voice, but He is leading my life. The word that best describes the last couple of years for me is obedience. Through prayer, I thought last year that He was leading me not to play. So I was obedient. Anyone who knows me knows that I take my faith seriously. (Choosing not to play) was not the kind of decision that you make on a whim. It affected a lot of people. It was a serious decision and a hard decision. It's difficult to explain.”

Raymond stayed in school, attended games, remained friends with his former teammates and watched as Wheaton struggled at times but finished the season strong at 11-14, with wins over Top 10 ranked CCIW squads Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan in back-to-back games.

This past summer, Raymond had a change of heart. Raymond felt, after prayer and Bible reading, like he was being pulled back to basketball so he stopped to visit head coach Bill Harris during summer basketball camps.

Raymond told Harris that he was interested in returning to the team. He mentioned that he'd be willing to start out on the JV team to try to work his way back into the primary rotation. That caused Harris to laugh at the thought of a player of Raymond's talents playing JV. Then, the conversation turned serious.

“We talked at length,” said Harris, who drew upon 28 years of coaching experience for the discussion. “My concern was that if he was going to come back, I wanted a total commitment from him, through graduation.”

Harris's perspective, being at this school, is different from many of his collegiate coaching counterparts. He talked with Raymond about committing to his ability as a basketball player.

“I want, as a coach for kids to understand, that from a theological point of view, God gives great gifts,” Harris said. “Someone may be able to take a car apart and put it back together. That's a gift. Sometimes those gifts are in the field of athletics. I think that you should use your gifts, perfect and develop them.”

Harris asked for Raymond to give it a night's thought and come back the next day if he was still interested in returning to the program. Raymond did. He's been fully committed to the team since then.

“I don't feel like the time off hurt me physically,” Raymond said. “I've put on 10 pounds, but I haven't lost a step. Once we get into games, you'll be able to tell. That's not something we can replicate. I may be a step slow at first, but I'm confident it will come back quickly. My first year, I never would have thought I would have started every game, or led the team in scoring. I was of the mindset that it was still the seniors' team. This year, I feel like I'm coming in with more of the responsibility that a senior would have. The guys on the team have been really receptive. I took the time to thank them for accepting me back, not just on the court, but socially. They know I didn't make my decision to drop out and sell drugs, or party, or waste my life. They respected (the reasoning).”

That's made it easier for Raymond to get back to doing what he does best on the court, which is almost everything. Wheaton made the NCAA Tournament in 2004-05 as Raymond shot 51.6% from the field, 47% from three-point range, and averaged 15.9 points per game.

“If he's not a Division III All-American, than I haven't coached for 28 years,” Harris said. “If I said he were a great shooter, that wouldn't be fair to how hard he hustles and dives. If I talked about how he hustles and dives, it wouldn't be fair to how well he defends. If I talked about how well he defends, it wouldn't express how he gets to the basket and finishes plays. He combines every aspect of the game and excels at it. ”

With one exception.

“Except for thunderous dunks,” Harris said with a laugh. “You won't see any thunderous dunks. But he plays at 100% of his capability. When you have a star playing 100% all the time, it shows the kids who aren't stars that that's what they need to do too.”

Wheaton opens at home on Nov. 17 against Franklin, part of a non-league schedule that includes Hope, Calvin, a trip to New York to play defending CUNYAC regular season champ Baruch, and a more local game with Division I Northwestern. The Thunder have earned “D3hoops.com Super Sleeper” status for the 2006-07 season (more below) and Raymond can't wait to get going.

“I'm itching for the competition, the intensity of playing in front of people,” he said. “I'm super-excited to play with this group.”

RETURN TO SENDER: It's rare to look at the leader boards at year's end and see them dominated by underclassmen, but in a year that was so senior dominant, the one area in which the younger men's players stood out was shot blocking. The top six Division III shot blockers were underclassmen, with none getting more blocks than Colby's Drew Cohen, now a senior. Cohen totaled 111 in 23 games (4.8 per) despite standing only 6-6, the smallest among those top six blockers.

Deceptive might not make itself clear in a photo but the description of Drew Cohen as "long" is plainly apparent.

Cohen averaged 19.7 points for a team that went 11-14, 4-5 in the NESCAC and returns four starters. He thinks his scoring numbers might drop a little bit, particularly with the return of forward Michael Westbrooks (who missed last season due to suspension), but expects his other numbers to maintain. That makes sense, since shot blocking rarely goes into a slump.

One NESCAC coach called Cohen “long and deceptive” and noted “Deceptive because he doesn't present himself as a dominant force in the post area and then 'bang' he's blocking everything!” Cohen's assessment was similar.

“I don't think I'm very intimidating,” said Cohen. “My vertical leap is better than what you'd think by looking at me. I'm not a trash talker or anything. Most of the time I'm pretty quiet about my blocks.”

Twice last season Cohen had nine blocks, including once against Middlebury, a school that rejected his early-admission attempt a few years ago. The primary lament of last season though was the game that got away, a loss to archrival Bates in which Cohen blocked nine shots, but his team surrendered a seven-point lead in the final minute, got pushed to overtime by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, and fell in the extra session.

“That would have been the most satisfying game of the season,” Cohen said. “I had the nine blocks, but to be honest, I felt like I had 15 or 16. We had the game locked up. That was just a terrible loss.”

And though he's pretty modest, Cohen did offer this take on next year's matchup with the Bobcats.

“I think we're going to beat them twice,” Cohen said, choosing not to take back his words when given the chance. “I know some of the guys on their team pretty well. I'm sure they'll get a kick out of me saying that.”

Cohen seemed like a pretty sharp guy, one who plans on attending law school after graduation. Perhaps that's a ploy to stir the pot and net a few more blocked shots?

Other shotblockers to watch

MANY HAPPY RETURNS: Going beyond “Super Sleepers,” if we were going to pick a team that was going to make the jump from really good to really, really good, our choice would be the No. 18 ranked Howard Payne women's squad.

While we deemed none of the teams returning five starters on the men's side to be pollworthy, there were a few to choose from in women's hoops. The best of that bunch are the Yellow Jackets, who went 24-5 last season, bowing out in the second round of NCAAs to eventual Final Four participant Hardin-Simmons.

Statistically speaking, it makes sense to pick this school, which improved its win-loss record every year under seventh-year coach Chris Kielsmeier except for last season, when it matched the 24-5 record of 2004-05, but went a round farther in the NCAA Tournament.

Howard Payne not only returns all five starters, it brings back junior Meia Daniels, whom some in the league think will be better than 2005-06 Division III Player of the Year Megan Silva (Randolph Macon). Daniels, a 5-8 guard, averaged 21 points-per-game last season, upping that to 26 in her teams last six games.

“Meia is a very physical 5-foot-8,” said Howard Payne coach Chris Kielsmeier. “We can do anything with her. She can shoot the three. She can be big and physical when she gets to the basket. We can put her on the block and get mismatches. She'll get defended by someone who will try to handle her quickness, but they're not as strong as her.”

The Yellow Jackets other two backcourt starters, Molly Buker and Heather Hohertz, are both entering their third year as starters, with Buker returning from an ACL tear suffered at the very end of last season. Both will leave something behind at year's end in the form of a younger sibling, as each has a younger sister joining the squad part of a six-member freshman class that Kielsmeier said is the best he's had in seven years of coaching. HPU is expected to be extremely deep in the backcourt with another addition, guard Kristin Hendricks from Central Michigan (where she averaged 4.0 points per game), who transferred in not long after CMU alumnus Lindy Hatfield was named an assistant coach. Up front, the Yellow Jackets have size with a 6-2 center, Stacey Blalock, who was second on the team in scoring last season.

Howard Payne was only picked to finish third in the ASC West, behind Hardin-Simmons and McMurry, both of whom also return quite a bit from NCAA Tournament squads. Only one of the 20 coaches voted the Yellow Jackets to finish first. No one said making the jump to elite program was going to be easy. The season begins with a tough test at home against No. 22 Trinity (which has the envious task of facing HPU and No. 7 Hardin-Simmons on the road in consecutive days). The two squads have met in the NCAAs each of the last two seasons. Trinity won on a basket at the buzzer in the first meeting. Howard Payne won by 18 in last year's meeting.

“Even with all that we have coming back, there are no guarantees,” Kielsmeier said. “We have high expectations and we want to have a great run.”

Top Division III women's teams returning five starters

POLL POSITION: Voting in the preseason Top 25 is a challenge, since everyone's starting fresh, but it was particularly difficult this year on the men's side where more teams than ever received a vote. The reason? It's pretty simple.

In men's basketball, 2005-06 was, in most cases, senior-dominant. Nineteen of the D3hoops.com All-Americans were seniors. The stars at Illinois Wesleyan, Lawrence, and Transylvania, among others, were in their final season. Thus, things are much more wide open this season.

The women's ballot, on the other hand, was easier to cast, and the primary reason for that is that the standout teams return a lot of talent. Take a look at our chart, breaking down the Top 10 in last year's final poll. On the men's side, only 56.7% of scoring from those 10 teams is back for 2006-07. On the women's side, that increases to 69.0%.

Last Year's Final Top 10

>>19 of 25 men's All-America selections were seniors
>>12 of 25 women's All-America selections were seniors

RETURN TO PROMINENCE: We've brought back our annual “Super Sleeper” search for another season, looking for teams not ranked in the Top 25, who could make some big-time noise come March. In each of the last two years, with the help of coaches, SIDs and veteran hoops observers, we've picked 10 teams and done so with a reasonable degree of accuracy. This year, we've whittled our choices down to a super six, each from different regions, whom you might be hearing a lot about in the near future. If there's a common theme among most of them, it would be return to prominence, since several of these teams have had rather successful past runs.

Men
John Carroll: The return of 6-5 scorer Brandon Mimes and the arrival of transfer Terry Walsh by way of Division I Loyola (Md.) have many people thinking that last season's struggles were a one-year hiccup for this perennial OAC power. They may start 0-3, with two games against Division I foes, but we may be considering them much more strongly by the time the calendar switches to 2007 and a stellar recruiting class gets comfortable. The OAC coaches poll showed that the league is aware of a likely success story as the Blue Streaks, who finished sixth last season, rated third among preseason pickers and received two votes to win the league.

Wheaton (Ill.): Remember that Wheaton knocked off Top 10 ranked squads Augustana and Illinois Wesleyan in back-to-back games last season and closed the year very strong. As mentioned above, they return D3hoops.com All-America selection Kent Raymond and add Texas transfer Ben Panner with him to a backcourt that already includes 2005-06 offensive MVP John Mohan. Wheaton received significant support in the preseason Top 25, but not enough to prevent them from earning Super Sleeper status.

NYU: This will be an interesting test of pollsters. NYU didn't receive a vote in the preseason Top 25, but was picked first in the preseason poll of UAA coaches after finishing fourth at 7-7 in league last year. There was a strong temptation to pick Brandeis here, but we decided to invoke a rule that you can't be a “super sleeper” two years in a row. Thus, we'll take the Purple Violets, who return four starters including D3hoops.com East Region Player of the Year, forward Jason Boone.

Women
College of New Jersey: Those in the Atlantic region are buzzing about 6-3 transfer center Hillary Klimowicz, who won Atlantic 10 and Big Five Rookie of the Year honors at Division I St. Joseph's (Pa.) last season. TCNJ stunned Richard Stockton to win the NJAC, but got blown out in its NCAA Tournament matchup against Mary Washington. Klimowicz had offseason foot surgery, so her playing and practice time may be limited in the early part of the season, but it has been a long time since that region had a player of this caliber. One area coach noted that so long as TCNJ isn't hampered by shooting struggles from the outside, “Klimowicz is good enough to change the balance of power vs. any opponent.”

Oglethorpe: With their running, pressing style, the 2005-06 Petrels earned mention in Around the Nation after starting 12-1 and finished up 21-7, losing to Maryville (Tenn.) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Oglethorpe was picked to finish ninth in the SCAC last season but won't surprise anyone this time around. We like the Petrels to take another step forward this season with a roster that returns all four of its double digit scorers from last season.

DeSales: This team might be a year away but two coaches we know are touting DeSales for a return to prominence. A roster made up almost entirely of freshmen went 16-12 last season, a solid year for some, but a down campaign for those in Allentown. The one hindrance: three potential meetings with No. 1 Scranton.