By Matt Florjancic
for D3sports.com

Clay Henson and Guilford have played in the Salem Civic Center before, but now, more importantly, they've played in the Final Four in Salem before as well. Guilford athletics photo by John Bell

A year ago, the Guilford men's basketball team made it to the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament after tough sectional victories at John Carroll and in overtime one night later against Texas-Dallas. However, their momentum was stopped cold by Washington U., 77-58 in the semifinals.

That loss, where Guilford turned the ball over 15 times and allowed the eventual national champion Bears to shoot 54.5 percent from the field (30-of-55) in addition to 13-of-25 (52 percent) from 3-point range, can be erased from the memory bank with a solid showing against Williams in the first of two semifinals from the Salem Civic Center on Friday night.

"The toughest part was getting comfortable with the surroundings because it's a little different with media sessions and it's pretty regimented," said Guilford coach Tom Palombo. "Once you get to the game, it's the same. There are some things that are different. This time through, we know what to expect.

"We wanted to enjoy everything surrounding it and we did," he added. "We're going to do the same again, but when it comes to Friday, we're going to try to play our best."

Though they want to enjoy this experience, the players are not preparing for a basketball game. They are looking at that two-hour bus ride up to Salem as more of a business trip.

"I think we were in the gym playing pickup a week after we had lost in the semifinal game and won the consolation game," said senior forward Tyler Sanborn. "We really wanted to do something special this year and luckily, we were fortunate enough to make it back and we're going to try to make the most of it."

"This trip was a little tougher than the one last year," senior guard Clay Henson added. "We kind of think we belong this year. Last year, we were just happy to be in the Final Four, kind of felt lucky after not winning and losing in the first round of the ODAC (Old Dominion Athletic Conference) tournament."

After dropping excess weight as a freshman, Sanborn has been a critical part of the Quakers' success over the last two seasons.

As a junior last season, Sanborn averaged a double-double of 15.4 points and 12.9 rebounds per game. He connected on 53.6 percent of his 371 field goal attempts. Defensively, Sanborn blocked 76 opposing shots and led the Quakers to a 26-6 record. In his final year at Guilford, Sanborn has become the team's leading scorer at 19.6 points per game. He also increased his rebounding average to 14.1 per game. Sanborn has improved his shooting percentage to 64.3 percent while increasing his total number of shots taken to 400.

"As a freshman, I think he would tell you he had a hard time running up and down the floor and doing all the things a college basketball player needs to do," Palombo said. "He didn't play very much as a freshman.

"He's a unique kid," added Palombo. "Not only did he improve from his freshman to sophomore year, but also from his sophomore to his junior year and from his junior year to his senior year. Once he got himself into shape, he found out that he could do some things, make post moves and block shots and get dunks. His confidence came up. He's transformed himself into a really good player."

In addition to the physical improvement, Sanborn has become a mentally tougher player during his time at Guilford. He knows what teams will do to throw him off his game and instead of forcing the issue, he calmly distributes the ball back to Henson and fellow senior guard Rhett Bonner.

Henson and Bonner have combined to hit 166 3-pointers this year, a total Sanborn is looking for the duo to add to by the end of the weekend.

"Having those guys around is the key to my success," said Sanborn. "Against some teams, I'll get doubled and tripled. They do all kinds of things to stop me from getting the ball. Once I kick it out once or twice and they knock down some threes, the guys have got to think about how they're going to defend me and that really opens things up for me sometimes. Mostly, those guys are hitting and hopefully, they're hitting this weekend."

Sanborn, Henson, Bonner and Guilford's fourth senior, Matt Cooney, all have to be prepared to hit shots against Williams. The Ephs are 29-1 and have four players who have both hit more than 40 percent of their three-point shots and have taken more than 100 of them. Blake Schultz leads the way with 70 three-pointers (52.2 percent), while James Wang (64, 50.8 percent), Alex Rubin (64, 46.7 percent) and Harlan Dodson (48, 41 percent) also present problems for opposing teams from the perimeter.

"Anytime you go against a team that's a threat from the perimeter and a threat from inside, you've got your hands full," said Palombo. "We're going to have to play our best game. Hopefully, we can get ourselves up to do that so Williams has to do the same. It'll be a good one."