Pioneers Men’s Basketball Team Picked to Finish Second in WIAC

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – The 2019-20 University of Wisconsin-Platteville Pioneer men's basketball returns three starters from the 2018-19 squad that won the 2019 WIAC tournament and advanced to the NCAA Division III tournament. Head Coach Jeff Gard enters his 11th season and will lean heavily on a pair of back-court all conference performers to help fill the void left by Robert Duax and his 17.3 points per a game.

Carter Voelker (Sr, Kiel Wisconsin) and Quentin Shields (Jr, Chicago IL, Brooks College Prep Academy) are two of the returning starters, each having received all conference accolades in previous seasons, Voelker and Shields were both Honorable Mentions in 2018, while Voelker earned First Team All-Conference in 2019.

Shields and Voelker both averaged double digits last season while Shields led the WIAC with a .902 free-throw percentage (111-123). Voelker averaged 13.2 points per game for the season, but stepped up in conference averaging 16.1 per conference game.  "The experience both Shields and Voelker have gained the past two years will help the transition of them becoming the leaders on the court and in the locker room that we will need," Gard said.

Sophomore Kyle Tuma (Valders, Wisconsin) will look to fill a lot of the void left by Duax as the third returning starter, "Kyle really grew throughout the year with some of his best games coming down the stretch in the WIAC tournament and the opening round of the NCAA tournament" Gard said. "We look forward to seeing Kyle take the next step with that consistency and confidence he showed late last year"

The Pioneers tip off the 2019-20 campaign with four straight home games, starting Nov. 10 hosting Finlandia, followed by games with Viterbo and the D3hoops.com #7 preseason ranked Washington U (Mo.) the following weekend. The Pioneers will travel to Belton. Texas and partake in the 2019 Cru Classic over the semester break to close out a challenging nonconference schedule that coach Gard says "will challenge us with the traditional tournament teams we will face, which will help prepare us for the conference portion of our season."

The Pioneers open the conference slate on Jan. 4 when they host UW-Stout for Alumni Day. On Jan. 22 the Pioneers welcome UW-Whitewater for the annual Garding Against Cancer Night where proceeds will be donated to local charities in Southwest Wisconsin for cancer research. The Pioneers will welcome the defending Division III national champions, UW Oshkosh, on Jan. 29.  For full schedule click here.

In a pre-season poll conducted by the WIAC of the head coaches and sports information directors, the Pioneers were picked to finish second behind UW Oshkosh. 

"UW Oshkosh deserves the ranking and preseason accolades they are getting, but the conference as a whole is very balanced top to bottom with the returners who gained a lot of experience this past season" Gard said.

Written by: Jason Piddington, Public Relations Writer-Athletics, Communications, 608-342-7645, piddingj@uwplatt.edu