Pioneers focused on themselves, not title defense

PLATTEVILLE, Wis.- The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) did not do a normal pre-season poll of coaches and sports information directors to predict the conference champion.  If one were done, one would have to believe that the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team would be the pick to win the conference with four returning starters from the 2019-20 WIAC regular season championship team that finished the year 23-5.

Even without the pre-season poll, expectations are high around the Pioneer program, but the Pioneers are not focused on expectations. "Our main focus is on Platteville," Head Coach Jeff Gard said, entering his 12th season at UW-Platteville.  "Whether it is a COVID-19 year or non-COVID-19 year, our focus is not worrying on how many games we need to win, rather focusing on what needs to be done to win those games. At the end of the day, don't beat us."

Three of the four starters returning received all-conference honors for the 2019-20 season.  Senior guard Quentin Shields (Chicago, Illinois) was selected to the first-team while, senior forward Justin Stovall (Chicago, Illinois) and junior forward Kyle Tuma (Valders, Wisconsin) were honorable mention.  Stovall and Shields were also selected to the all-defensive team. 

Shields averaged 14.9 points a game, 3.5 rebounds a game and 2.8 assist a game.  Stovall was the sixth leading rebounder in the WIAC, averaging 6.2 per game to go along with his 10.2 points per game.  Tuma averaged 10.8 and 5.9 boards last year.  The fourth returning starter, Drew Gunnink (Brandon, Wisconsin) led the WIAC in three-point shooting by a large margin; hitting 52.1% of his attempts.

Even with the experience returning, the Pioneers will have a huge void to fill on the court and in the locker room with the departure of three seniors.

The most notable loss is WIAC co-player of the year Carter Volker. The Pioneers will look to replace Volker's 15.5 points per game, 6.5 rebounds a game and 3.8 assist a game. Besides the numbers the Pioneers have to replace, Gard will also have to replace the leadership from the three departed seniors.

"We will fill Carter's role with a collection of guys," Gard said.  "Honestly, we are not just replacing Carter's minutes and stat line. We had three great seniors last year that understood their role in making us successful."

Volker, Tanner Hudziak and Tim Bassuener were members of three NCAA tournament teams, two regular season WIAC championship teams and one WIAC Tournament championship team.  The 2020-21 Pioneers have seven seniors on the squad. "This year of seniors has had three outstanding years," Gard said. "They saw how seniors should lead. However, they have to put their own stamp on the team and cannot lead exactly like the seniors of the past."

Gard went on to praise the returning players on how they handled the past year. "I am extremely impressed how our guys stayed together and pushed each other over the past 10 months with never knowing what tomorrow was going to bring," he said. "Our big focus was to 'win the wait' and I believe they did that to the best of their ability."

With the delayed start and shortened season, the WIAC has split the conference into the west and east divisions. Teams will play each team from their division and one team from the opposite division in a Wednesday-Friday home and home series for a total of eight games. The WIAC tournament will include all eight teams at the end of the year to determine the auto-bid for the NCAA tournament.

The Pioneers open at home on February 3 when they welcome UW-Oshkosh to Bo Ryan Court, before traveling to Oshkosh on February 5. The Pioneers follow the Titans series with UW-Stevens Point and UW-Whitewater before playing west division UW-La Crosse to close out the regular season.

"I am not sure if there truly is an advantage or a disadvantage playing the same team back-to-back," Gard said. "With the environments being without fans, I am not sure there is as much of a home court advantage, other than the travel. With the WIAC being an older league, our guys are very familiar with not only the players but what they like to do. At the end of the day, we are all going to be on the same level and it will just come down to who can do the basics better."

The Pioneers will welcome seven new faces to the program in 2021. "All the freshmen have done a good job in understanding their role and listening to the upperclassmen," Gard said. "With an experienced group of returners, they have really been pushed and shown the expectations of this program."

While a WIAC decision has determined no fans at any winter season competition, UW-Platteville will provide free streaming of all home games with Daryl Fischer on the play-by-play and Chancellor Dennis J. Shields doing the color commentary.  The links for livestream and complete schedule can be found here.