Pioneers Picked To Repeat As WIAC Champions

PLATTEVILLE, Wis. – After claiming both the conference regular season and tournament titles a year ago, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville men's basketball team has been picked to finish first in the 2024-25 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) preseason poll that was released on Thursday.

The Pioneers, ranked second in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25, earned the program's 23rd regular season title last season behind a 26-5 record, including a 12-2 mark in conference play. UW-Platteville secured the WIAC Tournament crown and advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA Division III Tournament with wins over Bethany Lutheran, Loras, and Case Western Reserve.

Following UW-Platteville in the preseason poll was UW-La Crosse, while UW-Stevens Point and UW-River Falls rounded out the top half. UW-Whitewater was picked to finish fifth, and UW-Oshkosh, UW-Stout, and UW-Eau Claire concluded the poll.

Head coach Jeff Gard is back for his 16th season, fresh off collecting his 250th career win in the Pioneers Sweet Sixteen victory against Case Western. He welcomes back four starters and 11 letterwinners from last year's team, including the 2023-24 National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division III Player of the Year in senior Logan Pearson.

Pearson collected an impressive amount of hardware following the 2023-24 season, in which he averaged 23.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 2.9 assists per game. The reigning WIAC Player of the Year broke the UW-Platteville single season record for total points with 692 while posting fantastic shooting splits of 48.4/41.1/85.5.

Joining Pearson on the wing will be junior Max Love, who earned All-WIAC honors as a sophomore after averaging 12.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. Love shot over 40 percent from beyond the arc and reached double figures 18 times.

In the backcourt, seniors Ben Probst and Brady Olson return after each were named WIAC Honorable Mention last season. Probst averaged 13.3 points per game and knocked down a Pioneers single-season record of 82 threes, all while connecting on a 45.3 percent clip. Olson was named to the WIAC All-Defensive team and routinely guarded the opposing team's best offensive threat.

Juniors Joey Fuhremann and Miles Hettinger will step into the middle of the Pioneers lineup following the departure of Brad Nies and his 31 starts. Fuhremann played nearly 17 minutes a game off the bench last season and averaged 5.5 points and 5.4 rebounds, while Hettinger scored 5.0 points and grabbed 2.4 boards in just under nine minutes per contest.

Other key returners for UW-Platteville will be guards Bristol Lewis and Aiden Wieczorek. Lewis emerged as an important rotation piece over the course of his freshman campaign, averaging 7.2 points and shooting a team-high 90.7 percent from the free throw line. Wieczorek, a junior, played 13.7 minutes per game and averaged 2.7 points and 2.2 rebounds.

The Pioneers begin the 2024-25 season against ninth-ranked Calvin in Bloomington, Illinois, at the Sikma Invite hosted by Illinois Wesleyan on Friday, November 8. UW-Platteville's first home game will be on Wednesday, November 20 at 7 p.m. against Carthage. Following five more home games across late November and early December, the Pioneers head to Central (Iowa) before traveling to De Pere, Wisconsin, for the St. Norbert Holiday Tournament at the end of December.

UW-Platteville begins conference play at UW-Stevens Point on Saturday, January 4. The first WIAC home matchup will take place on Saturday, January 11 at 7 p.m. against UW-Oshkosh. Other key conference home contests include the annual Garding Against Cancer game against UW-Whitewater on Wednesday, January 22, and Senior Night in the regular season finale on Saturday, February 22 versus UW-River Falls.