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COLLEGE PREVIEW: Balanced Tigers looking to improve on rebounding, defense
By Joey Bennett
Sports Editor
DePauw men’s basketball coach Bill Fenlon was pleased with his team’s performance on Wednesday night in its season opener, a 90-72 win over Franklin.
But, Fenlon was quickly able to find some areas of improvement as his team looks to return to the NCAA Division III tournament for the first time since 2014-15.
“We weren’t as active as we need to be when the ball goes up on the glass,” he said. “We were bigger, but they were quicker. Our perimeter guys did a good job defensively, but I was disappointed with the way we tracked down the ball.”
Three years ago, the Tigers finished with a 20-10 record and won their first-round NCAA game before being eliminated in the second round.
The past two seasons, DePauw has fallen off to records of 8-17 and 12-14.
Fenlon is hopeful this team will be able to turn those numbers around.
“I really like this group,” he said. “Our practices, top to bottom, have been as competitive as they have been in a long time. We have a lot of guys who are competing to be the guys on the floor who can play, and we’re going to spend some time early in the season trying to sort that out.
“If we can get the rebounding thing figured out, and be better defensively, we can find some ways to score.”
Fenlon noted that his team was able score 90 points, something it did only four times last season, with only two points from leading returning scorer (Jack VandeMerkt, who averaged 11.6 last year).
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “I don’t think we were great offensively. That’s not our problem. We have to be able to stop people.”
VandeMerkt, a 6-8 senior, was joined in the starting lineup by 6-8 junior Andrew Kus.
Senior David Vogel led the Tigers with 22 points on Wednesday night, and was joined in the three-guard starting lineup by senior Mason Hankins and sophomore Luke Steinhart.
“I love the group, we just have to determine what our identity is,” Fenlon said. “We did what everyone is trying to do — win the first game. We never take winning for granted around here.”
It normally takes a freshmen a while to work their way into the rotation at the collegiate level, but 6-6 forward Josh Hall seems to be an exception.
The Bloomington South grad played 19 minutes on Wednesday (fifth most on the team) and scored 12 points (hitting 5 of 7 shots), grabbed six rebounds and dished out three assists.
Four of his point came on a pair of impressive dunks, in which he soared into the air and rammed home errant shots that had bounced upward.
“Yeah Josh got involved pretty quickly out there,” Fenlon said. “He is a very talented guy athletically. He is just scratching the surface as far as what he can do as a basketball player.
“He is a really hard worker and a good teammate,” Fenlon added. “As he polishes his skills to go along with his athleticism, he could be a special guy at this level. We haven’t seen that kind of athleticism around here in a long time.”
The Tigers had just 11 turnovers in a fast-paced game.
“One of our goals is to be under 10,” he said.
