Men's Hoops Picked to Repeat as HCAC Champions

GREENWOOD, Ind. – The Defiance College men's basketball team has been tabbed as the preseason favorite to win its second-straight HCAC regular season title, as announced by the HCAC Preseason Coaches' Poll on Wednesday. Defiance was the only team to pick up more than two first-place votes and also placed four players on the HCAC Players-to-Watch list. [HCAC Release]

The Yellow Jackets are coming off their most successful season in 15 years after posting a 19-8 record and winning the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship by three games one year ago. DC led the conference race from start to finish and ended the year ranked first or second in the league in 12 statistical categories.

Defiance hopes to pick up where it left off and will return three starters and 11 letterwinners from the squad that won the program's first outright league championship since 1993-94 and posted its highest win total since the 1992-93 campaign.

Leading the way for DC will be probable starters and HCAC Preseason Players to Watch Anthony Pettaway, Anthony Jackson, Mike Floyd and Nick Sales. The Jackets will also be bolstered by returning key reserves Eric Stolly, Heath Armstrong, Nate Conley and Josh Stuckey, along with a very talented six-man freshmen class.

Pettaway will be looking to defend his HCAC Player-of-the-Year honors by controlling the paint once again for DC. The senior center ranked third in the conference in scoring (16.2), second in rebounding (8.7), third in blocks (1.8) and fourth in field goal percentage (61.5) through 16 league games one year ago and was named to a pair of all-district teams prior to earning All-America honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The Toledo, Ohio, native will enter his final year with the Purple and Gold as the program's 39th leading scorer with 1,024 points to his credit through three seasons.

Jackson will also return to the starting lineup for DC after starting all 27 games and earning Honorable Mention All-HCAC honors as a junior. The Ayersville High product set new career highs with 200 points and 25 steals during his junior campaign and provided the Yellow Jackets with a major threat from three-point range. Jackson connected at a 39.4-percent clip from beyond the arc and hit two-or-more treys in 13 contests.

Mike Floyd will join Jackson in the backcourt and run the high-powered Defiance offense during his junior campaign. Floyd earned his second-straight Honorable Mention All-HCAC honor despite playing in only 16 contests for the Yellow Jackets as a sophomore. The crafty point guard lifted the squad to a 76.6 points-per-night clip in his 14 starts and led the conference for the second time in as many years with 4.1 assists per game in league action. Floyd hit his stride in the HCAC Tournament, where he set a new single-game HCAC Tournament record by dishing out 12 helpers in DC's 95-86 victory over Anderson in the semifinals.

Sales is projected to crack the starting lineup at the forward position, where he will team with Pettaway and create one of the most dangerous post tandems in the HCAC. The Barberton, Ohio, native saw major time in all 27 contests as DC's sixth-man in 2007-08 and averaged over 20 minutes per game. Sales ended the year with 8.4 points and 5.7 rebounds a night to go with a 59.6 field goal percentage from the floor. The junior forward has been a steady force in the paint for DC since stepping foot on campus and has posted 10 double-doubles, 496 points and 361 boards in just two seasons with the Yellow Jackets.

Defiance will turn to a new face on the sidelines in 2008-09, as Head Coach Kyle Brumett takes over the program which has 36 wins and a pair of appearances in the championship game of the HCAC Tournament over the past two seasons. Brumett began his tenure at DC on May 19 after leading his Lakeland squad to a 17-11 mark and the Northern Athletics Conference Tournament Championship in 2007-08.

Brumett will look to mix his talented returning players with a promising incoming class in the hopes of leading Defiance back to the HCAC title game and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000-01.

The road will be difficult however, as the HCAC boasts several teams poised to challenge DC for the title. Anderson, Franklin, Transylvania and Mount St. Joseph all return multiple key players and each garnered first-place votes in the HCAC Preseason Coaches' Poll.

DC claimed the top spot with 73 points and four first-place votes and was followed closely by a very athletic Anderson squad. The Ravens picked up a pair of top votes and 65 points to edge Franklin and Transylvania at 63 and 60 points each.

A gap of 25 points separates Transylvania from the fifth-place squad of Hanover. The Panthers got 35 points, while Rose-Hulman (31), Mount St. Joseph (30), Bluffton (28) and Manchester (20) rounded out the poll.

Fans can get their first glimpse of the defending HCAC Champions when DC hosts an intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 3:00 pm. The game will be held in the Karl H. Weaner Center and admission will be free.

Defiance will officially take the lid off of its 2008-09 season when it plays Albion at 7:30 pm on Nov. 21 in the first day of the Albion College Tip-Off Tournament.