Geneva Mens Basketball Season Outlook - Geneva College
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Geneva Mens Basketball Season Outlook

team 2015-16

The Geneva men’s basketball team enters the 2015-16 season with good reason for optimism. The Golden Tornadoes return Ethan Adamczyk, who named to the all-Presidents’ Athletic Conference first team in his first year at Geneva, plus three other players who started at least half of the games.

But the return of four starters isn’t the only reason to look forward to the season. It could be a season unlike any other at Metheny Fieldhouse.

“We’re going to surprise people,” said Head Coach Jeff Santarsiero, entering his 19th year as the head coach.

“We’ll be using a new system, a system like we’ve never played before. The closest system we’ve had was in the early 1990’s when we had Brian Kelly, who played inside but would step outside and shoot the three.”

The 1990s were a very good time for Geneva basketball. The Golden Tornadoes won at least 20 games every season from 1988-89 to 1998-99 and went to the NAIA National Tournament three times, reaching the Elite Eight in 1996, with Santarsiero as an assistant.

A change in system does not guarantee a return to that level of success, but it does give fans reason to reminisce and look forward to the season.

“It will be a guard-oriented system but will be basically position-less,” Santarsiero said. “We have players that can play inside but we won’t have inside players.

“I saw some things at a clinic, worked with our coaches, talked with coach (Jerry) Slocum (Geneva head coach until 1996 and now at YSU) and the offense just sort of morphed into this. We’re getting a comfort level with the system and it’s been very encouraging.”

With Adamczyk, a senior, and three other starters returning in senior Jordan Lawrence, junior Chaese Vaudrin, and sophomore Jimmy Leichliter, there would have been reason for encouragement anyway.

Adamczyk finished third in the conference in scoring (17.5 points per game) and field goal percentage (51.4%) and eighth in rebounding (5.6). Leichliter was second in the conference in 3-pointers per game, making 42.4% of his attempts and averaged 10.3 points per game. Vaudrin was second in the conference in assists (4.0 per game) and averaged 8.4 points per game. Lawrence started all 26 games and averaged 4.1 points.

That group will anchor the rotation but Santarsiero expects to go 10 or 11 players deep in the new system. One of the keys will be sophomore Anthony Carthen, who averaged 15 minutes and six points per game after transitioning from the football team. This year, he is concentrating on basketball and it’s paying off.

“He’s our leading scorer in intrasquad scrimmages, takes the ball to the basket better than anyone we’ve got and is our best defensive player,” Santarsiero said.

Also expected to contribute off the bench are Chris Dean, Zach Burns, and Zack Stitt, who all played last year. Much of the depth, though, will come from the freshman class, including David Oliver from Quaker Valley, Gavin Porter, who was an all-stater at Belmont (OH), Danny Torok from Grove City, and Timon Gribbin from North Catholic.

“Guard-wise, this is the best freshman class we’ve had in years,” Santarsiero. “We’re going to go at least 10 or 11 deep, full-court press, a totally different style. Basketball-wise, this is one of the smartest groups we’ve ever had and these guys keep surprising me every day.”

Nov 10, 2015