Bearcats take aim at repeating with senior-laden core

JON DYKSTRA/DAILY FORUM
Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum watches his team from the sideline in last Friday’s season opener against Upper Iowa in St. Joseph, Missouri.

In the 1993 movie “The Sandlot,” the ghost of Babe Ruth returns and speaks to Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. He says one of the most quotable lines ever uttered in a sports movie.

“Heroes get remembered, but legends never die.”

The Northwest Missouri State mens basketball team has four seniors right now that are going for that legendary status.

After bringing the university its first mens basketball national championship last season, the four core seniors of Justin Pitts, Chris-Ebou Ndow, Xavier Kurth and Brett Dougherty now set out to do something that hasn’t been done since 1993-1994 when California State-Bakersfield did it: Win back-to-back Division-II national titles.

On the surface, it certainly appears like this Bearcat team has all the makings of a team that could do that.

Pitts, Kurth, Ndow and Dougherty all return to the lineup with at least 15 games of starting experience from the championship run.

Pitts is back to run the point guard spot and Ndow summed up what Pitts provides for the team after last Friday’s season-opening victory over Upper Iowa where Pitts had 30 points.

“Offensively, I’m not that worried,” Ndow said. “We have Justin. Justin is going to do him. As long as you have Justin on the offensive end and we do what we need to do defensively, we’re good.”

It is hard to argue with his assessment. Last season, Pitts had 20.9 points per game, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals per game on his way to winning Small College Basketball’s Bevo Francis Award.

Pitts also saved his best performances for the biggest stages and in the final NCAA Tournament he scored 33, 16, 25, 26, 30 and 23 in the six games required to win the national championship.

He doesn’t seem to have a championship hangover going into this season either, scoring 30 and 22 in the first two games of the year.

While Pitts has been the constant for the Bearcats running the point, Ndow has been coach Ben McCollum’s swiss-army knife. McCollum has been able to play Ndow nearly anywhere on the floor and get above-average production from that spot.

The 6-foot-7, 215 pound forward has the strength to play either post spot against most teams, but also has the quickness and ball-handling ability to handle himself well on the outside. He also is a career 34 percent three-point shooter.

McCollum has been putting some of that versatility to the test early on in the season by running Ndow at the point guard spot when he has been resting Pitts.

The weakness of the bench is not having a true backup point guard for Pitts and McCollum has experimented with using Ndow and Kurth there in the first couple games of the season. If the weakness on the team is not having a backup for a player who consistently plays 40 minutes a night if the game is at all close, then things are looking up for Northwest.

Kurth plays next to Pitts in the backcourt and although he is not the scorer that Pitts and Ndow are, he does provide another excellent perimeter defender for the Bearcats.

The luxury with Kurth is having a player who is capable of playing between Pitts and Ndow and providing the dirty work while not needing a play to be drawn up for him.

Kurth averaged 5.6 points per game last season and with increased minutes he should see that total increase.

Brett Dougherty rounds out the returning starters for the Bearcats and gets them their only true post presence.

“Statistically, he is never going to show up huge like some of the other post players in our league, but just as far as winning games which is the most important statistic in my opinion,” McCollum said. “He starts for the team that has had the most wins the last few years and is a really important piece to our success.”

Last season, Dougherty averaged 6.9 points per game.

The only slight question mark in the starting five was who would fill out the fifth spot in the starting lineup.

Minnesota State transfer Joey Witthus has been that person to begin the season.

The junior started every game he played for the Mavericks in his first two years and as a sophomore scored 13.7 points per game and grabbed 4.7 rebounds a game.

The 6-foot-7 forward is a 42 percent career three-point shooter and will be counted on to fill some of the void left by Zach Schneider.

Off the bench, the Bearcats feature another long-range specialist with forward Ryan Welty having made 52 of his 78 attempts last year.

The freshman that appears to be ready to make the biggest impact is Ryan Hawkins. He scored five points in the second game of the year against Northern State.