Schedule
Saginaw Valley State (2-3, 0-0 GLIAC) at #10/11 Hillsdale (6-0, 0-0 G-MAC) | 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 26 | Dawn Tibbetts Potter Arena | Hillsdale, MI
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Additional Info
Hillsdale Roster | SVSU Roster | Hillsdale Stats | SVSU Stats
Projected Starters
Hillsdale: #2 Kyle Goessler, Sr., F, Brunswick, OH/Brunswick (12 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.5 apg); #3 Jack Gohlke, Sr., G, Pewaukee, WI/Pewaukee (10.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 3 apg); #5 Cole Nau, Sr, G, Brookfield, WI/Central (8.2 ppg, 5 rpg, 3.7 apg, 1.5 spg); #20 Peter Kalthoff, Sr., F, Hillsdale, MI/Hillsdale Academy (10.2 ppg, 5 rpg, 1.3 bpg); #33 Joe Reuter, So., F, Chippewa Falls, WI/Chippewa Falls (12.7 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 3.8 apg)
SVSU: #0 Jiovanni Miles, Jr., G, Novi, MI/Macomb CC (8.8 ppg, 3.8 rpg, 2.2 apg, 1.2 spg); #1 Freddie McIntosh, So., G, Saginaw, MI/Saginaw (13.6 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.6 apg); #3 Tre Garrett, Jr., G, Saginaw, MI/Bridgeport (14.8 ppg, 7 rpg, 2.4 apg, 1.6 spg); #22 Kevonne Taylor, rFr, F, Detroit, MI/Chandler Park (8.6 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 1.8 bpg); #23 Ethan Hill, Fr., F, Muskegon, MI/Muskegon (6 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1 bpg)
Scouting the Opposition
Saginaw Valley St.: Coming off a solid 19-11 season last year, the Cardinals are looking to sustain that momentum despite losing the team's top three leading scorers from last year's squad.
While four starters are gone for SVSU, the Cardinals do return promising combo guard Freddie McIntosh, who is off to a strong start leading the team in scoring this season.
To run the point, SVSU picked up an impact transfer in JuCo guard Jiovanni Miles, who scored in double figures in both of the Cardinals' preseason exhibition wins, while guard Tre Garrett is also making the most of an expanded role from last season.
After an 0-2 start, SVSU changed its starting lineup and picked up two wins this past weekend. New starting posts Kevonne Taylor and Ethan Hill have both impressed as young players seeing their first major collegiate action.
SVSU is led by Randy Baruth, entering his 11th season at the helm of the Cardinals, having taken SVSU to the NCAA Tournament and the DII Elite Eight in 2016. A former assistant at Utah and Colorado State before arriving in Saginaw, Baruth has SVSU on another upswing recently, posting two winning seasons in the last three years.
Scouting the Chargers
The Chargers are off to a 6-0 start after a second straight undefeated weekend, the team's best start since the 2012-13 season. Hillsdale has displayed impressive balance so far, though with tougher games to come.
The challenge in 2022-23 for the Chargers is to remain among the elite in the Midwest Region while replacing several key players in the frontcourt. Hillsdale no longer has the only two-time first team NCAA DII All-American in program history as Patrick Cartier has graduated, and also gone are perennial All-G-MAC forward Austen Yarian and key defensive stopper Tavon Brown.
While those shoes will be tough to fill, Hillsdale still has plenty of talent and experience to draw on as the Chargers look to continue their run of recent success. Hillsdale's entire starting backcourt returns intact and those three seniors – point guard Cole Nau and wings Kyle Goessler and Jack Gohlke – will be critical veteran leaders for the squad while also looking to take on more of the team's scoring load.
Also returning is sophomore forward Joe Reuter, who came on after the Christmas Break to become the Chargers' sixth man, and earn G-MAC Freshman of the Year honors in his first collegiate season. With a potential move into the starting lineup in 2022-23, Reuter could be the breakout player of the season in the G-MAC if he can translate his production in a part-time role in 2021-22 into larger minutes.
In the post, veterans Peter Kalthoff and Eric Radisevic have looked solid in bigger roles as Hillsdale looks to offset some of the lost production from the graduation of its top three post players from last season.
Additional scoring support off the bench could come from a number of sources – sophomore Charles Woodhams will look to carve out a bigger role, while redshirt freshmen Walt Mattingly and Cole McWhinnie will get their first real crack at playing time as well. True freshman Ashton Janowski is another player to watch who could contribute early on in his college career.
Directing the Chargers for the 16th straight season is head coach John Tharp, who is the all-time winningest coach in program history with a 280-144 record. Returning on Hillsdale's bench this year for a third season is associate head coach Keven Bradley, and he will be joined by first-year assistant John Cheng.
Other Notes
- Hillsdale, has a 41-38 edge over Saginaw Valley State in a series that began in 1975, including a 71-55 victory on the road on Nov. 13. The Chargers have a rare home-and-home series in-season with SVSU this year, with the two former conference rivals in the GLIAC playing twice in the preseason.
- After starting the 2022-23 season unranked, Hillsdale was 10th in the nation in the most recent D2SIDA poll, and second in the D2SIDA Midwest Regional rankings, making this the third consecutive season Hillsdale has spent time in the national top 25 rankings. Hillsdale also jumped from unranked to 11th in the first NABC poll of the season, released on Tuesday.
- Hillsdale has a chance to do something special this year, coming into the season off of back-to-back 20-plus win campaigns. The Chargers have never had three consecutive 20-win seasons in the NCAA DII era, and not since a stretch of four straight from 1977-81 in its NAIA era. Hillsdale is also looking to make an unprecedented third-straight NCAA Tournament after qualifying in both 2021 and 2022.
- The Chargers have won 19 or more games in five consecutive seasons, but it's been a decade since Hillsdale has opened the season 6-0. The last time was in 2012-13, when Hillsdale opened with a 6-0 behind future All-American Tim Dezelski, as well as strong play from Nick Washburn and Brandon Pritzl. Hillsdale's longest winning streak to open the season is 13 in the 2010-11 season, part of a 20-win campaign for the Chargers that year.
- In dealing with the graduation of All-American center Patrick Cartier, the Chargers have replaced one of the best players in program history with impressive offensive balance. Five different Chargers have led Hillsdale in scoring in the first six games, and four players are averaging double-figures for the Chargers, with point guard Cole Nau just outside of that mark at 8.2 points per game. The ability to get significant scoring punch from all five positions is helping the Chargers pose real problems for defenses so far in the 2022-23 season.
- Centers Peter Kalthoff and Eric Radisevic barely saw the court before this season, with just a combined 179 minutes played in the last three years, but have done an admirable job filling the void in the middle left by Cartier. Kalthoff is averaging 10.8 points per game and has three double-figure scoring contests so far, while Radisevic is chipping in 6.7 points per contest off the bench for the Chargers. Both players should only continue improving with more playing time as the season goes on.
- Senior Jack Gohlke had an impressive contest to help lift Hillsdale past undefeated Northern Michigan in a 74-53 win last Sunday, scoring a career-high 26 points on 8 of 13 shooting from 3-point range. Gohlke's eight three pointers were the most in a single game by a Chargers since Stedman Lowry hit nine twice in the 2016-17 season, and just two shy of the program record of 10 hit by Tim Homan against Saginaw Valley State in 2007.
- Over 16 years, there are certain hallmarks that successful Charger basketball teams have in common under head coach John Tharp, and the 2022-23 squad is no different. Through six games, the Chargers are giving up just 58.7 points per game, the top defense in the G-MAC and 15th in the nation at the DII level. They're accomplishing that feat by holding opponents to 40.5% shooting from the field, the third-best mark in the G-MAC, and to an incredible 22.3% mark from 3-point range, also the top in the G-MAC and the seventh-best in the nation. The Chargers also limit opponent possessions by taking care of the ball, posting a solid 1.55 assist to turnover ratio so far this season.
- Already the winningest head coach in Hillsdale College history, Tharp is fast approaching two major career milestones that he could potentially reach this season if the Chargers have another special year. At 280 wins at Hillsdale, Tharp needs just 20 victories to become the first Charger men's basketball coach with 300 wins in program history, and he's only 17 wins away from becoming the 20th active coach at the NCAA DII level to reach 500 wins for his career as well. Although neither mark will be easy to reach, it's something worth keeping an eye on as the season progresses, especially as Hillsdale has gotten off to a strong start.