INDIANAPOLIS - With the basketball regular-season tipping off for most of the G-MAC this past weekend, it is time to take a look at what to expect out of the conferences inaugural season.

With a small collection of teams in the first year, which will expand and double in 2013-14, the G-MAC will be wide open as it establishes who will wear the target at the outset. Some teams are local rivals - Urbana and Cedarville - while some have rarely faced another G-MAC opponent - Trevecca Nazarene. All-in-all, there is a very solid basketball tradition in the the G-MAC that looks to develop a conference that can compete from day one with any other conference.
Coming off a 23-9 record in 2011-12 and an NCCAA Division I Championship, most teams would be confident in being able to repeat the success of a previous season, but as Cedarville enters the NCAA as an active Division II institution, the difficulty of its schedule provides an unknown for the Yellow Jackets.

However, it doesn’t seem as difficult with the one thing that is known. 10 returners from the championship roster will guide CU, led by the group of Zimmy Nwogbo, Austin Foote, Brian Grant, and Zach Brown, as each averaged 10 or more points per game last season. Nwogbo is the leading scorer and rebounder (13.9 ppg and 7.5 rpg) to return, with no major losses on the roster. Adding to the chances of success will be the sophomore transfer from Wright State, Jason Cuffee.

The games should play out similar to last season with all five starters and the teams top eight scorers all returning. Recently, the team opened the regular-season with a high-scoring battle against #1 West Liberty. This was a tremendous test, that even with a loss, the Yellow Jackets won. Being able to go head-to-head with the top ranked team in the nation, is an important measuring stick for the newest Division II program.

Veteran leadership, six seniors, will guide this team as they look to win the G-MAC and make their first appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Central State University

The Marauders return three starters from last season and will depend heavily on the backcourt of Phillip Gates and DeMarcus Ison-Jones. Eddy Jean Pierre will round out the veteran leadership with his energy and presence in the middle. LeDonte Body, George Harper, and Lee Tabb will join the starting rotation. With the season recently tipping off, CSU is off to a good start with a dominating performance against W.Va. Tech (81-49).

“We are working to build on our success, and I am looking to our senior leadership to help carry us through the season,” said head coach Donte Jackson, who was named head coach in 2010 after serving seven years as assistant coach for the Marauders.

In 2011-12, CSU showed some improvement and success going 19-9, and winning its first-round game against Notre Dame College in the Ohio Independent Championship tournament. However, the season ended in the semifinals against Walsh University in a tight contest (77-73). The season was an impressive improvement upon 2010-11 season in which the team was 14-12, just a year after going 22-6. So this senior class wants to return the Marauders to the level in which it began and continue on the pace of improvement it established last season.

Trevecca Nazarene University

Trevecca Nazarene, currently in year two of the membership process of making the move from the NAIA to the NCAA Division II level is looking to grow and improve, while competing as a member of the G-MAC. Coming off a 22-12 season, and a Mid-East Regional Championship and a fifth place finish in the nation, TNU is looking for continued improvement.

Despite losing its top player, the Trojans return six seniors and will look to battle Cedarville for the G-MAC crown and most likely the NCCAA title as well, if the Yellow Jackets are not playing for the NCAA championship.

Seniors Maliek Daniels and JP Nyadaro will look to pace the scoring for TNU. Last season the duo combined for 15.6 ppg, this season they hope to double that, with the loss of 20 ppg from Michael France. Marquise Rudolph will be the third scorer, as he brings back 13.7 ppg from last season. Nyadaro should lead the team in rebounding as he was second on the team last season with 6.2 boards a game. Rudolph is the leading passer with 157 assists last season.

As a team, TNU will need to make up for the loss in scoring by France and score around 73 points per game in order to compete and win the G-MAC Championship in the leagues first season. After winning only 11 games in 2010-11, the Trojans will not accept a step-back and are looking to the future. With five seniors, one junior, and one sophomore, the group of eight freshman will need to grow up quickly and control the direction of this program and its future in the G-MAC.

Urbana University

After five years of playing as an Independent basketball program, the Urbana men’s basketball team is excited and focused as they will play for a conference championship this winter. Head Coach Jeff Porter is excited about the potential of his program against the basketball-rich programs like Cedarville, Central State and Trevecca Nazarene, and he knows the Blue Knights will have a tough road ahead if they plan to contend coming off a 9-19 season.

On the surface, Urbana may appear to be the conference underdog, but the Blue Knights’ have fared well against its new conference foes. The Blue Knights have taken two of the last three against Central State, and the team defeated Trevecca Nazarene the last time the two programs met during the 2004-05 campaign.

Cedarville dropped Urbana in all three meetings last season, but the margin of victory dropped from 20 to just 3 points in their final meeting at Cedarville in the semifinals of the D-II Ohio Independents’ Championships. Urbana won the meeting before last year’s three-game set, when Cedarville was ranked 18th in the country.

Urbana finished strong last season, ending the year on a 4-3 spurt that included a pair of buzzer-beater wins and a 59-55 road victory over NCAA D-I Chicago State. Team captain and two-year vet Ramel Mitchell scored a game-high 17 point and calmly sank the final four free throws in the last 11 seconds of Urbana’s 59-55 upset at Chicago State.

Mitchell was the fourth leading scorer on last year’s squad at 10.1 points per game. The top three scorers were seniors Shariff Muhammad Jr., Marcus Pearl and Dyrell Dolson. The trio’s departure leaves Porter trying to replace three starters and about 36 points per game.

Junior guards Danny Goins proved to be a prolific scorer off the bench last season, finishing fifth on the team in scoring (7 ppg) and Josh Brown averaged five points per game. Both were terrific from behind the arc, shooting 46% and 36%, respectively.

Assisting in the transition is a talented incoming class that includes Armond Battle, who transferred into the program from Wright State, where he spent two seasons starting for the Raiders. Another transfer with D-I experience is junior forward C.J. Reid, who averaged 15 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists during his sophomore season at JCC.

The incoming talent also includes a pair of Serbian big men. Six-foot-eight power forward Ognjen Rebic appeared in eight games for tournament-bound St. Cloud State last season, and seven-foot freshman center Andrej Tomic hails from the same Serbian city as sophomore teammate Dusan Komljenovic. The Serbian trio will provide the Blue Knights with a size advantage they have not often had recently.


Central State looks like it will continue to improvement from 14 wins to 19 wins to a possible conference championship run, while Urbana has proved to be a late-season team that plays a tough early non-conference schedule in order to prepare for conference battles - and with some proven transfers and some international talent, they are not out of the mix.

To say it is a jump ball when it comes to predicting a winner is an understatement. It will have to be played out on the court and should be exciting to watch both the conference develop as well as the basketball rivalries.