Last season, the Benedictine University men's basketball team enjoyed its best season since 2010-2011, finishing 14-12 overall and finishing fifth in the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference standings. With ten returnees combined with a large cast of new faces, the Eagles have come into preseason practices with a strong work ethic.
 
"Our effort has been great," said Head Coach Keith Bunkenburg, who enters his 20th season as the helm and is eight wins shy of 300 for his career. "We added some things to the offense that we feel give us more movement. Our overall effort and leadership has been good, the hard work our kids have put in has me excited."
 
Bunkenburg is also excited with the added depth, as 15 new players have been added for the 2014-2015 season.
 
"The depth will come in handy in a lot of different ways," said Bunkenburg. "It will help us with foul trouble, if someone is having a tough game, and in case of injuries. We won't have to play guys as many minutes, so recovery for the next game will be quicker. It's also created great competition in practice, as the guys are all pushing each other each day."
 
Even with all the youth, the Eagles have plenty of veteran leaders. One of those is senior Tim McGinty (15.8 points per game, 7.0 rebounds per game), who will anchor the frontcourt after earning First Team All-NACC honors a season ago.
 
"Tim McGinty has always been a leader for us in terms of effort and hard work, but he's become more vocal than he has in the past," explained Bunkenburg. "He is going to be considered one of the Top 5 players in our league, so teams will be more physical with him in trying to slow him down. How he deals with it will be a key factor as to how he performs this season, and I think he will handle it well."
 
Joining McGinty down low will be junior forward Tim Reamer (5.3 points per game, .591% shooting), who also has been a vocal leader in pre-season practices. Sophomore transfers Shawn Soelter (a member of the Eagles in 2012-2013) and Adam Reynolds, as well as freshman Kyle Epping, all figure to factor into this season rotation of post players.
 
The Eagles also have experience in the backcourt, as junior point guard John Dodson (7.0 points, team-high 69 assists) returns in more of a leadership role.
 
"John Dodson has really stepped up, as he's led vocally both in the weight room and on the court with his effort," said Bunkenburg. "He's matured a lot for us, has worked very hard on his jump shot, and is one of our best defenders. Another year in our system will help him."
 
Playing alongside Dodson will be sophomore guard Michael Blaszczyk (13.5 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game, 50 three-point field goals made), who is the reigning NACC Freshman of the Year.
 
"Having [Mike] Woolf last season, along with being a freshman, helped take some pressure off of Blaszczyk last season," said Bunkenburg. "I always think your sophomore year is the toughest, as expectations aren't set as high as a freshman, and improvement is expected each season. Teams are going to be after him and he will get a lot of teams' best defenders, and I am excited to see how he responds."
 
Dodson and Blaszczyk are joined by a very deep group of guards. Tahron Harvey (11.7 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, 46 assists in 14 games), Kevin Rollins (22 games played), and Niji Lomax all return. Newcomers Mack Brown (junior transfer), Edward Stack, Shakill Polanco, and Zach Gorney also all have a chance to contribute.
 
This year's NACC figures to be as wide-open as it's been in years, as three different teams received a first-place vote in the conference's preseason poll (BenU was picked third). Bunkenburg knows the long conference season helps determine a true champion, which the Eagles want to become this season.
 
"Our league is going to bring it every night, and 20 conference games is a real grind," said Bunkenburg. Our goal is to win our conference, and we need to establish more consistency on both ends of the floor in order to do that."
 
Men's basketball opens the season at the Dan and Ada Rice Center on Saturday against Illinois Wesleyan University, who is ranked fourth nationally in the d3hoops.com preseason poll. Live audio, video, and statistics will be available at http://portal.stretchinternet.com/benu/ for Saturday and all home games this season.