Men's Basketball Selected For 2019 Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic

Wildcats To Open Season Against Defending National Champions At Prestigious Tournament

5/11/2019 5:45:00 PM

By: By Mike Miranto, Sr. Associate A.D. for External Operations & Communications

AMHERST, N.Y. - The Daemen College men's basketball team has been selected to participate in the Small College Basketball (SCB) Hall of Fame Classic on November 1-2 at the Civic Arena in St. Joseph, Missouri. The SCB Hall of Fame Classic is billed as "the nation's most prestigious in-season event for NCAA Division II men's basketball," and it will feature several top teams from around the country. The eight participating teams and tournament matchups were announced today as part of the SCB National Awards Show in Kansas City.

Daemen, which has won 17 consecutive season openers, will have to knock off the defending national champions to extend that streak. The Wildcats will face Northwest Missouri State University in opening round action on November 1 with tip-off slated for 5 p.m. (CST). NMSU is coming off a perfect 38-0 season, capped by a 64-58 win over Point Loma Nazarene University in the national championship game. The Bearcats became just the fifth NCAA Division II team to complete a perfect season. They'll return nine players, including four starters, for the 2019-20 season.

The Wildcats will face Missouri Western State University, the quasi-tournament host, in the nightcap of second round action November 2 with tip-off slated for 7:30 p.m. Like NMSU, Missouri Western is a member of the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association. The Griffons posted a 12-18 overall record and a 6-13 mark in MIAA play last season. 10830

"We are very excited to have the opportunity to play in such a prestigious event to tip off our season," said Daemen head coach Mike MacDonald, the 2018-19 East Coast Conference Coach of the Year. "The opportunity to play two big time games early was very appealing for us. It's not often you get to play the defending national champions and to do it early in the year is something we could not pass up."

Additional participating teams include Davenport University (Mich.), the University of South Carolina-Aiken, West Texas A&M University, Lincoln Memorial University and Southern Nazarene University, all of which spent time in the top-25 rankings last season.

Daemen is coming off its finest season since making the transition to NCAA Division II. The Wildcats were ranked as high as No. 10 in the Division II Sports Information Directors of America (D2SIDA) national poll, and finished the season with a 24-6 overall record. They captured the program's second East Coast Conference regular season championship, and were awarded an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament - the first in team history. Ten players are set to return for the 2019-20 season, including incumbent starters Andrew Sischo (Guilderland, N.Y.), Jeff Redband (Batavia, N.Y.), Jay Sarkis (Rochester, N.Y.) and Breon Harris (Niagara Falls, N.Y.). Sischo headlines the group after earning East Coast Conference and East Region Player of the Year, and second-team All-American honors.

The SCB Hall of Fame Classic began in 2016, and Daemen will become just the second East Region team to participate. Fellow East Coast Conference member St. Thomas Aquinas College participated in the 2017 event.

In addition to announcing the participating teams and matchups, SCB announced its 2019 Hall of Fame induction class today. Honorees include Phog Allen (coach/contributor - Central Missouri, Baker, Haskell Indian Nations), World B. Free (player - Guilford), Marques Haynes (player/contributor - Langston), Cleo Hill (player - Winstom-Salem State), Danny Miles (coach - Oregon Tech), Mike Harper (player - North Park), Larry Humes (player - Evansville), Vern Mikkelsen (player - Hamline), Mel Peterson (player - Wheaton), Bo Ryan (coach - Wisconsin-Platteville), Ed Smallwood (player - Evansville) and John Smith (player - Winona State). The 12 inductees will be enshrined during a ceremony on October 31 which will be attended by the participating teams.

"The events they have lined up for the participating teams are outstanding," said MacDonald. "Our guys will have a chance to interact with some of the greats to have ever played the game of basketball at any level. These are people who started at the small college level and rose to the top of the sport. It is an honor for us to represent Daemen College and all of the great players and coaches who came before us at this incredible event."

The full game schedule for the 2019 SCB Hall of Fame Classic is as follows...

Friday, November 1, 2019
12:00 Davenport vs. USC-Aiken
2:30 West Texas A&M vs. Lincoln Memorial
5:00 NW MO State vs. Daemen
7:30 Missouri Western vs. Southern Nazarene

Saturday, November 2, 2019
12:00 Davenport vs. Lincoln Memorial
2:30 West Texas A&M vs. USC-Aiken
5:00 NW MO State vs. Southern Nazarene
7:30 Missouri Western vs. Daemen

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