BEREA, Ohio – The Baldwin Wallace University men's basketball team has waited 11 months to step back on to the Ursprung Gymnasium court. Finally, the time has come for BW to lace up its shoes and knock down jumpers as it begins the Ohio Athletic Conference only schedule on January 22.
Head Coach Tom Heil begins his sixth season at the helm and returns four letterwinners and one All-OAC player from last year's squad that finished 14-12 overall and 10-8 in the OAC. Heil's roster is comprised of one senior, two juniors, six sophomores and seven freshmen.
"Our goal this fall was to take advantage of every opportunity that we had to get better as individual players and as a team," stated Heil. "We wanted to become as connected as possible while focusing on each and every opportunity to get better. Our players certainly accomplished that during the fall semester, and it has been really fun being together on the practice floor these last two weeks. We are very thankful that Baldwin Wallace and the OAC have given us the opportunity to compete and play the game that we love, and we will not take that opportunity for granted."
The Yellow Jackets return two of their four leading scorers from 2019-20 in senior All-OAC guard Luke Schaefer (Medina) and sophomore guard Anthony Mazzeo (North Caton/Hoover). Schaefer led the team with a career-high 11.3 points-per-game and career-best 295 total points. He also recorded a career-high 87 rebounds and dished out 30 assists in all 26 games. Mazzeo finished fourth on the squad as he posted 9.1 points-per-contest and 237 points in his rookie campaign. He did lead the team in three-pointers made with 44 and three-point field goal percentage at 45.8.
In addition to Schaefer and Mazzeo in the backcourt, BW returns junior Shane Zalba (Mentor), sophomores Samson Albert (Akron/Revere) and Jake Snyder (Akron/Archbishop Hoban) and Lian Levesque (Brook Park/Berea-Midpark). Zalba and Snyder appeared in 20 plus games last season and accounted for 65 combined assists. Albert saw action in 11 games and dished out six assists with 11 steals. Levesque along with newcomers Deonte Benejan (Lorain), Luke Driscoll (Carmel, Calif./Stevenson School), Trevor Mackey (Strongsville), who is the son of Alumni Athletics Hall of Famer Joe Mackey '95, and Drew Wennes (Huron) will push for time in the rotation.
The Yellow Jackets will rely on a new and young corps in the frontcourt as team graduated three players that controlled the paint each of the last three seasons. Junior Terrell Hicks (Cuyahoga Falls/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy), sophomores Luke Coyne (Rocky River) and Jackson Simmons (Wadsworth) along with freshmen Wyatt Flynn (Independence), Jordan Garland (North Royalton), Christian Pfeiffer (Amherst) and Rob Watson III (Nordonia) will be called on to control the paint.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, BW will be competing in conference-only games consisting of home-and-home weekend series on Friday and Saturday nights at 7 and 6 p.m., respectively. The six-week schedule, that will not have spectators, tips off on Friday and Saturday, January 22 against the University of Mount .
In addition to Mount Union on January 22, the Yellow Jackets will host Marietta College on January 30, crosstown rival John Carroll University on February 6, Capital University on February 12, Heidelberg University on February 10 and Ohio Northern University on February 27.
The OAC Tournament is slated to be held the week of March 1. First round games will be held on March 1 with quarterfinal games to be played on March 2. The semifinals will be hosted on the campuses of the highest remaining seed on March 4. The OAC Tournament championship game will be contested on the campus of the highest remaining seed on March 6.
