Tartan Men’s Basketball NCAA Tournament Preview

Mar. 1 - (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon University men’s basketball team (20-5) will look for its first ever NCAA Tournament victory when they square off against Baldwin-Wallace College (24-4) Friday, March 3 in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament held in Springfield, Ohio on the campus of Wittenberg University. The tip is set for 6:00 p.m. Carnegie Mellon will enter the game ranked 23rd by D3hoops.com, this marks the eleventh straight week the Tartans have been ranked in the top-25. Baldwin-Wallace will enter ranked 6th.

This marks only the second ever appearance for the Tartans in the tournament. Their other showing came in 1977 as they dropped an 82-68 decision to Wittenberg, the eventual national champion. With 20 wins this season the 2005-2006 Tartans recorded the first ever 20 win season in the 99 year history of the program.

The Tartans wrapped up a historic regular season on Saturday, February 25 when they defeated the visiting University of Rochester Yellowjackets 78-68 at Skibo Gymnasium. Senior Nate Maurer’s (Pittsburgh, Pa/Linsly School) 16 points led the way for the Tartans as four players scored in double figures en route to their first season sweep of Rochester since the 1995-96 season and second sweep ever since the formation of the UAA 19 years ago. Senior Bary Dunn (Pittsburgh, Pa./Taylor Alderdice) added 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting, while senior A.J. Straub (St. Marys, Pa./Elk County Catholic) and Clayton Barlow-Wilcox (Brookline, Mass.) had 12 and 13 points apiece. With the victory the Tartans claimed their first ever regular season UAA Championship.

Baldwin-Wallace enters the contest as the 2005-2006 Ohio Athletic Conference regular season champion and the two-time OAC Tournament champion. Baldwin-Wallace last played on Saturday, February 25 when they defeated Ohio Northern University, 91-84 in overtime of the championship game of the OAC Tournament. The Yellow Jackets are making their sixth appearance in the NCAA Division III National Tournament, their second straight and fifth under the direction of Head Coach Steve Bankson. A year ago, they lost in the first round at The College of Wooster, 94-78.

Carnegie Mellon and Baldwin-Wallace run high power offenses. The Yellow Jackets rank number one in the country with a 54.1% field goal percentage and 12th in the country averaging 87.9 points per game, while the Tartans average 84.2 points ranking them 19th. Helping the Yellow Jackets with their national rankings is junior wingman Tori Davis shooting 65.8% from the field ranking eighth nationally and tallying 23.3 points per contest for tenth best in the nation.

The Tartans are led by Maurer’s 18.7 points per game and Straub’s 46% field goal percentage from behind the three-point arc, ranking him 11th in the country. Straub averages 10.8 points. Joining Straub and Maurer averaging in double figures are fellow teammates Barlow-Wilcox (15.8) and senior Marques Johnson (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) (12.3).

Baldwin-Wallace also brings multiple double figure scorers into the contest. Besides Davis, the Yellow Jackets have three other starters with double digit scoring; seniors Keith Aufmuth (13.6) and Dan Gundert (11.6), along with sophomore Brendan Schuler (11.5).

The winner of this game advances to the second round and will play the winner of the host Wittenberg University versus Lake Erie College game that will tip at 8:00 p.m. Friday.