Though the Weber State basketball team is traveling more than halfway across the country to participate in Ball State University's First Merchants Classic in Muncie, Ind., it will be a homecoming, of sorts, for a third of the Wildcats.
Four of the Weber State players hooped it up in high school in the Hoosier State, including Chris Woods (East Chicago HS), John Hamilton (Greenfield Central HS), Jermaine Boyette (Hammond HS) and Pat Danley (Gary Westside HS).
Assistant coach John Stroia and head athletic trainer Joel Bass also have Indiana ties, partially explaining Weber State's penchant for picking up guys from the original home of hoops. Stroia hails from Merrillville and earned his master's degree at Ball State. Bass received his master's degree from Indiana State.
The Wildcats will be without two of their Indiana-grown players when they open the tournament against Princeton this afternoon at 3 MST. Because of their NCAA suspensions for illegally playing in recreation league basketball games while sitting out last season, Danley will miss the opener and Boyette will sit out both contests.
Weber State enters the tournament with a 2-1 record, having beaten UC-Riverside and Morris Brown at home and having lost at Southern Utah. Balance has been the key word for the Wildcats this season as four players — starters Stephen Bachman and Steve Morrison and reserves Ivan Gatto and Woods — are averaging between 11.3-12.3 points. Four other players are scoring at least 6.7 points a night.
"I have been very pleased with the way this team has played together," said Weber State coach Joe Cravens. "They share the ball and play good team defense."
In 0-1 Princeton, the Wildcats are facing a team that has gone through a wild preseason during which they lost their coach and several of their top players for various reasons. The Ivy League school is now coached by John Thompson III, son of the former and famous Georgetown coach.
The Wildcats will play either host Ball State or Anderson University, a NCAA Div. III school from Anderson, Ind., on Saturday.
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