2006-2007 Men’s Basketball Wrap Up

BILLINGS, MT – With only one part-time starter returning, it was expected to be a rebuilding season from the start for the Montana State-Billings men’s basketball team.  It quickly became a season of survival with dismissals, reinstatements, and losing streaks dominating the headlines.  In the end, the 2006-2007 Yellowjackets posted a 6-21 record, the first losing season since 1998-1999 and the worst winning percentage since 1994-1995.

There was a cloud cast over the season before the first official game was played when four players were dismissed for violating team rules.  Expected starters Drew Arnold, Eric Cunningham, and Russell Steplight along with Colby Sedlar were dismissed on November 20, eleven days before the Jackets opened the season at a tournament in Idaho. 

Left with just eight players on the roster, the Yellowjackets dropped their first seven games of the season.  Three of the seven were to Northwest Nazarene, a future opponent in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  MSUB also lost its home opener, 103-85 to West Liberty State, the eventual national scoring champion.  During that seven-game stretch, junior guard Derek Taylor also left the team.

It took almost a full month, but the Yellowjackets finally broke into the win column on December 30 when they defeated Oklahoma Panhandle State 65-54 in their Heartland Conference opener.  Following a home loss to provisional member Texas A&M-International, the Jackets upset defending Heartland Conference champion St. Edward’s 60-56 on January 6.  That win put MSUB in the unusual position of being 2-8 overall but in first place in the conference at 2-0.

The January 6 win against St. Edward’s also marked the return of Cunningham and Steplight to the lineup.  The two appealed their dismissal through the university and were reinstated on the morning of the 6th.  The duo combined for just nine points, but Cunningham came off the bench to dish out seven assists and remedy the ball handling problems that had plagued the Jackets through the first nine games of the season.

Four-straight road losses, including a pair of conference defeats, dropped the Jackets to 2-13 overall and 2-2 in the league by the middle of January.  Still at the .500 mark in the conference standings, the Jackets’ best hopes of making the four-team conference tournament were pinned on three conference home games to wrap up January. 

They started the pivotal stretch with a 95-84 win against Lincoln on January 20, improving to 3-2 in the conference.  But six losses in the next seven games, including three losses at Alterowitz Gym, dropped the Jackets to 4-19 overall and 3-7 in the conference.  They didn’t win another conference game for nearly a month and found themselves needing to win their final two conference games to force a play-in game with Dallas Baptist.

The Jackets had to play the final seven games of the season, including four conference games, without leading scorer Jeff Miner.  The freshman guard was injured in a loss at Lincoln on February 2.  MSUB was still able to pull off the first half of the playoff equation with a 77-74 home win against DBU on February 19.  Jonathan Wiley, Cunningham, and Steplight combined for 47 points to keep the Jackets’ playoff hopes alive.

With the win over DBU, the Jackets improved to 4-7 in the conference, leaving the season finale at St. Edward’s to determine the playoff field.  An MSUB win would have set up a play-in game in Billings the following Tuesday.  MSUB stayed close for the game’s first 28 minutes, but St. Ed’s pulled away from a one-point game in the final 12 minutes to win 84-67, ending the Jackets’ season.

Miner led the team in scoring, averaging 16.0 points per game in 19 games.  He made a team-high 68 three-pointers on 197 attempts.  Ranked near the top of the conference and the nation for 3-point shooting most of the season, Miner did not play in the required 75 percent of games to qualify for the final conference and NCAA rankings.  Miner was named the Heartland Conference co-Freshman of the Year.

Wiley averaged 14.6 points and 5.9 rebounds a game in his final season.  He scored 145 of his 379 points at the free throw line, ranking fourteenth in school history for free throws made in a season.  Wiley finished his career ranked seventh in school history with 45 blocked shots, ninth with 99 steals, and tenth with 208 made free throws.  He was voted to the Heartland Conference honorable mention team and was also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic District VII Second Team.

Senior Cody Samuelson played in all 27 games and averaged over 30 minutes a game.  He averaged 9.1 points and a team-best 6.1 rebounds a game and was third on the team with 37 three-pointers.  Steplight averaged 8.9 points in 18 games.  Cunningham saw action in 16 games but still led the team with 97 assists.  Sophomore Tom D'Amore was second on the team with 56 three-pointers.  He averaged 7.7 points per game. 

Freshman Troy Ruff had a solid second half of the season to average 5.6 points per game.  Twenty of his 24 three-pointers came after January 20.  Ammar Harknell was fourth on the team with 27 three-pointers and averaged 4.9 points per game.  Carl Johnson averaged 4.3 points and 5.3 rebounds.  He also blocked a team-high 20 shots, ranking ninth in the conference.

Team Single Game School Records
10th for blocked shots – 7 vs. Lincoln (2/3/07)
11th for FT% – 91.7% (22/24) vs. Texas-Permian Basin (2/17/07)
16th for 3-pointers made – 19 vs. Texas-Permian Basin (2/17/07)
23rd for assists – 26 vs. Lincoln (1/20/007)

Team Single Season School Records
12th for 3-pointers made – 253

Individual Single Game School Records
Tom D’Amore – 9th for steals (6 vs. Lincoln)

Individual Single Season School Records
Jonathan Wiley – 14th for FTs made (145)
Carl Johnson – 15th for blocked shots (20)

Individual Career School Records
Jonathan Wiley – 7th for blocked shots (45)
Jonathan Wiley – 9th for steals (99)
Jonathan Wiley – 10th for FTs made (280)

Heartland Conference Rankings, Team
Scoring Offense – 5th (69.0)
Scoring Defense – 6th (75.9)
Scoring Margin – 6th (-6.9)
Free Throw Percentage – 3rd (68.1)
Field Goal Percentage – 7th (38.9)
3-point Percentage – 4th (34.5)
3-point FG% Defense – 7th (38.4)
Rebounding Margin – 7th (-3.2)
Blocked Shots – 5th (2.15)
Assists – 6th (12.26)
Steals – 4th (6.85)
Turnover Margin – 2nd (+1.22)
Assist/Turnover Ratio – 5th (0.82)
Offensive Rebounds – 1st (13.37)
Defensive Rebounds – 7th (21.41)
3-point FG made – 1st 9.37)

Heartland Conference Rankings, Individual
Scoring – Jonathan Wiley, 5th (14.6); Cody Samuelson, 22nd (9.1); Tom D’Amore, 27th (7.7)
Rebounding – Cody Samuelson, 5th (6.1); Jonathan Wiley, 7th (5.9)
FG% – Jonathan Wiley, 11th (46.8); Cody Samuelson, 14th (43.9)
Assists – Jonathan Wiley, 11th (2.12)
FT% – Jonathan Wiley, 4th (78.0)
Steals – Cody Samuelson, 6th (1.48); Jonathan Wiley, 13th (1.27)
3-point% – Cody Samuelson, 6th (37.8); Tom D’Amore, 7th (35.4); Ammar Harknell, 14th (32.5)
3-pointers made – Tom D’Amore, 3rd (2.07); Cody Samuelson, 10th (1.37)
Blocked shots – Carl Johnson, 9th (0.74); Cody Samuelson, 10th (1.37)
Offensive rebounds – Carl Johnson, 5th (2.70); Cody Samuelson, 6th (2.30); Jonathan Wiley, 13th (1.96)
Defensive rebounds – Jonathan Wiley, 5th (3.92); Cody Samuelson, 6th (3.78)
Minutes played – Jonathan Wiley, 3rd (33.54); Cody Samuelson, 9th (30.85)

NCAA II Statistical Rankings, Team
3-pointers made – 12th (9.4)