UD Basketball turns 100

Basketball at the University of Delaware is celebrating its centennial season, the first Fightin’ Blue Hens team having taken to the hardwood during the 1905-06 season.

That squad, with Samuel Saunders as head coach and Marcus A. Robin as captain, lost its first game 32-18 to Pennsylvania Medical in a contest played in the Wilmington Opera House and finished the season 3-4-1.

With Carleton B. Shaffer as captain, the 1906-07 team enjoyed the first winning season at 6-5 and played home games in the brand-new Taylor Gymnasium adjacent to Frazer Field on campus. The building, near Old College, is now known as Taylor Hall.

The Hens christened the new gym with a resounding 52-7 victory over Philadelphia Pharmacy. Later in the season, the team suffered back-to-back losses to academic heavyweights Yale and Swarthmore.

William J. McAvoy was UD’s first long-term coach, joining the Hens in 1909-10 and guiding the team through 1917-18 before giving way to Howard B. Shipley. McAvoy returned for a second stint, coaching from 1922-23 through 1924-25.

Shipley’s 1919-20 team went 13-2, opening the season with a 34-19 victory over a U.S. Naval Academy team that had not lost a game in two years.

Still, success for the program really began after World War II, with the completion of the Carpenter Sports Building and the arrival of Fred Emmerson, who went 66-41 from 1949 to 1954, and Irv Wisniewski, who took over in 1954 and led the team until 1966 and became the first coach to reach 100 victories as he went 111-154 during his tenure.

Emmerson’s teams won consecutive Middle Atlantic Conference southern division championships in 1951-52 and 1952-53, going a combined 35-13.

Wisniewski’s best team was the 1961-62 squad that went 18-5, won the MAC championship and upset the University of Virginia 89-88 in Charlottesville on a basket with just three seconds left. The team featured Nate Cloud, the conference most valuable player, who scored 21.2 points per game over the course of his career and who sank the basket to topple Virginia.

One of Wisniewski’s players early in his time as coach was Dallas Green, who went on to fame as manager of the 1980 World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Dan Peterson, Don Harnum and Ron Rainey followed Wisniewski, with the Hens moving from Carpenter to the Delaware Field House in January 1967 during Peterson’s stint.

The NCAA tournament era began with the arrival of Steve Steinwedel, who served as coach from 1985-95 and who compiled a record of 163-121. It was during the Steinwedel era, in December 1992, that UD opened its current basketball facility, the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center.

The 1990-91 and 1991-92 teams went a combined 49-12, won back-to-back North Atlantic Conference championships and earned berths in the NCAA Division I national championship tournament. The first year in the NCAA tournament, the Hens lost 85-47 to the University of Cincinnati and the second year they fell 76-70 to the University of Louisville.

The NCAA teams featured a strong front line with the aptly named center Spencer Dunkley, UD’s all-time rebounding leader with 916, and forward Alex Coles, who is seventh all-time with 711 rebounds.

One of the top players on Steinwedel’s early teams was point guard Taurence Chisholm, who still holds UD all-time records for assists, with 877, and steals, with 298.

The popular Mike Brey left his job as an assistant coach at Duke University to take over as UD head coach in 1995 and remained with the Hens until accepting the job as head coach at the University of Notre Dame in 2000.

Like Steinwedel, Brey took consecutive teams to the NCAA tournament after America East Conference championships in 1997-98 and 1998-99. Those teams went a combined 46-15, with the first falling 95-56 to Purdue University in the NCAA tournament and the second 62-52 to the University of Tennessee.

In his last season at UD, Brey led the senior-laden Hens to a 24-8 record and a berth in the National Invitation Tournament, where they fell 72-63 to Villanova University. That team featured forward Mike Pegues, UD’s all-time leading scorer with 2,030 points, and fiery guard John Gordon, a fan favorite who is sixth all-time with 134 three-point baskets.

Following Brey was another Duke assistant, David Henderson, who in his first season took UD to a 20-10 record and to the America East championship game, where the Hens fell 68-54 to Hofstra University.

Henderson oversaw the program’s switch of conferences, from the America East to the highly competitive Colonial Athletic Association, whose champions have often given premier basketball teams fits in the NCAA tournament.

The 2005-06 Hens are led by senior forward Harding Nana, who last season averaged double figures in both points, with 18.5, and rebounds, with 10.4, to lead the CAA. The team has been invited to participate in the ESPN Bracket Buster Saturday competition on Feb. 18, 2006. (See article on page 84.)

UD women’s basketball did not arrive as a varsity sport until 1971-72, and the first head coach, Mary Ann Hitchens, led the Hens to winning records in six of her first seven seasons.

Joyce Perry took over as head coach in 1978-79 and remained at the helm through the 1995-96 season, when current Head Coach Tina Martin took over.

Perry finished with a career record of 266-212 and won three straight East Coast Conference championships, in 1988-89, 1989-90 and 1990-91. She was named the ECC Coach of the Year in 1983-84 and 1988-89.

Martin took over as head coach as UD switched from the America East to the fierce CAA, which has been dominated for years by a national power in Old Dominion University.

Under her leadership, the Hens have enjoyed five seasons out of the last six with 20 or more wins. They went to the NCAA Division I national championship tournament after winning the America East title in 2000-01, and have earned three Women’s National Invitation Tournament bids.

The Hens shared the CAA regular season title with Old Dominion in 2002-03 and won it outright in 2004-05, a season during which they snapped the Monarchs’ 122-game CAA home winning streak and defeated them 62-58 before a record 4,772 fans at The Bob.

Martin was named America East Coach of the Year in 2000-01 and CAA Co-Coach of the Year last season. Her 2005-06 Hens are led by guard Tyresa Smith, one of the premier defensive players in the CAA.

Three Hens have been named conference players of the year, with Sarah Gause the ECC Player of the Year in 1985, Jen Riley the ECC Player of the Year in 1991 and the America East Player of the Year in 1992, and Tiara Malcom the CAA Player of the Year in 2005.

Cindy Johnson is UD’s all-time leading scorer with 1,675 career points, and Colleen McNamara is the top rebounder with 1,063.