Who's on the floor?

By JOHN ENRIETTO Eagle Sports Editor

November 10, 2005 Last Updated: November 10, 2005 01:42 PM College

The Rock lineup a mystery for now

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP — Guess who the starting five players are for Slippery Rock University men's basketball this year.

Go ahead. Your guess is as good as anybody else's, including fourth-year coach John Marhefka.

"I couldn't begin to tell you who's going to be out there, but we're going to find out," Marhefka said during the recent PSAC basketball luncheon at the Cranberry Woods Regional Learning Alliance Center in Cranberry Township.

The Rock (7-20, 5-7) recovered from a 1-14 start to come within a game of reaching the PSAC playoffs a year ago. But all five of those starters are gone.

Bill Johnson (17.7 ppg.), Mason Glick and Ryan Yarosik were seniors. Glenn Reepmeyer (14.5 ppg., 8.1 rpg.) and Jason Bratten (7.0 ppg.) declined to rejoin the program.

"Glenn's first love is water polo and he decided to pursue that more aggressively," Marhefka said. "Jason's had a lot of injuries and doesn't want to deal with basketball anymore.

"It's nothing they had against the program. It was outside things."

Still, they'll be missed. SRU has just two seniors on the squad — center Dejan Jancic of Serbia who averaged 14.3 minutes off the bench last year and winger Nathaniel McCoy, a former Butler County Community College scoring star who hasn't played college ball in two years.

The 6-foot-11 Jancic averaged 4.5 points and 3.3 rebounds per game last season.

"He spent the summer back home in Serbia with his family and seems rejuvenated this year," Marhefka said.

As for McCoy, the coach figures the 6-3, 220-pounder will score. McCoy averaged 30 points per game three years ago at BC3.

"We know he can shoot the ball," Marhefka said. "The question is how well the other parts of his game will develop.

"Defensively, he has to adjust to the talent level in the PSAC."

Besides Jancic, the only three players on The Rock roster who played for the team last year are 6-4 guard Brandon Thompson, 6-0 guard Ben Daniels and 5-8 guard Corey Nesser.

All three are sophomores this year. Thompson (4.9 ppg.) played the most of the trio, averaging 16 minutes per game.

"Brandon has become a much better basketball player and has bought into the system we're trying to play here," Marhefka said. "I'm anticipating some good things there."

Sophomore guard Jamar Scales did not play last year, but has returned to the program. Marhefka said he is one of the team's more athletic players.

Rounding out the roster are freshman point guard Matt Hale, freshman guards Justin Mullen, Matt Schaefer and Erroll Robinson, 6-7 freshman forward-center Tim Dylgraaf and 6-4 freshman center Joseph Vines.

"Most of these freshmen come from winning programs," Marhefka said. "They know the opportunity is here to play right away and they're showing that desire in practice.

"This team is on the floor loosening up, stretching, starting to practice every day before I even show up. This is the first year that's happened since I've been here."

SRU's schedule features five home games in the season's first 17 days.

"I'm glad to see that, especially with such a young team," Marhefka said.

Slippery Rock University 2005-06 men's basketball schedule

Nov. 17-

OHIO VALLEY, 7 p.m.;

Nov. 21-

WEST VA. WESLEYAN, 7 p.m.;

Nov. 23-

at Youngstown State, 7 p.m.;

Nov. 30-

GLENVILLE STATE, 7 p.m.

Dec. 3-