Briar Cliff University Men’s Basketball Team Should Have A Successful Season This Year

Briar Cliff University has been hard at work in the off season after a very successful season last year going 22-11, losing to Davenport in the opening round of the national tournament. This year they are favored to win the GPAC and has Siouxland excited to see how far they will go this year.  They received five of the eleven first place votes two more votes than Dordt who received three but lost both games to the Chargers last year.

Briar Cliff did lose some talented players from last years squad.  They lost Matt “The Dunker” Berg of graduation.  Matt was chosen to participate in the 2015 NAIA Dunk Contest where he finished fourth overall.  The Carroll, IA native helped the Chargers significantly his senior season playing in all 33 games and starting 32 of them.  The Chargers also lost major contributor Zach Otting of Peosta, IA who also appeared in 33 games and joined 37 other Briar Cliff basketball players on the 1,000 career point list and 20^th all time point leader.  They also lost Chris Blair of Omaha and Ricky Torres of Denison, IA who played a combined 43 games and 80 points between the two last year and six years of experience and leadership.

The Chargers, however, did return a lot of talent.  They may have lost 25% of their scoring from last year from their seniors but they did return; your math is correct, 75% of their scoring.  In fact, the Chargers top four scorers are returning from last year having combined for over 50% of the total points scored and only one of them is a senior this year so expect the scoring to continue.

Shane Graves a first team GPAC selection last year and a Bishop Heelan standout in high school led all scoring last season with 375 points followed by senior Clay Harreld of Williams, IA with 364 points.  Also, returning scoring threats are Austin Lefler of Lawton, IA who scored 355 points and Bryan Forbes of Lone Tree, IA with 327 points who will both be returning for their junior seasons and plan to have another impressive impact on both sides of the floor.

The Chargers have also brought on a tremendous amount of talent.  They signed 11 players to their squad four of which will be playing varsity this season.  Some names you may recognize or soon will are high school standouts Jay Wolfe of Creston, IA, Jeff Daubanton of Minneapolis, MN, Jon Conyers of Brooklyn Center, MN and Erich Erdman of Forest City, IA.  This group adds more scoring threats on the court, a lot a high school and state championship experience.

Briar Cliff also brought on some amazing coaching talent adding Zach McCabe as a graduate assistant.  He was a standout basketball player playing at Bishop Heelan where he won two consecutive state titles his junior and senior years and appeared in all four state tournaments among numerous other accolades as a high school player.  He also played for the Iowa Hawkeyes all four years and was a team captain his senior season.  He currently holds Iowa’s team record for most consecutive games played at 137.  His contributions to the team should have an immediate impact.

This season is definitely one to pay attention to with all the new and returning talent so be sure to get out there and support your Briar Cliff Chargers.  Season begins this Thursday against William Penn and their home opener is November 4^th against Peru State at 7:30pm.