Feb. 3, 2003

By Gary Rubin
D-III News

St. Thomas' Steve Fritz became the third men's basketball coach in Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference history to reach 400 career wins when his Tommies posted a 75-57 victory at Augsburg on Jan. 4.

Fritz has never had a losing season in 23 seasons at the school and is pushed his overall record to 400-194 (.673) with the win. Fritz became the 22nd active Division III men's head coach to reach 400 victories. The only other MIAC coaches with more victories are current St. John's coach Jim Smith, who has a 608-409 record in 39 seasons; and former UST coach Tom Feely, who went 417-269 from 1954-80. Fritz played for Feely from 1967-71 and was his assistant coach from 1971-80.

Reaching another milestone in the month, Fritz coached his 600th game on Jan. 20 at Bethel. Fritz has guided St. Thomas to MIAC playoff berths in 14 of the past 15 seasons, with MIAC championships in eight of the past 14 seasons.

Two days after Fritz won his 400th game, Maryville (Tenn.) head coach Randy Lambert joined him when his Scots defeated King 79-71. He is the 23rd active Division III head coach to reach the coaching plateau.

Lambert has spent 23 seasons with the Scots and improved his overall record to 400-190 (.678) with the victory. He has guided MC to two consecutive Great South Athletic Conference championships and nine NCAA Division III national tournament appearances. His teams reached the Elite Eight in 1991-1992 and Sweet 16 in 1999-2000.

Its been a great 23 years, said Lambert. This accomplishment is a real tribute to a supportive administration, several great players through the years, and a fantastic group of assistant coaches. They're the ones that deserve the credit.

More Milestones
Elizabethtown College head men's basketball coach Bob Schlosser got the 200th victory of his collegiate coaching career on Jan. 25 as the Blue Jays stormed past Rick Ferry's Albright Lions 105-67.

Taking over the program in 1990, Schlosser has taken the E'town program to 21 postseason games in the past 12 years, including the Blue Jays run to the Division III Final Four last season. In 1992-93, he was named MAC Northwest Section Coach of the Year after guiding the Blue Jays to their best record in almost 30 years. He was named MAC Commonwealth League Coach of the Year in 1998-99 after leading the Blue Jays to a second-place league finish and a first-round MAC playoff victory. He earned the Commonwealth Conference Coach of the Year award in 2000-01 after the Blue Jays' 20-6 season, and repeated as Coach of the Year following E'town's 29-3 effort in 2001-02.

Dave Duda picked up his 100th win as a head coach as Widener defeated Moravian, 68-66. He has a career record of 100-68 in seven years as a head coach, including five years at Widener. Duda has won 84 of his 100 games at Widener.

Duty Before Basketball
Virginia Wesleyan head coach Dave Macedo's team is putting their names in the school record book this season. The Marlins strung together a program-best 12-game winning streak recently and won their first seven games in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference before falling to Mike Rhodes' Randolph-Macon Hornets. Another loss to Tony Shaver's unbeaten Hampden-Sydney Tigers has put VWU in third place in the ODAC, but the Marlins are getting some national attention with the win streak.

This is something that is certainly good for the College and for the players to see all of their hard work recognized, said Macedo.

Macedo has preached balance to his squad, as only one player is averaging double figures. Overall, nine Marlins have scored in double figures anywhere from once to eight times so far this season.

This is the time of the year when you want to start playing your best basketball," said Macedo. We just need to improve every day and progress from what we've started. I can promise one thing, we (coaching staff) will not let these players be satisfied. We know we have some very big games in front of us and were only looking at them one game at a time. Our young men are playing with a certain level of confidence right now and we just want to keep that going.

Macedo lost a member of his team last week when reserve Bryan Wintermantel was informed that his National Guard unit had been activated by the United States government. He reported to active duty on Monday, January 27.

"At this point Bryan is upset," said Macedo. "He has to move out of his dorm room, withdraw from school, and try to get everything done. He will be gone for a year, probably stationed somewhere near Washington D.C. We were hoping this wasn't going to happen, but Bryan knows he has a responsibility and has ready to fulfill it.

Wintermantel, a Specialist in the Alpha Battery of the 111 th Air Defense Artillery of the Virginia National Guard, will most likely report to Fort Dix in New Jersey. There, he and his unit will undergo two-to-three weeks of intense training before being moved to their site of duty.

D-III Showdown
In one of the top rivalries in all of Division III basketball, unbeaten Williams College, coached by Dave Paulsen, visited Dave Hixon's Amherst College Jeffs for the second showdown in as many weeks. In the end, Amherst evened the season series and stopped Williams 14-game win streak and bid for an unbeaten season.

We have to make sure we don't let Amherst beat us twice, said Paulsen. By that I mean that if we don't bounce back with more character and toughness after this one, then they beat us twice.

The setting was worthy of this matchup, with an overflow, raucous crowd on hand in Amherst. With the win, Amherst moved into sole possession of first place in the NESCAC at 15-2 overall and 4-0 in conference play.