Cavs look for sevenU1 straight PAC title

by Ron D'Orazio sports editor

The Pennsylvania Athletic Conference has seen just one champion since its beginning, six seasons ago. The men's basketball team of Cabrini intends to make that fact extend to seven. For six straight seasons no other team has been able to dethrone the Cavs in their quests for their PAC titles.The Cavs' record against teams in the conference is an ' incredible 93-9, making them the team with the best winning percentage in the NCAA history.

According to head coach John Dzik, the new season brings the same expectations: to be in the hunt for the PAC title at the end of the season. Dzik said that in order to capture the PAC, the team will need to display hard work and receive a little luck along the way.

According to a PAC preseason poll taken at a coaches' luncheon at Alvemia, the Cavs will finish first in the PAC.

The only change in the PAC this year would be the addition of a new team from Wesley College.

The Cavs come into the season with an adequate balance of seniors and underclassmen. Six out of the 14 varsity members will suit up for their final year. The seniors include Bill Gibson, Roman Gabriel, Ty Ross, Derrick Grayson and captains Sean Tait and Cory Miller. Junior Tim Anderlonis is the third captain of the Cavs.

According to Dzik, a successful title defense for the team depends largely on the play of the captains. Anderlonis was the Cavs' scoring leader last season with an average of 14.7 points per game. Tait, the scoring leader of the year before, needs to recover from an injury to return to form. Miller is the big man in the middle who scored 8.0 ppg and pulled down 6.3 rebounds per game.

Other team members that need to make a good showing for the Cavaliers to succeed include sophomore Tyquine

Tait is one of six seniors on the team who is looking to sweep the PAC in the four years since he has started at Cabrini.

Coming off a season in which he averaged just 9 .1 ppg, Tait needs to get back the touch that produced 17.3 ppg in his sophomore season.

Due to Tait1stotals in the 1996-97 season, be.._ was named to the All-PAC first team at that season's end. Currently, Tait is suffering from a hand injury acquired in the Iowa tournament but hopes to be.back for the opening game.

Wilson, who as a first-year student piled up 84 assists in 16 games, and sixth man Derrick Grayson, who scored 9.1 ppg off the bench last season.

Dzik said that sophomore Tremaine White will be expected to fill the void left by John Drummond, who graduated after last season.

The Cavaliers have started off their season with three exhibition matches at the National Catholic Basketball Tournament in Dubuque, Iowa. They dropped the first contest to St. Norbert College, 81-63, while winning the next two games over Edgewood College, 73-70, and St. Thomas Aquinas, 62-55.

Miller led the Cavs in scoring on the trip with 11.7 ppg and Anderlonis finished second with l O ppg. White made the all-tournament team with 9.0 ppg and 9.7 rpg.

Senior Bill Gibson said that the team started off slow, committing many fouls and turnovers in the loss against St. Norbert.

According to Gibson, all of the scoring came from the big men, White, Miller and junior Randall Sims. Gibson said that the team improved over the next two games, as the perimeter players started to contribute to the scoring. The team cut down their turnovers and fouls in the next two games.

"The team started to click by the third game and work well together," Gibson said.

The Cavs go into the PAC season led by Dzik, who has been the subject of rumors that he will step down from his coaching position soon.

According to Dzik, he plans to coach the Cavs into the year 2000, stepping down following next season. If Dzik follows his plan, he will have coached 20 years at Cabrini and 25 years of coaching total.

For right now, Dzik said, he will concentrate on coaching the Cavs to their seventh straight championship season.

The other senior captain is 6' 5" forward Miller, who is counted on to lead the team in rebounds.

Miller, who captured the team's award as Most Improved Player, was second on the team in rebounds with 6.3 rpg.

Miller averaged 8 ppg during the 1997-98 championship season.

At the tournament in Iowa, Miller paced the Cavs by scoring 11.7 ppg to go along with 4 rpg. Miller needs to keep up his scoring to ensure the Cavs' success.

After garnering honorable mention for the AllPAC team in his first season, Anderlonis followed up that performance by leading the Cavs in scoring with an average of 14.7 ppg.

His scoring average gave him a spot on the AllPAC first team and the Eastern College Athletic Conference third team.

Anderlonis starts his third season as one of three captains on the team.

Anderlonis has started the season off on a positive note by averaging 10 ppg at the tournament in Iowa.