Whits set for Wisconsin pair

Whitworth University coach Jim Hayford is trying to remain focused on the positives surrounding his team’s upcoming homestand against a couple of NCAA Division III basketball bullies from the Midwest.

But the normally upbeat Hayford admits the situation his Pirates are facing is “far from ideal.”

For openers, the Bucs (5-2) will be playing for the first time in nine days when they entertain Wisconsin-Stout (4-6) at 3 this afternoon in the first of back-to-back games against teams from the powerful Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The second will come Tuesday night, when the Pirates entertain unbeaten and No. 3-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater (11-0) in a 7 p.m. game at Whitworth Fieldhouse.

“Naturally, you’d like to have more time to prepare for opponents like them, but we don’t,” said Hayford, who was bound by Northwest Conference rules to give his players at least five days off over Christmas. “So all you can do is hope that the preparation time you’ve banked since starting practice on Oct. 15 will pay off.”

Hayford gave his players seven days off following their 97-54 rout of North Central on Dec. 17. They were scheduled to return in time for a pair of practices Saturday before taking on Wisconsin-Stout this afternoon.

And they will use most of Monday to prepare for Wisconsin-Whitewater, a perennial D-III playoff contender that Hayford calls “scary good.”

The Warhawks boast one of the nation’s best big men in 6-foot-9 senior center Dustin Mitchell, who is averaging 18.6 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. And they feature three other starters who are averaging 10 or more points per contest.

Hayford expects his Pirates to match up evenly against Stout, but admits they will be decided underdogs against a Whitewater team that could be as good as any D-III outfit in the nation.

“They’ve got size, they got athleticism, they’ve got it all,” Hayford said of the Warhawks. “They’re just a solid, well-coached basketball team that has a tradition of success and expects to win every time out.”

The Pirates and Warhawks have played one common opponent: Wisconsin-Stevens Point, another WIAC power that is ranked No. 4 among D-III schools. The Pointers (8-1) thumped Whitworth 101-79 in the Bucs’ season-opener in the UPS Tipoff Classic in Tacoma in mid-November, but lost at Whitewater 67-60 in overtime on Dec. 15.

“It’s definitely going to be a challenge,” Hayford said of the remaining two games on his team’s ambitious non-conference schedule.

“But for us to get from being a top-20 team to a top-10 team, these are the types of teams we need to compete against.

“I could have played nine teams no one really knows and we might have been 9-0 without really knowing much about ourselves. But I really think we’re going to know plenty after these two games.”

Another drawback to the way the Pirates’ schedule plays out is that the students will still be on holiday break until after the first of the year.

“So I’m hoping it won’t sound too much like a library inside the (Whitworth) Fieldhouse,” Hayford said.