1999-00 Guilford College Men's Basketball Preview
For the first time in 29 years, someone other than the legendary Jack Jensen will be calling the shots for Guilford’s men’s basketball team. Jensen, who remains Guilford’s golf coach, resigned his hoops post in March 1999 after guiding the Quakers to 386 victories and the 1972-73 NAIA national championship.
Guilford selected High Point, NC, native Butch Estes, a former head coach at Division I Furman, to take over the men’s basketball program and help the Quakers to the top of the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC). Estes, who complied a 227-185 career record in 14 seasons at Furman and Division II Presbyterian, is a two-time Southern Conference Coach of the Year. He returns to the collegiate sidelines following four years as an analyst for Fox Sports South and a year as the boys’ basketball coach at St. Joseph’s High School in Greenville, SC. The experience rekindled Estes’ desire to get back into the collegiate coaching ranks and Guilford provided an opportunity to return to his native North Carolina and to an environment not unlike his former stops at Presbyterian and Furman.
Estes inherits an experienced team with four starters and 11 letter winners returning from last season’s injury-ravaged 3-21 club. He will miss the services of forward Jon Evans, who did not return for his junior season for failing to meet academic requirements. Evans earned second team All-Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) honors last year and led Guilford with 17.3 points and 9.0 rebounds per game.
Despite the loss of one of the conference’s top players, Estes points out that with his coaching style Guilford could somehow benefit from Evans’ absence. A 1971 UNC Chapel Hill graduate, Estes started his coaching career as a student assistant on Coach Bill Guthridge’s junior varsity team and uses the Tar Heels’ up-tempo, team-oriented approach as the base of his coaching philosophy. While Evans was the Quakers’ go-to player for the better part of two years, he was also one of only two-double digit scorers on last year’s team. Estes’ system relies on the hard work and collective effort of every player to play intense man-to-man defense and look unselfishly for easy passes and high-percentage shots on offense.
The new system needs solid play from its guards to control the tempo and direct the offense. Junior Jaron Randall is a two-year starter at the point who averaged 9.8 points and 2.9 assists per game as a sophomore. While not flashy, Randall is a steady ball-handler who can penetrate and score as needed. Another two-year starter, junior David Zelickson led the Quakers in assists (71) and three-pointers (39) a year ago. The Charlotte native usually started as Guilford’s shooting guard, but also ran the point for about seven minutes a game when Randall needed a break.
The return of a healthy Paul Kindem boosts the Quakers’ backcourt depth. Kindem started the first two games of the 1998 season before suffering a season-ending knee injury in the second game of the season. He gives Guilford another versatile guard who plays either backcourt position. Due to the rash of injuries last year, sophomore sharpshooter Bryson McKinney gained valuable playing time and should benefit from the year’s experience. Junior Avram Robbins returns from a foot injury, which ended his 1998-99 season in the third game of the year. Speedy junior John Roberts rejoins the Quakers after a one-and-a-half season absence from the team.
Sophomore Brad Woolley, Kindem’s teammate at East Chapel Hill H.S., returns as Guilford’s top returning scorer after averaging 11.7 points per game as a rookie. A 6-2 swingman, Woolley uses his exceptional quickness to create scoring opportunities off the dribble and can also knock down the three-pointer. His speed is also a defensive asset, as seen in his team-high 2.2 steals per game. Junior Matt Welborn developed into a consistent wing player off the bench last season and connected on a team-best 40 percent of his three-point opportunities. Freshman John Ricardo of Ocoee, FL, adds depth to the small forward and shooting guard positions.
The loss of Evans depleted Guilford’s already thin ranks in the post. The slow healing of junior Jeff Heybruck’s season-ending knee injury and offseason shoulder surgery to 6-8 sophomore Matt Lewis means the Quakers will open the season with just two true post players, fifth-year senior Brad Cress and junior Todd Ashworth. Sophomore John Carter, a 6-4 Greensboro native who averaged 6.4 points and 3.2 rebounds for NAIA Trevecca Nazarene last year, will also see time inside. Ashworth averaged 8.3 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last season and ranked among the ODAC’s rebounds per game leaders.
Looking over Guilford’s preseason roster, one could reasonably ask why this year’s team should be better than in past seasons. However, the key to Guilford’s first trip to the ODAC Tournament since 1995 lies in the ability of the Quakers to learn a brand new system, not in the returning players or past statistics. Gauge this team's success by its improvement from game-to-game and from November to February. Expect the Quakers to work hard, just as they did every game in 1998-99 despite dressing seven healthy players for the final half of the season. That kind of dedicated effort, combined with Estes’ enthusiasm, could help Guilford make a positive first step in establishing itself as one of the ODAC’s top teams.
