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Video Highlights of MCC Tournament
GOSHEN, Ind. –Expectations were not exactly what you would call significant coming into the 2007-08 season. In fact, the Goshen College men’s basketball team was picked to finish dead last in the Mid-Central Conference.
Truth is, for the outsider anyway, there was not much of a reason to expect anything. After all, they were less than a year removed from a 12-18 campaign that saw them miss the season-ending conference tournament. They had a new coach who was hired very late in the recruiting process. How could they make much of an impact?
Someone forgot to tell the Maple Leafs. Or perhaps, too many people told them they weren’t supposed to win. Either way, the Leafs did something about it. Nineteen wins later, including four against NAIA Top25 teams, and doubters have come to realize their mistake in judgement.
Typically it takes players some time to adjust to a new coach and system. However, this team was hungry for success and had more experience than in years past. They quickly took off as they won ten of their first eleven while taking the championship in both the Anderson University Sam Pierce Classic and the Sienna Heights Maple City Classic. Their only defeat in that stretch was a 62-65 loss in the championship game of Goshen’s Maple City Hoopfest to Aquinas College, who was ranked in the NAIA Top 25 all year and finished in the Elite Eight.
With a 9-1 record at the start of the MCC season there where still doubters within the conference ranks. That came to a screaching halt on December 1st when the Maple Leafs hosted the No. 5 Indiana Wesleyan University Cougars. Errick McCollum scored a game-high 34 points as Goshen overcame a four-point halftime deficit to shock the then undefeated Cougars.
The win put Goshen back on the map as they received votes in the weekly NAIA rankings, which they would repeat two more times throughout the season.
The Maple Leafs would not lose two consecutive games until mid-January as they faced Top 15 Bethel College and Grace College in back-to-back contests. However, as the conference season moved on, Goshen would begin to struggle with consistency.
“We showed this season that we could play at a very high level, but there is such a fine line in terms of having success in the MCC,” explained first-year Head Coach Gary Chupp.
The Maple Leafs were able to defeat No. 20 University of St. Francis by 30 points on the road, but had trouble holding onto halftime leads at home against Spring Arbor, Huntington, and Bethel. Goshen knocked off #20 Taylor University and #14 Grace, but needed a miraculous performance by senior Brice Hartman to survive against struggling Marian College at home. Hartman scored 16 points in the final seven-plus minutes of regulation, including the tying shot with four seconds remaining, as the Maple Leafs came from 20 down. They would win 77-75 in overtime.
The lack of consistency hurt Goshen as they lost their final two games of the regular season to slip to seventh, which forced a road game against Grace to open the MCC Tournament. A 68-83 loss ended the Maple Leafs’ season.
“I feel good about what we were able to accomplish, but am disappointed with how the season ended. We were in the hunt to host a playoff game until the final week of the season. However, it was disappointing having three chances to get 20 wins, and coming away empty,” added Chupp.
It wasn’t all for lost as the Maple Leafs finished just one win short of the twenty-win plateau, reached just twice in program history. While they will lose second-leading scorer Brice Hartman, they will return a strong nucleus, including First Team All MCC and NAIA All American Honorable Mention selection Errick McCollum.
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