APPLETON, Wis. — No doubt remains that Jamie Nikitas is the driving force behind the Lawrence University men’s basketball team, but for the Vikings to be great this season, it will need to be a team effort.
“Our best games and where we will be the best as a team is when Nikitas is not the guy doing it all,” Lawrence coach Joel DePagter said. “When we’re balanced, we’ll be at our best.”
Nikitas, a 6-foot senior guard, was a second-team All-Midwest Conference selection a season ago after averaging 15.0 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. Nikitas also led the team at 3.0 assists and 2.1 steals per game last season.
“Our team will go as far as Jamie Nikitas will take the team. He’s the key. He’s the leader. The guys follow Jamie and that’s good,” DePagter said. “It’s his team, and he’s got some serious guys who can help him. We have to be a balanced team and have to do things right, but Jamie is going to have be our leader on and off the floor.”
An emerging star joining Nikitas in the backcourt is 6-0 sophomore guard Jeremy Stephani. In his rookie season, Stephani averaged 8.5 points per game while shooting 41.6 percent from beyond the arc.
“You want guys to take a step up from the first year to the second year, but Jeremy came in at a pretty high level,” DePagter said. “His confidence in how he shoots ball is high.”
The Vikings will play a three-guard lineup with senior Troy Miller rounding out the trio. Miller averaged 6.5 points per game while shooting 40.5 percent from the floor a season ago.
The Vikings also return 6-7 forward Mitch Willer and 6-3 forward Peter Winslow to the frontcourt. Willer averaged 5.6 points and 2.2 rebounds per game last season while shooting 60.4 percent from the floor and throwing down some monster dunks.
“People who have seen us play know that Mitch can finish at the basket, but we expect him to keep improving,” DePagter said. “Mitch has to keep improving and confidence for him is important.”
One player conspicuously absent from the lineup is senior forward Trace Sonnleitner, who informed DePagter in early October that he would not be playing this season. Sonnleitner averaged 12.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game a season ago.
“I hope the strength of our program overall is that when something like this happens, other guys are ready to step in,” DePagter said.
“Ryan DePouw got hurt last year and didn’t play the first few games and Pete Winslow stepped in and did a great job. The scoring punch that Trace had will be missed, but the guys who are going to get more minutes because of that have different strengths. We’ll be better defensively and be a better rebounding team.”
The Vikings open the season on Saturday when they head to Dominican (Ill.) University, and the home opener at Alexander Gymnasium is Nov. 18 vs. Wisconsin Lutheran College. The Vikings open Midwest Conference play at Ripon College on Nov. 21.
“If we can rebound the basketball, I know we have the ability to score in our motion,” DePagter said. “We just have to give ourselves a chance. We don’t have a lot of margin for error. We need to execute and do things well.”