MP
Mitchell Pfeifer
  • Finance
  • Class of 2019
  • Wales, WI

Wales's Pfeifer Earns Spot on 2017-18 UW-Whitewater Men's Basketball Team

2017 Nov 14

Mitchell Pfeifer, a native of Wales, WI, and graduate of Kettle Moraine High School, will compete for the No. 11 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men's basketball team during the 2017-18 season, which begins Friday against 15th-ranked Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) at 7 p.m. in Whitewater.

Pfeifer, a junior at UW-Whitewater, is majoring in accounting.

The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater men's basketball team enters the 2017-18 season with expectations to compete for a conference championship and compete far into the postseason as it has perennially for the last four decades.

The Warhawks finished 22-7 last season and tied for second in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with a 9-5 record. The team reached the second round of the NCAA Division III Championship, where it was defeated by eventual national runner-up Augustana (Ill.).

UW-Whitewater was predicted to finish second in the WIAC and is ranked 11th in the D3hoops.com Preseason Top 25 heading into the team's season opener against No. 15 Claremont-Mudd-Scripps (Calif.) this Friday at 7 p.m. at Kachel Gymnasium.

The Warhawks' four-game home stand to start the season also includes games against Waldorf (Iowa) on Nov. 18, Monmouth (Ill.) on Nov. 21 and Anderson (Ind.) on Nov. 25.

UW-Whitewater hits the road for a two-game trips to Redlands (Calif.) on Dec. 1-2 and Trine (Ind.) on Dec. 8-9. The team will face Caltech and Redlands in Redlands, Calif., and take on Adrian (Mich.) and Trine in Angola, Ind.

After a visit to Beloit on Dec. 13, the Warhawks close the non-conference season with the two-day Nicolet National Bank Holiday Tournament on Dec. 29-30 in De Pere, Wis. The team will face Finlandia (Mich.) to open the tournament and face a potential showdown against St. Norbert, which is receiving votes in the D3hoops.com Top 25, to close the calendar year.

UW-Whitewater opens the 14-game WIAC schedule Jan. 3 at UW-Oshkosh before welcoming reigning league champion and 10th-ranked UW-River Falls to Kachel Gymnasium on Jan. 6.

A senior class that includes guards Chris Jones (Milwaukee, Wis./Bradley Tech), Jerry Ngobi (Janesville, Wis./Janesville Craig) and forward Scotty Tyler (Grafton, Wis./Grafton) leads the Warhawks.

Jones was tabbed a Preseason All-American by D3hoops.com after leading the WIAC in scoring at 17.9 points per game and adding a team-high 88 assists while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor and 49.3 percent from 3-point range. He was named All-Central Region by both D3hoops.com and the National Association of Basketball Coaches and first team All-WIAC in his first season after transferring from Iowa Lakes Community College.

Tyler, who transferred to UW-Whitewater from UW-Milwaukee prior to last season, garnered honorable mention all-conference accolades after averaging 14.4 points and 6.0 rebounds per contest and leading the league with 31 blocked shots. He also shot 41.1 percent from 3-point range.

Ngobi enters his fourth year with the program. He has appeared in 60 games during his career, including 16 last season, when he shot 56.3 percent from the floor and averaged 1.9 points per game while providing strong on-ball defense.

Returning juniors Andre Brown (Kenosha, Wis./Indian Trail), Mitchell Pfeifer (Wales, Wis./Kettle Moraine)and Maurquis Turner (Milwaukee, Wis./King) join Jones and Ngobi in the backcourt.

Brown appeared in all 29 games a year ago, including eight as a starter, and averaged 9.1 points and 3.0 rebounds per affair while totaling 67 assists and a 3-point shooting percentage of 40.7.

Pfeifer played in 28 games and averaged 4.3 points per outing while making 44.9 percent of the 3-pointers he attempted. Turner, who hit a go-ahead 3-pointer in the waning moments of UW-Whitewater's NCAA first round win over Northwestern (Minn.) last season, averaged 2.5 points per game in 23 appearances.

Sophomore guard Ricky Spicer Jr. (Milwaukee, Wis./Milwaukee Lutheran) returns after joining the team midway through last season, and freshman guard Bobby Brenner (Silver Lake, Wis./Wilmot Union) returns after receiving a medical hardship for the 2016-17 campaign.

Newcomers to the backcourt include juniors Dalton Menke, David Sachs and freshman Tre Williams. Menke joins the Warhawks after two years at Rock Valley College (Ill.), and Sachs transferred to UW-Whitewater after two years at Division II Barry University (Fla.).

Tyler is joined in the frontcourt by four returners, including junior Derek Rongstad (Middleton, Wis./Middleton). After joining the team in late December, Rongstad averaged 11.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per contest while shooting 47.7 percent from the floor. He earned honorable mention all-conference and WIAC All-Defensive Team honors after finishing with a team-high 32 steals in 20 games.

Sophomores Riley Jensen (Milton, Wis./Janesville Craig), Ryan Fitzgerald (St. Charles, Ill./Burlington Central) and Noah Kaminski (Hartford, Wis./Hartford Union) return after combining to play in 22 games last season.

Incoming forwards include sophomores Tyler Lindquist, Jacoby Williams and freshman Terrell Grier.