Franklin Pierce Men’s Basketball Tips Off Friday
Ravens picked tenth
in NE-10 preseason coach poll

RINDGE, N.H. (November 15, 2007) – The Franklin Pierce men’s basketball team opens its 2007-2008 season this weekend, looking to cement a position in the top half of the Northeast-10 Conference standings.

            Franklin Pierce Head Coach David Chadbourne (ninth season) returns seven letter winners and three starters from last year’s squad which posted a 13-14 overall record and finished tied for seventh in the Northeast-10 Conference standings at 11-11. The Ravens hosted a postseason game for the first time in six seasons. Franklin Pierce will have two big holes to fill in All-NE-10 swingman Darryl Minnifield and post Sean Mayo, who combined to average 24.9 points and 13 rebounds per night last winter.

            Despite a roster that does not include a single senior, Chadbourne has confidence in a talented set of sophomores and juniors who have seen significant playing time over their brief Franklin Pierce careers. The Ravens will open the season with one question mark as junior captain Jack Barrett (Reading, Mass./Andover) suffered a knee injury in their third practice of the year that will have him on the shelf for at least the early portion of the season and perhaps the whole year. Barrett, along with Minnifield, were the lone Ravens to start all 27 games for Franklin Pierce last season and averaged 6.8 points, 3.6 assists, 2.7 rebounds and 1.1 steals in 35-minutes per game.           

Filling in at the point for Barrett will be red shirt freshman Jeff Manchester (Gorham, Maine/Gorham) and true freshman Steve Ramos (Lynn, Mass./Hebron Academy). Manchester, expected to move into a shooting guard role when Barrett returns, was one of the top high school players in the State of Maine before coming to Franklin Pierce. Ramos is a more true point guard in his first collegiate season out of Hebron Academy.

            Junior Timothy Munch (Blauvelt, N.Y./Storm King Prep) and sophomore Marcus Wellman (Monroe, Conn./Hamden Hall) will be expected to carry the load offensively from the perimeter. Munch, Franklin Pierce’s top scorer from a year ago, averaged 14.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 steals in 33.2 minutes per game.  He shot 40.9-percent (122-298) from the field and converted 33.7% (56-166) of his three-point attempts to go with a team-best 81.7% (49-60) shooting from the free-throw line. Wellman is coming off a strong rookie campaign in which he averaged 9.3 points, 3.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 1.1 steals in 30.3 minutes per game.           

Junior Rimas Varanauskas (Kaunas, Lithuania/The Winchendon School) will take over in the middle after averaging 4.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and a block in 14.3 minutes per game last season. Classmate Craig Shepherd (Grantham, N.H./Trinity) rounds out the projected starting five and averaged 2.6 points and 2.3 rebounds in 13.4 minutes off the bench last winter.

            Redshirts Mike Barrow (Mattapan, Mass./Hebron Academy) and Terrell Ray (Brooklyn, N.Y./Fort Hamilton) and true freshman Kinard Dozier (Dedham, Mass./The Winchendon School) are expected to be among the first off the bench for Franklin Pierce this winter. Junior Tristan Shields (Mason, N.H./St. Bernard’s), who saw limited action in 2006-07, freshman Andy Pelletier (Troy, N.Y./The Winchendon School) will also compete for minutes in his first collegiate year.

            Rounding out the 2007-08 roster is junior Adam Dizuzzio (Fitchburg, Mass./St. Bernard’s), a transfer from Fitchburg State College, and freshmen Jeff Britto (Boston, Mass./Lee Academy) and Dan Singh (Lawrence, Mass./Lawrence).

            Franklin Pierce, picked tenth in the Northeast-10’s preseason coaches’ poll, opens its season on Friday at the Doubletree Doc Jacobs Classic, hosted by Saint Michael’s College, where it will square off against Dowling College at 5 p.m. The Ravens will play Mercy in Colchester, Vt., on Saturday at 1 p.m. Franklin Pierce opens its home and NE-10 slate on Tuesday, November 20, when it hosts Assumption College at 7:30 p.m.

            All of Franklin Pierce’s home and Conference road games are available on a pay-per-view basis via www.ne10.tv – including this weekend’s games at Saint Michael’s. Games are also broadcast by WFPU-LP 105.3 FM with the audio simulcast free of charge via the athletics website at www.franklinpierce.edu/athletics.