HAMMOND, Ind. – Attendance figures should improve this season to watch four returning starters who all earned Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference post-season awards at the end of the 2005-06 campaign. But fans will also want to catch a glimpse of the seven new recruits that give the Peregrines its deepest and talented bench in more than a decade.The Peregrines host Bethel College beginning at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Fitness & Recreation Center.

Minuyard Wheeler (Wirt) is the lone returning senior who led the Peregrines with 17.3 points per game. He finished the season scoring 504 points and was the 17th men’s player in the 25-year history of the current program to earn a spot in the 1,000-point club. Wheeler was named to the First Team in the CCAC. Also earning first team honors was junior 6-8 center Kevin “K.T.” Thomas (Highland), who averaged 9.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game last season. Junior Steve Polak (Clark) earned Honorable Mention status in the CCAC and finished the season as the leader in free throw shooting percentage (.711), steals (60/2.1 per game) and assists (72/2.5). Polak was the Peregrines second leading scorer averaging 14.1 ppg and led the team hitting .484 from the 3-point stripe. Sophomore Charles Cruz (Gavit) also picked up Honorable Mention status in the CCAC. He led the team with 193 rebounds, a 6.8 per game average. Cruz was the third leading scorer on the team averaging 13.5 per game.

Among the new recruits is senior point guard Marcus Ford (Wirt) who played three seasons at University of Tennessee-Martin; junior Vince Johnson (Bishop Noll), a 6-5 swingman, who scored double digits for the Des Moines Area Community College Bears and was all conference twice at Noll; 6-5 freshman Derek Withers (William Harrison, Lafayette), who led his team with 12.1 points and 5.8 rebounds per game; 6-5 freshman Drew Polak (Clark), who led the Pioneers to a sectional basketball title, their first in more than 30 years; and freshman point guard Jay Harmas, a two-year starter at 4A top-10 ranked Indianapolis North Central.

The combination of returning talent and a deeper bench should help the Peregrines move up in the CCAC standings, according to Head Coach Mike James. “The competition in practice has really improved the level of play from everybody,” James said. “I think we’re going to pose a problem for every one in the conference. This is one of the better groups that we’ve had in a quite a while. If we stay focused and intense mentally, we’ll be able to finish near the top of the CCAC.”