Written by Gary D’Amato at NCAA.com
If you want to see the nation’s leading scorer in men’s college basketball, across all NCAA divisions, drive 18 miles west of Fond du Lac on Hwy. 23 until you get to Ripon College, a small liberal arts school on a pretty, tree-lined campus in the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin.
Stop in the J.M. Storzer Athletic Center late at night, long after practice has ended, and you’ll likely find Ty Sabin, 6-foot-2 senior guard and resident gym rat, putting up shots.
“I shouldn’t say this. But, sometimes they kick me out, and I sneak back in,” he said with a conspiratorial grin. “I’ve gotten in trouble quite a few times. They’re pretty annoyed with me here, actually. They’re probably ready for me to leave.”
Highly doubtful.
Sabin, who is from New Berlin and attended Catholic Memorial High School, is averaging 38.5 points per game. Granted, it’s a small sample size — the Division III Red Hawks are 4-0 — but Sabin has always been a prolific scorer and there’s no reason to think he won’t keep putting the ball in the hole, over and over again.
He averaged 19.6 points as a freshman, 27.9 as a sophomore and 25.9 as a junior. Last Friday, Sabin scored 35 points in a victory over Monmouth (Ill.) to become Ripon’s all-time leading scorer (the school has a 118-year basketball tradition). He added 33 the next night in a victory over Cornell (Iowa) and has 1,915 career points, with at least 20 games remaining to add to the total.
You might assume that Sabin is a high-volume, low-percentage gunner who jacks up all kinds of shots, including bad ones. But you’d be wrong.
“The nice part about it is that Ty gets everything within the framework of our offense,” said coach Ryan Kane. “There’s obviously times when I’ll call some stuff to get him the ball on his spot. But he’s got tremendous instincts when it comes to being a scorer.”
Sabin plays both guard positions and is shooting 58.1 percent overall and 44 percent on three-point attempts. He’s also the Red Hawks’ leading rebounder (7.5) and is second on the team in assists (4.0). He pulled down 11 rebounds against Cornell for his first career double-double.
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