RELEASE DATE: 2/24/04

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: IAN CONNOR HOPES TO SCORE 1,000^TH CAREER POINT IN FRONT OF HOME CROWD – SENIOR 10 POINTS SHY OF BECOMING 22^ND PLAYER IN MU HISTORY TO REACH MILESTONE – WOULD ALSO BECOME SEVENTH PLAYER IN SCHOOL HISTORY TO SCORE 1,000 POINTS WITH 500 REBOUNDS

MANSFIELD – Ian Connor’s basketball career has been a lot like Roger Miller’s hit song of the 1960s – King of the Road.

Connor traveled to Scranton Prep to play his high school basketball, to the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania to play college ball at Mansfield University and to Canada to play international ball during the summer.

But after all that traveling, Connor will have the rare opportunity to score his 1,000^th career point close to home tomorrow night.

However, it won’t be his in front of a rabid crowd at Mansfield University’s cozy Decker Gymnasium – a place he has called home for the past four years. Instead in could be in the spacious Koehler Fieldhouse on the campus of East Stroudsburg University, just miles from his real hometown of Canadensis and his family.

Going into Wednesday night’s key PSAC East matchup between the Mountaineers and Warriors, Connor has scored 990 points in his 104-game career at Mansfield. Averaging 11.2 points per game this season and having scored in double figures in each of his last four games and seven of his last eight, the odds are good the senior will become the 22^nd player in school history to reach the milestone. He has averaged 8.0 points per game over his career against the Warriors, including a 16 point performance at Koehler last season.

“Ian’s been one of the key reasons behind our success the past two seasons,” said fifth year head coach Vince Alexander. “He’s come a long way since he first got here and so have we. Ian really reflects the story of this team. He worked so hard his first two seasons to improve himself physically and that’s paid off with back-to-back playoff berths for the team.”

The 6-9 Connor, who weighted less than 190 pounds as a freshman, has changed his appearance over the years. A close-cropped, skinny kid in 2001, Connor now is a wild hair Bill Walton like-a-like minus the red headband tipping the scales at 220 pounds.

Connor, who has pulled down 511 rebounds, would also become just the seventh player in MU history to score 1,000 points while pulling down 500 rebounds. His 73 blocked shots rank third on the all-time list.

Mansfield, which went 18-11 last season with a PSAC playoff berth and ECAC title, is 20-5 overall but trails Cheyney by a game for first place in the PSAC East with two games remaining. Mansfield need to win Wednesday’s game at East Stroudsburg plus Saturday regular season finally at West Chester and hope for a Cheyney loss to have a shot at capturing the PSAC East crown and hosting rights for the PSAC Final Four.