And he's pretty sure they're going to try to embarrass him.

"I've talked to my parents and some my friends back home, and pretty much everybody is coming to the game, so I'm excited," says Bach, a 6-9, 235-pound junior forward from Levittown. "They're all kind of rallying together and saying they're going to make signs with big "30s' on them and different things. So that should be interesting."

Saturday is Bach's 30th birthday. If word of the big event should happen to spread across the gym, he's not too concerned.

"It's a big number, so a lot of people are like, "Wow. Three decades,' " Bach says. "But it doesn't bother me. I feel really good, and that's all that matters."

Greg Knowlden, East Stroudsburg's sports information director, says his research has uncovered one other college basketball player in the nation at or above the age of 30. Terrance Lovett, 33, plays at Fontbonne University, an NCAA Division III school in St. Louis.

Bach ended up at Division II East Stroudsburg a full decade after his graduation from Harry S Truman. He initially signed with Philadelphia University but played just one season there (1996-97) before deciding he just wasn't ready to be a college student.

He left, got a job, and made plans to return to school- and basketball - after a year.

But time got away from him, and it wasn't until the summer of 2006 that Bach finally contacted East Stroudsburg coach Jeff Wilson, who had recruited him out of high school, and got the ball rolling.

Bach has made the most of his second chance, on and off the court.

Last year, he made the Dean's List in both semesters while averaging 4 points and 2.8 rebounds per game in a reserve role.

This year, Bach moved into starting lineup and has averaged 10.6 points and 7.5 rebounds over 21 games thus far. He's helped the Warriors to a 14-7 record, which included a 13-game winning streak in December and January.

The sports management major sports a 3.81 grade-point average and made ESPN The Magazine's Academic All-District II team. He also was honored by the National Consortium for Academics and Sports, receiving an Academic Momentum Award.

Bach has a year of athletic eligibility left after this one. He intends to use it, even though he's scheduled to graduate next December, in the middle of the season. He plans to move right on to graduate school, which is a good indicator of just how far he's come in the past 10 years.

"When I was first thinking about coming back to school, basketball had a decent amount to do with it," Bach says. "I was never the type of student or never had the mentality to accelerate in school or make it first. It was always basketball. And now that I'm older, that's different. School has become extremely important, and now I can't believe I'm saying that I'm going to get my master's. That would never have been me, for most of my life."