Slow Start Gives Way To 3-Game Marist Win Streak

Here was Marist men's coach Jeff Bower's "welcome" upon his return to college basketball: an 0-9 start to the 2013-14 season.

Bower, a former Marist assistant back in the days when Dave Magarity was the program's coach, had spent the previous 15 seasons in the NBA in various capacities.

He rejoined Marist as the program's head coach this past spring and the early season welcome mat was a non-league schedule that included high-major level opponents Maryland and Providence and some strong mid-major foes like Elon, St. Joseph's, Loyola Marymount, Stony Brook and Morgan State.

Bower's team went 0-7 against those teams and, then, drew the toughest possible daily double on the first week of conference play, games against Manhattan and Iona, the top two teams in the coaches' preseason poll.

So, welcome to 0-9.

"That was a big part of our challenge," admitted Bower, in a recent phone interview. "We faced a level that was extremely challenging. I thought we handled it well. We played hard enough to win, at times, but we just didn't play well enough. The schedule did a great job of exposing what we had to be better at."

And, Bower had to guard against a team-wide letdown that could have come with an 0-9 start.

"You're always concerned about the group's capacity to endure something like that," he added. "You have to keep an eye out for if they do they allow that to set in. Or, the guys can take the approach that they want to get better, and this is how they're going to get better with the end in mind.

"We continued to talk about not who we are today, but who we're going to be in March. We've tried to focus on each day, that `today' is extremely important, it's a day to get better and improve toward who we want to be."

The Red Foxes have shown definite signs of adhering to that, showing season-long improvement to date.

After some lopsided early losses came closer ones. The team's last four games in the 0-9 stretch were losses by margins of six, seven (in overtime), nine and 11 points.

And, then, better things started happening. A 76-62 victory against Penn on Dec. 22, the team's last game before the Christmas break, was the third in a three-game winning streak.

That stretch has also included victories over the College of Charleston (69-62) and Bucknell (69-51).

"We're still far from who we want to be, but it was good that the guys were able to go into the Christmas break on a positive note," said Bower. Marist tries to extend its recent run of success when it returns to league action Thursday, hosting Fairfield.

Was there ever a concern about the 0-9 beginning?

"Every game, whether it's a good result or a bad one, creates a reaction ... we're trying to be a tough-minded team that can take the punches, come back and deliver some punches," Bower said.

Marist endured more than its share of early punishment and, of late, has started to dish out some of its own.

The turnaround can be traced to a line-up change five games ago that got junior guard T.J. Curry into the starting five and giving Marist a small group with only one starter taller than 6-foot-5.

Curry, a lightly-used back-up to former Red Fox Isaiah Morton (who recently left the program) the last two seasons, has averaged 11 points over the past five games and has provided another perimeter weapon.

Curry has made 11 of his last 19 three-point attempts over that five-game span. Morton had been a non-factor shooting the ball, having made just 6-of-46 shots (13 percent) in his nine games before opting to seek a transfer.

Morton's departure has also meant more playing time for redshirt freshman guard Khalil Hart, a highly touted recruit two years ago who missed the 2012-13 season with a knee injury. Hart, a recent MAAC Rookie of the Week award winner, has averaged 14.4 points per game in the last five contests.

Those two, along with swingmen Chavaughn Lewis (16.8 points, 4.6 rebounds this season), Jay Bowie (11.4, 2.4) and 6-10 center Adam Kemp (8.2, 7.2, 2.1 blocks) provides Marist with a solid starting five.

"We went to the lineup change a few games before (Morton left the team), and since it has been together we've gotten more ball-handling," said Bower. "T.J. has been very efficient with his time and gives us a 3-point shooting element. That allows us to spread the floor more and move the ball quicker. He blends well with Khalil (a penetrator, who draws defenders and dishes to open teammates). Khalil has a good feel for how to play and is getting comfortable after missing all of last year.

"It has all been a part of our team improving. Our guys are starting to get comfortable playing the way we want."

There's still progress to be made, though. The team's depth has been lacking in the early going, for one thing.

"We're working on that," said Bower. "We're trying to give guys minutes to get some confidence and comfort. Manny Thomas (a junior forward) had a big game against Penn (12 points in 22 minutes), (sophomore forward) Phillip Lawrence has been getting some decent minutes. (Freshman forward) Kentrall Brooks is coming along and (senior forward) Pieter Prinsloo is playing a good amount of time as a front-line reserve."

Where Marist is now, though, indicates considerable progress has already been made.

"At the beginning our approach had to be to fundamental play," added Bower. "We just had to emphasize some very basic principals that we didn't have consistently in our play either individually or collectively. That has been the challenge of this whole process to this point ... to take our individual talent and blend that into something that creates team results."

After the 0-9 start, the results have all been positive.

"As a coach, I never looked at us as being 0-9," said Bower. "All we've done is to look at the next game and the next set of days to get ready for the next game. We just looked at what level we performed at against who we were playing that night, and where would that get us once we got into conference play.

"Our goal is to be competitive within the league. We want to have ourselves ready to take advantage of whatever the situation holds, to grow, build and achieve. We would love to be playing for something at the end of the season.

"We'd like for our guys to give something to our fan base to really enjoy this season. We've got great fans who are just waiting for us to give them something."

The three-game winning streak means the Red Foxes are starting to give their fans something to enjoy. The wait for more might not be much longer.

Best MAAC Stories: No. 27, Loyola Men's Turnaround

Here's another in the series identifying the "Terrific 32," the top basketball-related stories in the previous 32 years of the MAAC's history.

NO. 27

THE EMERGENCE OF LOYOLA MEN'S BASKETBALL

How far had the Loyola men's basketball fallen?

Its Ratings Percentage Index was dead last among all Division I programs at the end of the 2003-04 season.

Attendance for home games rarely approached four figures that year, one in which Loyola put up a 1-27 record and avoided a winless season only by a late-January six-point victory over Marist.

It had gotten so bad that former head coach Scott Hicks spoke about his inability to bring in local players, revealing that Baltimore-area standouts would accept any other scholarship offer to avoid attending Loyola. He said that players perceived having to play at Loyola to be an embarrassment.

That 1-27 record marked the 10th consecutive season of sub-.500 play by the men's team. The Greyhounds' five-year record from 1999-2000 through 2003-04 was an abysmal 23-118, the worst five-year overall record of any MAAC program to that point.

And, then, Hicks was fired and replaced by Jimmy Patsos.

Patsos' first year produced a modest five-victory improvement to 6-22.

At one point at a game in which Loyola was losing by a sizable margin, fans behind the Greyhounds' bench heckled Patsos for his team's continued poor play.

The always outspoken Patsos turned to the hecklers to deliver the message: "You can boo us now, but wait until I get my `guys' in here."

His guys started arriving as transfers that season, and became eligible in Patsos' second season.

Among those were Maryland transfers guard Andre Collins and 6-10 center Hassan Fofano. Collins averaged a MAAC-best 26.1 points in Patsos' second season, Fofano was a defensive presence in the middle and averaged 7.8 points and 5.5 rebounds ... and Loyola finished 15-13, its first above-.500 finish in 12 years.

That marked the turnaround of what, over the previous six seasons, had been the conference's losingest teaam over a six-year span in MAAC history.

Patsos continued to bring in quality transfers to keep Loyola moving forward after that. His `guys' included the likes of Providence transfers guards Gerald Brown and Jamal Barney, both big scorers, Notre Dame transfer forward Omari Israel, another key Maryland transfer in forward Shane Walker and a standout forward from Northeastern in forward Erik Etherly.

The program augmented the transfers with some strong recruiting, some of the recruited players even coming, finally, from the Baltimore area.

Patsos not only brought winning records back to Loyola, but restored the program's reputation to the point where it was becoming attractive to join the team rather than the embarrassment it once was.

After Patsos' first-season 6-22 finish his teams had three straight winning records. Then came a drop to back-to-back seasons of 12-20 and 13-17. Next was a 15-15 record (2010-11).

And, then, came even better things.

Over the past two seasons, Loyola's final two in the MAAC before opting to join the Patriot League, the Greyhounds finished 24-9 in 2011-12 and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the first time since the 1993-94 season, when the late Skip Prosser was the team's coach.

Last season brought a 23-12 record and a second consecutive national post-season tournament, this time the CollegeInsider.com tournament.

It marked the first time in program history it had gone to national post-season tournament in back-to-back years.

Its 24 victories in 2011-12 was the first 20-win season since the 1948-49 season and the 47 victories over the 2011-12, 2012-13 seasons were the most by any MAAC team over that span.

The era of Patsos marked what might have been the best turnaround of any program in league history.

Ironically, both Loyola and Patsos moved on since the end of the 2012-13 season.

Loyola joined the Patriot League. And, Patsos successfully chased an opportunity to remain in the MAAC, eventually hired by Siena this past April.

Best MAAC Stories: No. 28, Tears For Gathers' Loss

Here's another in the series identifying the "Terrific 32," the top 32 stories related to MAAC basketball in the league's first 32 seasons of play.

No. 28

LA SALLE DEDICATES SUCCESS TO LOST FRIEND HANK GATHERS

The date was March 4, 1990, the semifinal round of the conference's post-season tournament, the first one ever played in downtown Albany in what was then known as the Knickerbocker Arena.

Late in the second half of a 106-90 victory over Siena, a glance at the La Salle bench brought the shocking sight that the Explorers' star forward Lionel Simmons had his head in his hands, shaking uncontrollably with tears running down his face.

And, he wasn't the only one. Tears were plentiful for players from the Philadelphia-based school that night.

They had just been informed, during a late-game time out, that one of their own, Philadelphia native Hank Gathers, had collapsed during a game that night and died.

Gathers, who led the nation in scoring and rebounding at Loyola Marymount that season, had an abnormal heartbeat and felt that his prescribed medication adversely affected his play. It was suspected that he was not taking any dosage on game days.

And, on that fateful day, in the first half of a West Coast Conference tournament game, he collapsed on the court, lost consciousness and could not be revived.

Word of Gather's passing soon reached Albany. After La Salle's players were told of the situation, Philly natives Simmons and Doug Overton left the court to grieve in the team's locker room.

Those two and Gathers grew up together, and had formed a bond playing in each summer's Sonny Hill League. Overton and Gathers had even played together at Dobbins Technical High School, and Simmons was a rival from South Philadelphia H.S.

That night the La Salle team gathered to meet in coach Speedy Morris' room and, then, decided to participate in the next night's championship game and dedicate its performance to Gathers' memory.

That La Salle team, arguably the best ever to play in the MAAC, defeated Fordham, 71-61, for the conference title and a trip to the NCAA tournament.

Simmons, the talented 6-foot-7 forward, scored 26 points including 18 in the second half. Overton had 10 points and the two combined to make five key free throws in the game's final two minutes after Fordham had pulled to within 64-61.

"Life certainly outweighs basketball tremendously," said Simmons, fighting back tears when he met with the media after the victory over Fordham. "Being only 21, I could never imagine anything like this happening. Now, I'll definitely approach life a lot differently. I won't take anything for granted. Hank was the strongest guy I ever say, and what happened to him I can't even imagine."

Morris, afterwards, called the outcome a "character victory."

"Hank would have certainly wanted us to play," said Simmons, back then. "He was such a competitive person."

Players wore black bands on their jerseys in Gathers' memory. Several, including Simmons, wrote "Hank," or "44" -- Gathers' number -- on wristbands, uniforms and sneakers.

"We try to tell them that life goes on," added Morris, after the 1990 championship game. "Those of us who could get up from those adversities are going to be the ones who are going to be successful.

"Gathers was a player who gave it his all. If we could take an example from Hank Gathers, it would be to give our best."

And, on the night of the 1990 championship game in downtown Albany, La Salle's players gave it their best in the worst of times to honor their lost friend.

Better Days Ahead For Mihalich As Hofstra Rebuilds

Old friend Joe Mihalich, who had more wins as a coach in the MAAC from his 15 years at Niagara than anyone in conference history, made an appearance at Albany's Times Union Center with his Hofstra team on Monday.

It was the same old sideline-animated, good-natured Mihalich who has now coached 35 games at the Albany facility over the years ... and, that's not counting his visits as an assistant coach at La Salle when that program was in the conference.

But, the team he surpervised on this trip to upstate New York was most definitely not a product of Mihalich's well-known desire for an uptempo style and high scores.

Hofstra lost, 67-59, to the Saints.

Fifty-nine points by a Mihalich team? That's not like what we're used to seeing, it was remarked to him.

"Yeah, maybe for a half," Mihalich said, smiling.

But, it's all part of a building process that Mihalich knows won't happen overnight, or even within a year's time.

Shortly after he was hired this past April by the school he asked to meet with his team.

"I got brought into a room," Mihalich said, "and there were four guys."

That's all that was left from the 2012-13 mess of a season that resulted in defections, dismissals and a 7-25 finish, the worst record in the program's 77-year history.

Three of the four returnees are among the top seven players this season. The fourth averages about 12 minutes per game, and that's pretty much it for players Mihlaihch says he can rely on right now. His point guard, Dion Nesmith, is playing through a knee issue and missed three games recently, although he came off the bench to play 33 minutes against Siena.

"It's a challenge," said Mihalich, Monday night. "I've basically only got eight guys ... this isn't the way we want to play, eventually, but it's what we have to do right now."

What Mihalich wants to do is establish an up-tempo, free-flowing offensive style like the one he had at Niagara over the years.

The Purple Eagles' offense traditionally came from high-scoring balance. A year ago, when Mihalich was at Niagara, current national scoring leader Antoine Mason, averaged 18.7 points per game, nearly 10 points lower than his current scoring rate, and three other teammates were among the MAAC's top 30 scorers.

Still, Mihalich has had to somehow put together a roster for this season. His playing group is comprised of the four returnees, two immediately-eligible transfers (who earned degrees at their previous schools) and two freshmen.

Even with that depleted a roster, Hofstra has been close to being better. Now 3-7 overall, four of its losses have been by nine points or less.

But, pieces are in place to think things might get better quickly.

It brings to mind the first season that current Siena coach Jimmy Patsos was at Loyola, brought that team for a game at the Times Union Center and was heckled by fans behind his bench in a lopsided loss by the Greyhounds.

At one point, Patsos responded to the hecklers by telling them to wait until he could bring in "his guys." And, when he did, Loyola got better quickly.

Mihalich could probably say the same thing, right now. But, he won't.

Still, he has some of the program's best players sitting on his bench via transfer rules who won't be eligible until next season.

Among those are Niagara transfers guard Juan'ya Green, who averaged 16.5 points and 4.9 assists per game in the MAAC last season; and forward Ameen Tanksley (11.3, 6.0 last season). It also includes guard Brian Bernardi, a transfer from SMU where he averaged 3.5 points per game as a freshman there.

Mihalich is also excited about 6-foot-10 recruit Andre Walker of Maryland, who signed during the November signing period.

"That's in the future," said Miahlich. "I'm not even thinking about that right now. I love the team we have right now, and that's all I'm worried about."

But the future does indeed look better for a program that finished just 7-25 last year, was forced to dismiss four players for a variety of infractions and, ultimately, fired previous head coach Mo Cassara.

Mihalich was brought in to clean things up and, eventually, win games.

The cleansing has begun. The wins won't be far behind.

And, 59-point productions will come by halftime rather than over the course of a full 40 minutes.

Column Looks at What Might Have Been For Mihalich

In my role as a sports columnist for the Troy Record Newspaper, the subjects are occasionally MAAC-related.

Here's my column that appeared in this past Sunday's edition. It's about former Niagara men's coach Joe Mihalich, now at Hofstra, coming back to Albany's Times Union Center for a game against Siena.

The column alaso deals with Siena's near-hiring as Mihalich as its head coach back in 1994 when the school was seeking a replacement for Mike Deane.

Here it is ...

http://www.troyrecord.com/sports/20131221/on-the-record-mihalich-not-your-average-joe

Marist Women Hitting Stride, Topple National Power

Just 35 days removed from an 0-3 start and 29 days since the record was 1-4, it certainly looks right now that everything has been restored to order for the Marist women's basketball team.

If there was any remaining doubt about that, the Red Foxes dispelled it with a 76-69 victory over Oklahoma Saturday at the McCann Center in Poughkeepsie. Oklahoma entered the game ranked 20th nationally in the most-recent AP Top 25 poll.

The victory marked Marist's first-ever win against a top-25 team on its home court.

That's a little misleading, since top 25 teams don't often visit the home courts of mid-major level programs. Still, it happens and it happens more often at Marist than at any other MAAC school. Earlier this season, Kentucky (ranked No. 7 nationally) came to Poughkeepsie where it earned a 75-61 victory over Marist in the season-opener for both programs on Nov. 8.

Back then Marist was still trying to find some chemistry for a team of some role players moving into more-meaningful positions as well as the unavailability of four scholarship players.

Only one of those four, senior point guard Casey Dulin, has returned but she has alreade very significant contributions as well as extending what had been a very short Marist bench.

The team is still short inside as its only two players on the roster taller than 6-1 (6-5 Delaney Hollenbeck and 6-3 Tori Jarosz) remain out with injuries.

But the Red Foxes are big everywhere else, particularly in terms of player improvement.

No player's offensive contributions have gotten better than sophomore guard Madeline Blais, who averaged just 2.8 points per game last season and, now, averages a team-best 15.8 ppg. thus far.

Leanne Ockenden's scoring average is up to 15.4, from 8.7 last year; Emma O'Connor is up from 9.0 to 13.3, Sydney Coffey is up to 10.3 from 7.3 and Dulin, who averaged 10.2 ppg. last year, is now averaging 12.7 in the three games since she returns and has solidified the point-guard position (5.7 assists per game).

Since the 1-4 start it was clear to see that Marist was making rapid strides, including a a 103-66 victory over a good Northeastern team (currently 6-4), the highest single-game total since coach Brian Giorgis took over the program 12 years ago.

Marist, though, does even better work on the defensive end. And, when Dulin drew an offensive foul from a driving Oklahoma player late in Saturday's contest, it all but secured the huge upset.

"It was a really great win, and I think it's something I'll always remember," Dulin told the Poughkeepsie Journal newspaper, afterwards.

Defense? It didn't hurt that the MAAC's reigning Defensive Player of the Year Ockenden held Oklahoma's Aaryn Ellenberg to 1-of-8 shooting from beyond the three-point line.Ellenberg had been 35-of-91 from bonus territory and was averaging 18.8 points per outing entering Saturday's contest. She was limited to just 12 points in the full 40 minutes, making just 5-of-19 total shots, against the Red Foxes.

A crowd of 1,904 turned out to watch the upset.

"It's great to give our fans this," Giorgis told reporters, afterwards. "I couldn't be more proud of a group of individuals ... from where we've come from the beginning of the year to now, the kids just seem to keep getting better and better."

ATM: First Wins For New Coaches; Big Numbers

Here's another in the news-and-notes series called "ATM," or, Around The MAAC.

- Congratulations to new conference coaches Jeff Bower at Marist and Pat Coyle at Saint Peter's for getting their respective first victories on the job this season.

The Marist men opened the season with an 0-9 record before getting their first victory, a 69-62 decision over the College of Charleston on Dec. 15. Five days later they got another one, a 69-51 victory over Bucknell, for Bower's first "winning streak," albeit a modest two-gamer.

The program got the wins despite the defection of former starting point guard Isaiah Morton, who left the school with plans to transfer elsewhere. It has left the Red Foxes with freshman Khalil Hart (last week's MAAC Rookie of the Week) and lightly used junior T.J. Curry as backcourt starters, and to no ill effect.

The Saint Peter's women started the season 0-7 before breaking through for a 72-56 decision vs. Fairleigh Dickinson on Dec. 11. Junior guard Antonia Smith has been leading the Peacocks, averaging 12.2 points per game so far.

Of course Coyle has won games in the MAAC before, having been the head coach at Loyola, before moving on to the WNBA, and she took the Greyhounds to two NCAA tournament appearances.

- MAAC men's performers continue to show up on the national statistical leaderboards.

Niagara's Antoine Mason continues to lead the nation in scoring at 28.6 points per game. He could become the second Purple Eagle to lead all Division I scorers. Alvin Young also did it in the 1998-99 season.

Manhattan's Rhamel Brown is No. three in blocked shots per game at 4.4, while Quinnipiac's Ike Azotam is ninth nationally in rebound average at 10.8.

A couple of former MAAC players also show up in the national top 10 statistically. Former Iona big man Chris Pelcher, now at New Hampshire, is third nationally in rebounding (11.8), while Loyola's Dylon Cormier (the Greyhounds are now in the Patriot League) is sixth in scoring at 23.6 ppg.

- Several conference women's players also figure prominently in the national statistics.

Iona's junior guard Damika Martinez averages 26.7 points per game, second-best nationally. She has led the MAAC in scoring in each of the past two seasons, the only conference player to top conference scorers as a freshman and a sophomore.

Two other Gaels are also among the national leaders. Senior post player Sabrina Jeridore leads all Division I performers in blocked shots per game (4.8), while sophomore forward Joy Adams is sixth nationally in rebound average (12.9).