Even while Fordham transfer Marvin Dominique spent a season on the bench, Saint Peter’s head coach John Dunne was optimistic that the 6’7″ forward would have an impact right away.
Dominique did not disappoint in his first year as a Peacock, averaging a team-high 16.6 ppg and leading the team with 8.9 rpg.
“I had the idea, just from listening to coach, that I was going to have a big part in the team,” Dominique said. “When the season started, I really had to help out a lot, especially really help Desi [Washington] out. I started understanding more throughout, as the season went by.”
His breakout season came after sitting out one as a transfer and playing two at Fordham. Dominique’s career at Rose Hill started off strong, averaging 4.5 ppg and 5.6 rpg as a freshman, but missed the final eight games of the season after a shoulder injury. However in his second season, Dominique’s playing time decreased and his scoring slumped to 2.9 ppg.
“The biggest adjustment is probably adjusting to a new environment, a new school environment and a new basketball environment,” Dominique said. “It was easy, but it was definitely the easiest and the hardest thing was the transition. Everything else was really great.”
Dominique, with Washington close behind him as a second threat to score, helped lead the Peacocks to nine wins in the MAAC, their most since winning 11 in 2010. The roster returns all but a few players and adds freshmen and junior college contributors, but Dominique and Washington are the players expected to lead Saint Peter’s this season.
“I feel like this group is so unique that you don’t just have one leader, you have like a group of leaders together because we try to be out there helping each other out,” Dominique said. “We all have different skill sets and, at different times during the season, different people step up.”
While Dominique has worked on his game, he has seen his teammates step up and said that sophomore Quadir Welton has become more difficult for him to contain in practice and workouts.
“He’s got so much better since last year,” Dominique said of Welton who averaged 4.7 ppg and 5 rpg last season. “He’s been difficult to guard since school started.”
Dominique also said he used the summer to work on his dribbling, which would go a long way to helping him reduce his team-high 2.3 turnovers per game from last season. Now that he has adjusted to the game at Saint Peter’s, he hopes that the additional options brought in will help provide enough depth to help the Peacocks make a deep run.
“I think the new guys are really going to fit in really nicely with everybody,” Dominique said. “I think they’re really going to help the team offensively and defensively too, so I think the season’s going to be interesting.”
Ryan Restivo wrote the America East conference preview for the 2014-15 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook. He covers the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, the America East conference and Hofstra for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo or contact Ryan at rrestivo[at]nycbuckets.com.
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