Category: MAAC

Joe Mihalich on Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley Transferring to Hofstra

One week after Chris Casey was hired at Niagara, sophomores Juan’ya Green and Ameen Tanksley received their releases to transfer out from the school.

Friday they finalized their decision on where they will go by joining their former head coach Joe Mihalich at Hofstra. The school officially announced Green and Tanklsey joining the Pride along with Jamall Robinson, who received a release out of his letter of intent at Niagara, who will also join Mihalich at Hofstra.

“We’re in the business where we need to get good players and that’s what we did,” Mihalich said of the additions.

Juan'ya Green (left) will join Joe Mihalich at Hofstra
Juan’ya Green (left) will transfer from Niagara and join Joe Mihalich at Hofstra

Green and Tanksley will come in as juniors and will have to redshirt and sit out one season before they can play during the 2014-15 season. Robinson will be eligible to play to start the fall.

Green won the MAAC Rookie of the Year Award in 2011 and finished on the first-team All-MAAC as the Purple Eagles won the regular season championship. Tanksley averaged 11.3 points per game last season and started every game for Niagara.

Mihalich said that Green and Tanksley contacted him after receiving their release from Niagara and he ran it by Hofstra athletic director Jeff Hathaway prior to taking on the two Niagara transfers.

“He’s going to know everything that’s going to happen here just like I do that’s the way I’ve always done it,” Mihalich said of his contact with Hathaway. “I’ve always felt like the communication you got to work hand in hand with your athletic director. Believe me a big reason why I’m here is because of Jeff Hathaway he’s a terrific AD, he’s one of the best in the whole country.”

Mihalich said he has known Green and Tanksley for the last four years, having recruited them out of the Philadelphia area to play for him at Niagara for two seasons.

“You can’t help but get close to these guys,” Mihalich said. “You develop a relationship. It’s hard to put into words because it’s not just the two hours a day you’re on the practice court, it’s study hall, it’s the traveling, it’s all that stuff. It’s when there’s a special relationship there.”

Hofstra also added former Niagara commit Robinson who contacted Mihalich after he received his release from the MAAC school.

“Jamall Robinson is a winner, he’s a versatile guy,” Mihalich said. “He can play a couple of different positions. He’s physically ready to play right now even though he’s a freshman. He’s got a good body good size and strength.

“He can probably score a little bit better than people give him credit for, but he’s a good player. We’re excited about him he’s going to help us.”

Green, Tanksley and Robinson join Chris Jenkins and Eliel Gonzalez in coming to Hofstra under Mihalich. The incoming freshmen will join the team in late June for workouts during summer session.

Now with nine spots filled, seven of whom will be eligible to play next season with Green and Tanklsey sitting out per NCAA rules, Mihalich said that they will work on adding two more players, a point guard and a scoring combo guard.

“We just want to get the right guys,” Mihalich said. “Some people say it’s hard to fill up a roster, that’s not true. It’s easy to fill up a roster if you don’t really pay attention to getting the right players and the right people.”

“It’s easy to fil up a roster, but its hard to fill up a roster the right way and that’s our challenge right here is to get some good guys.”

Hofstra has had players visit campus and Mihalich said that he’s been able to sell the opportunity to play.

“We’ve had a couple kids who that were concerned about that, concerned about the lack of people here, but that’s okay,” Mihalich said. “That means that we don’t want them. We want kids that want to make an impact, kids that want to play right away. We want kids that like this situation so any kid that didn’t like it, that’s fine that’s good by us because they don’t like the situation then it’s not right for them. That’s fine they can go somewhere else.”

Having four scholarship players when Mihalich took over the job, he said he would like to make up for lost time when he gets the team together for workouts during the summer sessions.

“Can’t wait to get going,” Mihalich said. “We lost the spring. There’s everybody who was doing stuff with their guys we lost it. First of all we only have four guys here so didn’t do any team stuff, we couldn’t do anything.”

Mihalich said they will look to bring in two more players but said “it would have to be somebody pretty special” to take in another transfer.

“We’re open to anything,” Mihalich said. “We’re open to anything and everything.”

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo. For more on Hofstra’s non-conference schedule, check out the non-conference schedule tracker.

Niagara Hires Chris Casey as Head Coach

Niagara University hired Chris Casey to be their 21st men’s basketball head coach in school history, athletic director Tom Crowley officially announced the hire today.

“I’m very well aware of the history of Niagara basketball,” Casey said. “To be chosen for this position, with the great history of this university and the great history of this basketball program, is truly an honor.”

Casey will replace Joe Mihalich who left for Hofstra after 15 seasons with the Purple Eagles. This will be Casey’s first experience as a Division I head coach, following a three-season tenure at Division II LIU Post where he went 65-25. Casey replaced Tim Cluess at LIU Post who went to Iona and has made two NCAA tournaments in three years with the Gaels.

Niagara AD Tom Crowley (right) poses with head coach Chris Casey (left)
Niagara head coach Chris Casey (left) poses with athletic director Tom Crowley (right) at the introductory press conference

Casey said he called Mihalich over the last two days seeking advice and couldn’t help but praise the job Mihalich did over 15 years at the program at the press conference.

“He was great,” Casey said of Mihalich. “He’s established something very special here. At the very least we are going to maintain and we are going to give every effort to taking that to another level.”

Casey said he met with the players last week for the first time for a little over an hour and he said there was an atmosphere of team in the room.

“I walked away feeling great, even though I dont know them well yet,” Casey said. “I feel great about the approach of this group just from the atmosphere in the room.”

“I can’t wait to coach you. I can’t wait to get on the floor and get started. To be honest with you I wish tomorrow was October 15th so we could get past everything and just get started with practice.”

Casey inherits a roster that won the MAAC regular season championship despite being the 39th youngest team in the country last season.

“What they did last year in winning the regular season, that’s something that doesn’t happen all the time,” Casey said. “That’s a special situation. You don’t just walk around the corner and find that somewhere else. There has to be a certain chemistry and a togetherness to be able to achieve that.”

“They’ve established that. My job is to come in and to keep that, and hopefully get that to another level and get it to the next step with our team.”

Casey said he talked to them about staying together and the opportunity they have to finish the job they started after winning the regular season title.

“The mentality we talked about is ‘hey let’s finish the job,'” Casey said. “Let’s finish the job together, we came in together, we persevered through difficult things together we’ve had victories together. Now let’s chase the prize and finish the job.”

Before taking the head coaching job at LIU Post in May 2010, Casey was an assistant on Norm Roberts’ staff at St. John’s for six seasons. After starting as the Director of Basketball Operations for two seasons, Casey was promoted to an assistant on Roberts staff and coached four seasons at St. John’s. Prior to St. John’s, Casey was the top assistant at Central Connecticut State for three seasons.

Casey has head coaching experience at the Division II and III levels in his past. Casey was head coach at Division III Rutgers University-Newark for three seasons from 1998 until 2001. In his final season, Casey won New Jersey Athletic Conference Coach of the Year leading his team to postseason for the first time since 1985.

The newest head coach is familiar with the MAAC, having been an assistant at St. Peter’s for eight seasons before taking the head coaching job at Rutgers University-Newark. While with the Peacocks, Casey was on staff for St. Peter’s MAAC tournament championships in 1991 and 1995.

Ryan Restivo covers Stony Brook, Hofstra and the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @ryanarestivo.