Category: NEC

Breaking Down the NEC Transfer List

With the “free agent” period of college basketball in full swing, I felt it was a good time to identify who has prematurely left the NEC and what kind of impact it has on their former team. Here are the top nine transfers that decided to leave the conference. For Jeff Goodman’s complete list of 2013 basketball transfers, go here. Continue reading “Breaking Down the NEC Transfer List” →

Season In Review: St. Francis (PA) Red Flash

Rebuilding a program isn’t an easy thing to do, yet St. Francis University has seemingly been a part of the vicious cycle for several years running. In Rob Krimmel’s first season at the helm – after serving as a Red Flash assistant coach for 12 seasons – the NEC basement dweller struggled once again, yet there were some silver linings to be found. Two members of Krimmel’s freshmen class, Ben Millaud-Meunier and Stephon Mosley, were selected to the NEC all-rookie team. Millaud-Meunier, whose work ethic has been lauded by Krimmel, made 47% of his shots, with a majority of those coming from the perimeter. Sophomore Earl Brown, after an uninspiring rookie campaign, emerged as one of the best rebounders of the conference and took home the NEC’s most improved player of the year award. Only 13 players in the nation bettered Brown defensive rebounding percentage of 25.9%.

Several other underclassmen played significant roles on the rebuilding Red Flash, with more than 75% of the team’s available minutes falling to a freshman or sophomore. Perhaps due to the youth movement in Loretto, the inexperienced Red Flash dropped 19 of their first 20 contests, en route to another disappointing and ultimately uncompetitive season.

Injuries surely deserved part of the blame, with team star Umar Shannon failing to recapture his old magic a season removed from an ACL tear. As is the case for several athletes recovering from reconstructive knee surgery, Shannon had difficultly clearing the mental hurdle of trusting his knee when competing at full speed on the hardwood. It led to an inconsistent junior season, although Shannon will return next season to provide the senior presence Krimmel so desperately needs on this roster.

In addition to Shannon’s struggles, senior Anthony Ervin, arguably the second most valuable player of the 2011-12 season behind Scott Eatherton, saw limited playing time due to a nagging groin injury. His condition improved for the second half of the season, and not surprisingly, so did the Red Flash’s performance. They won four of their final nine games, which included a grueling double overtime loss at Central Connecticut that could have easily gone St. Francis’ way.

Best Moment – After slogging their way to a miserable 0-11 start, the Red Flash stunned the community by upsetting Central Connecticut, 67-60, in Loretto for the NEC opener. In the victory, Earl Brown corralled 25 rebounds, the most by any Division I player since the 2009-10 season. If Brown wasn’t the focal point of the opposition’s game plan before the victory, he certainly was now.

Worst Moment – As much as the Red Flash lost in the 2012-13 season, nothing really paled in comparison to the tumultuous offseason the program had to endure previously. Therefore, it remains perfectly logical to cite the Red Flash’s past offseason as their worst moment. In a span of two weeks last spring, St. Francis had parted ways with head coach Don Friday and budding star Scott Eatherton. Those chain of events essentially guaranteed the Red Flash would go through yet another rebuilding season, if not more.

Saying Goodbye

Anthony Ervin – On a team that sorely needed leadership, Ervin struggled to get healthy in his senior season. When he finally was effective for the second half of the season, however, Ervin averaged 7.1 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, while shooting 45.4% from behind the arc. His graduation leaves a leadership void that will be transferred to Shannon, as the only senior who could receive meaningful minutes next year. (24 games, 4.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 0.8 apg)

Looking Ahead to the 2013-14 Season
With many assuming the Red Flash will once again struggle for relevancy, it remains plausible that Krimmel could begin to reap the benefits of having one of the youngest rosters in D-I basketball last season. By next November, Shannon will be two years removed from his knee surgery and could return to the form he once displayed as a promising sophomore. The soon-to-be-sophomore class of Ronnie Drinnon, Greg Brown, Mosley, and Millaud-Meunier will have another offseason to improve their game and provide an impact. Brown could emerge as the league’s best rebounder and double double machine with more work. It all adds up to an intriguing second year under Krimmel. With a little bit of luck in the injury department, it wouldn’t surprise me if the Red Flash sneak into the NEC playoffs for the first time in three years. A return to the upper echelon of the conference, however, is highly unlikely, even in a basketball climate full of parity.

Season In Review: Wagner Seahawks

There were reasons for optimism after Wagner fell to Robert Morris at home in the semifinals of the NEC tournament in March of 2012. The Seahawks had been rebuilt and Dan Hurley had a talented collection of players on Grymes Hill. Soon thereafter Hurley took off for another rebuilding project at Rhode Island and Bashir Mason became the youngest head coach in Division I. Continue reading “Season In Review: Wagner Seahawks” →

Greg Herenda Hired as Fairleigh Dickinson Head Coach

Nearly 51 days after Fairleigh Dickinson (FDU) failed to renew the contract of embattled head coach Greg Vetrone, the Knights have inked his replacement. Greg Herenda, the five-year coach of the Division II program UMass-Lowell will inherit the program as the sixth head coach in the FDU’s history.

A long time assistant, Herenda has slowly worked his way up the coaching ladder. After playing Division III basketball at Merrimack, the New Jersey native was an assistant at several Division I programs, including Holy Cross, Yale, Seton Hall, and East Carolina. From there he eventually landed at UMass-Lowell, where in his five seasons compiled an impressive 95-54 record. His River Hawk teams made an appearance in the NCAA Division II basketball tournament four of those five years.

UMass-Lowell recently announced the university will upgrade its athletic program to the Division I ranks, joining the American East conference. Though the move is effective immediately, the River Hawks must undergo an arduous transition process to fully integrate into the Division I game. The transition – similar to what Bryant had to recently endure with the NEC – includes a four-year postseason ban before UMass-Lowell is considered a full-time member of the America East conference. Given the difficult transition, it makes sense why Herenda would make the parellel leap to another program in a low mid-major conference.

Becoming the head coach at FDU certainly has its challenges, however. The three leading scorers from last year’s roster, Melquan Bolding, Kinu Rochford, and Lonnie Robinson, will all graduate leaving the roster devoid of talent and experience. There are some intriguing pieces Vetrone has left behind in soon-to-be sophomores Sekou Harris and Xavier Harris (not related) and red-shirt freshman Myles Mann, but rebuilding the program will be a significant challenge. The current starting lineup projects out to be:

PG: Sidney Sanders, Jr./Sekou Harris
SG: Mostafaa Jones
SF: Yves Jules
PF: Mathias Seilund/Myles Mann
C: Xavier Harris

Of those seven players mentioned above, only Sanders Jr. and Jones played more than half of the team’s available minutes last season (but barely). Moreover, only Seilund possessed a KenPom offensive rating above 92. This will undoubtedly be a team that struggles to score points. It should also be noted that the Knights were the eighth worst team nationally in KenPom’s defensive effeciency rating last season.

Tom Green was the last coach to get FDU to the NCAA tournament, and that was a long time ago. Since those “glory” days under Green, the Knights have amassed an unsatisfactory record of 41-158 in the past six seasons. To say Herenda has a monumental task ahead of him is an understatement. At the very least, the Knights have nowhere to go but up.

Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

Kyle Vinales To Transfer From Central Connecticut

After reading reports this morning confirming that Naofall Folahan was released from his scholarship at Wagner, I quickly tweeted out that this was simply another role player leaving a NEC program. It was no big deal, in my opinion, that the biggest transfers of the conference consisted of the following: Folahan, Eric Fanning, Kelvin Parker, Josh Castellanos and Adonis Burbage. With all due respect, those players were all nothing more than solid contributors to their team’s rotation. No big loss for the conference.

That is until I read about the following news:

Per a New Britian Herald report by Matt Schaub and a Hartford Courant report by Mike Anthony, Kyle Vinales will transfer from Central Connecticut with two years of eligibility remaining. The 6’1″ shooting guard from Detroit led the NEC last season with 21.6 points and 38.2 minutes played per game, and was elected to the All-NEC first team for his excellent efforts.

From reading Anthony’s report, it sounds like head coach Howie Dickenman and the CCSU community were caught completely off guard with the news. It’s likely that Vinales will be courted by several major basketball programs, much like Maine’s Justin Edwards has been the past few weeks.

Both Vinales and Adonis Burbage have asked for their release from CCSU this offseason, and it leaves the Blue Devils rife with inexperience on the roster. Matthew Hunter, an All-NEC third team selection, becomes the leading player with Vinales’ departure, yet many will now wonder about the status of the dynamic, playmaking wing moving forward. Vinales was instrumental in bringing Hunter to the CCSU campus – both are close friends and former AAU teammates – but with a decimated lineup sans Vinales and Burbage, will Hunter decide to exhaust his final year of eligibility at a rebuilding program?

As for Dickenman, well his approval ratings have seen better days. (Just head to the CCSU basketball forum for confirmation.) He signed an extension last year to be the Blue Devils coach through the 2015-16 season, so his job is safe. But since their NEC championship in 2007, CCSU has failed to mimic that success even with all-conference talents like Ken Horton, Robby Ptacek, and Vinales featured on the roster. Now with Vinales leaving in search of a winning program, CCSU is officially in full rebuild mode. The starting lineup of the 2013-14 season currently projects out to be:

PG: Malcolm McMillan
SG: Khalen Cumberlander (assuming he’s fully recovered from a torn ACL he suffered last November)
SF: Terrell Allen
PF: Matt Hunter
C: Brandon Peel

Without the firepower of Vinales, I will bump CCSU down to eighth in my preseason rankings behind St. Francis Brooklyn and Sacred Heart. And if Hunter decides to leave New Britain in the coming weeks, I would be inclined to push St. Francis (PA) in eighth place ahead of the Blue Devils. So much for my original sleeper team of the 2013-14 season.

(Update: For the latest, read Mike Anthony’s story w/ Dickenman quotes here. Derek Turner of the CCSU Recorder and Viper Live Sports also penned a piece with comments from Vinales here.)

Ryan Peters covers Northeast Conference men’s basketball for Big Apple Buckets. You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

NEC Top 10: Premature Ratings for the 2013-14 Season

With the college basketball season officially behind us, everyone is beginning to speculate on the nation’s top 25 for the 2013-14 season. I figured to join in on the fun, by giving you my NEC top 10 as of today! Keep in mind I haven’t fully delved into each team’s incoming recruits and there may be some more players who decide to transfer this month. For now though, let’s see how this new ten team league shakes out in my premature ratings for next season. Continue reading “NEC Top 10: Premature Ratings for the 2013-14 Season” →

Best Coaching Jobs in the NEC

Big Apple Buckets continues their Best Coaching Jobs series with the Northeast Conference. With the departures of Quinnipiac and Monmouth this coming fall, ranking the ten remaining jobs was incredibly difficult to do. Two of the best arenas are heading to the MAAC; therefore attempting to decipher the NEC’s best gigs is wonderfully subjective. I did my best to garner the opinions of several people in the know before devising this list, but as you’ll soon see, it is truly a muddle of programs smack in the middle. Let’s begin. Continue reading “Best Coaching Jobs in the NEC” →

Season In Review: Bryant Bulldogs

Losing 99 basketball games in 119 tries will take a lot out of you, even if you have the legitimate excuse of overseeing your program transition from Division II to Division I athletics. Such was the case for Bryant head coach Tim O’Shea, who after succumbing to four seasons of recruiting purgatory, was fighting to stay optimistic. When he signed on the dotted line to become Bryant’s leader in 2008, O’Shea had pegged the program’s transformation as a five-year plan. Year five was supposed to be the pivotal season when Bryant made their move toward competitive basketball inside the Northeast Conference.

To say Bryant made a move would be an understatement. After procuring shocking road wins over Boston College and Lehigh, Bryant sprinted out to a 6-0 start in the NEC. When the smoke finally cleared, the Bulldogs had engineered one of the greatest turnarounds in Division I history. Their 19 wins was a 17 win improvement over a dismal 2011-12 season that found them ranked 333rd out of 345 teams in KenPom’s ratings. Despite the historic turnaround, O’Shea wanted just a little more when he reflects back on the season.

“I’m proud (of Bryant’s season), but honestly I’m also a little disappointed in the sense that we got into position to win the league and we came up a little bit short,” said a candid O’Shea. “I don’t think it was a lack of effort, but whenever you get in position like that – it’s hard to do – you want to finish it off and take it to completion and we didn’t do that.”

O’Shea then added, “In hindsight, after what we’ve been through in this transition, how could I not be proud? Especially for a guy like a Frankie Dobbs who hung in there the whole way and had great leadership. Vlad Kondratyev had a great year for us.”

Even in the lean seasons, Bryant boasted three above average talents in Dobbs, Alex Francis, and Corey Maynard, yet it was their depth, or lack thereof, that made winning such a chore. It’s tough to win when a majority of the roster is comprised of Division II talent, but that was the case for the first four years under O’Shea. For year five, however, the insertion of transfers Dyami Starks and Joe O’Shea – Tim O’Shea’s nephew – did wonders for giving Bryant a complete Division I lineup ready to compete with the likes of Robert Morris, LIU Brooklyn, and Wagner.

Due to insertion of Starks – an All-NEC second team selection at season’s end who made 40.8% of his three-point attempts – Bryant’s offense posted a league best 1.14 points per possession (PPP) in NEC play, a stark improvement over their 0.90 PPP mark for the 2011-12 season. The Bulldogs shot 47.9% from the floor, aided by Francis’ excellent 56.9% mark on 371 shot attempts. After several seasons of serving as the NEC’s doormat, Bryant was lighting up opponents on the offensive end.

Near the end though, Bryant’s short bench and average defense struggled to close out games late, but it was a masterful season nonetheless. Bryant finished in a three-way tie for second place in the conference, and hosted a game in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) tournament, falling to Atlantic-10 foe Richmond after a hard-fought battle.

With the arduous transition to Division I now in the rear view, O’Shea can rest easier knowing that he has guided the Bulldogs into the thick of the NEC elite. He may be a little disappointed Bryant couldn’t finish their otherwise spectacular season off, but it was surely an unforgettable year in O’Shea’s eyes. “Other than making the NCAA tournament or the NIT, I don’t know if it could have gone much better.”

Best Moment – Take your pick. I select their 80-79 victory over the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, the same Mountain Hawks who had upended Duke in the second round of the 2012 NCAA tournament the previous season. Shortly thereafter, Bryant surprised a hot Robert Morris club with a terrific offense display at Moon Township. The normally stout Colonials defense gave up 1.15 points per possession in the contest, thanks to the outside shooting capabilities of Starks and Dobbs. The Bulldogs were now officially relevant in the eyes of everyone.

Worst Moment – When recapping a drastically improved team, it’s difficult to pinpoint a truly awful moment. But if I had to choose a setback, it would be their home loss to Robert Morris in the last week of the regular season. A victory would have inevitably secured a #1 seed in the NEC tournament, not to mention drew a much weaker opponent in the first round (as opposed to a scorching Mount St. Mary’s club). Unfortunately for Bryant, Robert Morris’ execution down the stretch sent the vociferous sellout crowd in Smithfield home disappointed.

Saying Goodbye

Frankie Dobbs – Words can’t truly capture the sincere gratitude O’Shea has towards Dobbs, who patiently spent three long seasons – one as a redshirt – on an undermanned Bryant team waiting for relevancy. Dobbs’ decision to transfer to Bryant surely was pushed by the presence of D.J. Cooper on Ohio, yet the point guard could have chosen a different program nonetheless. In Dobbs’ fifth and final season, he was selected to the All-NEC third team selection for his excellent efforts. Bryant’s remarkable turnaround wouldn’t have occurred without the leadership of Dobbs, who O’Shea says is the definition of a program cornerstone. (13.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 5.3 apg, 1.2 spg, 2.2 A/TO)

Vlad Kondratyev – The overlooked big man made his presence felt throughout the season with terrific rebounding rates of 8.8% (offensive) and 18.3% (defensive). He was practically the only cog in the paint when freshman Andrew Scocca went down. Kondratyev may have been foul prone, committing nearly six fouls per 40 minutes, but his overall steadiness made things easier for O’Shea in dealing with a short bench. Along with his team, the 6’8” center exceeded expectations as a Bulldog his senior year. (5.4 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 58.5% FG%)

Looking Ahead to the 2013-14 Season
In spite of the late heartbreak, Bryant will come back in year six of O’Shea’s master plan with much higher expectations. Maynard, Starks and Francis are all returning, so the talent is there to continue a run of excellence. Of course, Dobbs’ departure raises a deserving question regarding their point guard position, but O’Shea is confident that someone from the three-man competition of sophomore Shane McLaughlin, freshman Justin Brickman (you may know his brother, Jason Brickman of LIU Brooklyn) and redshirt freshman and fellow Australian Declan Sukoup will emerge. If one of those three does just that, and O’Shea’s freshmen and sophomore class helps solidify their depth, Bryant has as good a chance as any to capture their first NEC crown. A difficult, yet compelling non-conference schedule including road matchups versus Gonzaga, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Delaware and home tilts with Lehigh, North Dakota State, and Vermont should harden the Bulldogs’ resolve heading into NEC play for January of 2014.