Category: St. Francis Brooklyn

NEC Recap: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

It’s time to begin a non-conference tradition – our “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” post for the NEC! The first edition is a little late this week, so a few teams already have a couple of games under their belt. Let’s highlight the biggest positives and negatives from the first four days of the 2013-14 season.

The Good

  • New Blackbirds May Soar, But One Remains the Same – No Jamal Olasewere, C.J. Garner, Julian Boyd, Booker Hucks, and Kenny Onyechi? No problem! All the Blackbirds did was score 1.18 points per possession and drain 11 of their 24 three-point attempts in their season opening victory over St. Peter’s. The long distance onslaught was led by guard Gerrell Martin, who after only playing a quarter of LIU Brooklyn’s available minutes last season, scored a career high 24 points. As impressive as Martin and others like Gilbert Parga and Landon Atterberry were, though, Jason Brickman was the star of the show. His NEC Player of the Week effort yielded a sensational line of 13 points, 6 rebounds, and 14 assists. Currently, Brickman has 733 career assists. He would need to average approximately 9.5 dimes per game for the remainder of the season (28 games, plus any postseason games) to crack 1,000 career assists, which would make him only the fourth player ever to do so in NCAA history. Are you going to bet against him? Yeah, we didn’t think so.
  • A Stunning Upset Down South – John already went over the Terriers remarkable takedown of Miami, but given the magnitude of the accomplishment, this story bares repeating. St. Francis Brooklyn’s season opening win was the first time the program has ever upended an ACC school. Previously, the NEC’s record against ACC schools since the turn of the century was 2-52, with both victories coming against hapless Boston College (Robert Morris in 2008, Bryant in 2012). Jim Larranaga may be in a deep rebuilding mode after losing point guard Shane Larkin and five seniors from a championship roster, but a win versus a power conference is impressive nonetheless. It puts the rest of the NEC on notice – St. Francis will be a contender, even if that wasn’t the consensus thought prior to November 8th. This team is far more athletic with Kevin Douglas, Amdy Fall, and rookie Wayne Martin logging big time minutes around Jalen Cannon, Ben Mockford, and others.
  • New Faces, Same Result – Even though he likely won’t admit it, the 2013-14 season will be the biggest challenge of Andy Toole’s young career. Lots of production has graduated and/or moved on, yet it was business as usual in their home opener versus Savannah State. Last season the Tigers – a defensive stalwart ranked 30th nationally in defensive rating – stymied the Colonials’ offense, holding them to 0.78 points per possession on 29% shooting. This time around, Robert Morris got their revenge as 11 different players – five newcomers – scored in a decisive 20-point victory. Three players scored in double digits and Anthony Myers-Pate and Kavon Stewart combined for nine assists and two turnovers. Velton and Russell who?

The Bad

  • A Massive Rebuild Ahead – We here at Big Apple Buckets don’t put much value in non-Division I wins, hence our stark refusal to acknowledge FDU’s Friday night victory over Caldwell. Rather, we’ll treat that as an exhibition and focus on the Knights’ inconsistent effort in Hofstra. It wasn’t much of a game from the start, with the Pride pulling away after a couple of early runs. Not surprisingly, the Knights struggled to score, posting 0.85 points per possession. A field goal percentage of 30.2% surely didn’t help, nor did an unsavory 9:13 assist to turnover ratio. Obviously, the rebuilding effort in Hackensack is going to take a while, so don’t expect the turnaround to occur in the next couple of months. With the exception of home games against St. Peter’s and Hofstra, every other non-conference showdown gives FDU a 6% chance or less to win, according to KenPom. It’s improbable, yet not wacky to envision Greg Herenda’s group with zero Division I victories heading into NEC play.

The Ugly

  • A Sacred Shooting Slump – Anthony Latina summed it up best in his postgame comments after a disheartening defeat at the hands of Fairfield, “It’s almost impossible to win when you shoot 24%.” Extrapolate that to just three-pointers, and the Pioneers were a paltry 19% (on 26 attempts) from behind the arc. Yikes. Much of the poor shooting had to do with Fairfield’s newfound post presence, Malcolm Gilbert (11 rebounds, 8 blocks), but the Pioneers missed a lot of open looks from within 15 feet. Chalk it up to first game jitters, over aggression, whatever, yet it wasn’t a good start to the Anthony Latina era. With a whopping 25 Stag turnovers committed in the contest, Saturday evening was Sacred Heart’s best chance to beat Fairfield (now 0-5 all time) for the first time in its Division I history. Instead, the Pioneers must now regroup against an improved Holy Cross squad on Wednesday. To make matters worse, freshman De’von Barnett – who Latina believes can provide an instant impact off the bench – will likely miss his second straight game with a sprained ankle.
  • 13 Minutes of Blue Devil Hell in Bridgeport – With 13 minutes remaining in the second half, CCSU was cruising against in-state rival Yale. Kyle Vinales was red-hot, Matthew Hunter was his usual stat stuffing self, and newcomers Juwan Newman and Faronte Drakeford were contributing. Everything was sunny at the Webster Bank Arena for the blue and white. And then Yale began their furious comeback. When the smoke cleared, James Jones’ crew delivered a stunning 33-point turnaround by the final horn. In order to pull it off, the Bulldogs scored 32 points on 15 consecutive possessions (yes, you read that correctly) to give them the lead for good. Moreover, the Blue Devils fell apart on the boards, as they were out rebounded 23 to 9 in those final 13 minutes. Of those 23 rebounds, seven were offensive rebounds that led to 10 second chance points.

Player of the Week: Jason Brickman for reasons stated above. With all due respect to Dyami Starks, I can’t get too excited about an individual performance when the team was routed by Gonzaga.
Rookie of the Week: Wayne Martin, of course. A well deserved honorable mention goes to St. Francis point guard Malik Harmon, who was sensational against Navy (20 points on 7 shots, 5 assists, 4 steals) on Monday. It isn’t premature to say that Rob Krimmel has his point guard of the future. This kid is legit.
Team of the Week: St. Francis Brooklyn. That was one heck of a Florida trip for Glenn Braica’s crew, knocking off both Miami and the Mike Jarvis coached (remember him?) Florida Atlantic within a three-day span on the road.

You can follow Ryan on Twitter @pioneer_pride

Big Apple Buckets Weekly Awards – Nov. 11

This season we’re introducing a new feature, Weekly Awards! Each Monday at noon we’ll be announcing our selections for the area’s Team, Player and Rookie of the Week. As has been discussed a bit in the Power Poll – “area” is a pretty loosely defined term. Still, we’ll try to highlight the best stories in and around New York City as much as possible. Continue reading “Big Apple Buckets Weekly Awards – Nov. 11” →

Pomeroy Rankings Movement – Nov. 10

Last season taking a look at the movement in the KenPom rankings became a Sunday morning tradition here at Big Apple Buckets. While we only have two days worth of data to go off of, here some teams already bouncing around. From now on we’ll have weekly and season numbers, but since they’re the same this week just bear with me. Continue reading “Pomeroy Rankings Movement – Nov. 10” →

NEC Team Primer: #7 St. Francis Brooklyn Terriers

Head Coach: Glenn Braica, 4th season (42-48, 30-24 NEC)
Last Season: 12-18, 8-10 (NEC), Lost to Robert Morris NEC tournament quarterfinals
RPI/KenPom: 209/223
NEC Preseason Poll: 7th out of 10 teams
State of Programs: Hoping to Surprise
Starters Returning: 4
Key Loss(es): Akeem Johnson (10.0 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.6 apg), Travis Nichols (9.6 ppg, 4.1 rpg), Dre Calloway (5.2 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 2.8 apg)
Incoming Players: Amdy Fall (F), Yunus Hopkinson (G), Sheldon Hagigal (G), Wayne Martin (F)

StFrancisTerriersProjected Starting Lineup:
PG: Brent Jones (6.0 ppg, 2.3 rpg, 4.2 apg, 1.6:1 A/TO)
G: Ben Mockford (11.1 ppg, 40% 3pt%)
G: Kevin Douglas (7.4 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 16 games played due to injury)
F: Jalen Cannon (14.7 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 58% 2pt%)
F: Amdy Fall (So. JUCO transfer)

Key Reserves: Lowell Ulmer (F), Matt Milk (F), Aleksandar Isailovic (G), Anthony White (G), Wayne Martin (F), everyone… (Braica’s rotation is deep)

Major Storylines:

  • More Athleticism – When Kevin Douglas went down with an injured arm midway through the season the Terriers lost more than a player who was coming into his own offensively. They also lost their most athletic on-ball defender. This recruiting class brings in a plethora of athleticism, including sophomore Amdy Fall who should make his presence immediately felt on the defensive end. The lineup is loaded with athletic players that should be able to play the tight man-to-man defense that Braica desires. The lack of athleticism was also apparent on the offensive end last season when the Terriers had the lowest offensive free throw rate in the NEC.
  • Picking Up the Point – Considering that St. Francis Brooklyn’s top two point guards hand a turnover rate greater than 25% last season it’s impressive that the Terriers actually led the NEC in offensive turnover percentage during conference play. The graduation of Dre Calloway means that Brent Jones has the full reigns for the second time in his collegiate career. Jones needs to slow down and provide this team with a steady hand to run the offense.
  • Realigning the Offense – The Terriers need to figure out a way to get the erratic, but effective, Ben Mockford more involved offensively. Mockford is one of the best shooters in the NEC. Last season he shot 40% from three-point range on more than 200 attempts. Of course when he stepped inside the arc he actually shot worse (36%). Braica has shown the willingness to open up a three-point barrage if he has the personnel and the combination of Jalen Cannon and Amdy Fall on the low block surrounded by talented shooters like Mockford is the ideal scenario.

The Skinny:

Things didn’t go quite as planned last season on Remsen Street. After finishing 12-6 in conference in 2012-13 the Terriers brought a ton back, but tumbled to 8-10 in the NEC. Much of the issues had to do with the defensive end. There were times last season where St. Francis just didn’t seem to have the athleticism to hang with some of the run-and-gun styles in the NEC. More than that though they were just inconsistent all around. Still, this team did beat Wagner twice a season ago. Once again the Terriers return a bunch, but now they’ll complement it with some much needed athleticism, which should help the team’s depth.

After splitting point guard duties with Dre Calloway last season Brent Jones is officially being handed the keys to the SFC car. He’ll have to cut down on turnovers though, if he’s going to be an effective point guard. The empty trips are what contributed to Jones finishing with an 84.5 offensive rating last season. That type of performance just isn’t going to cut it if the Terriers want to have any hope of moving into the upper echelon of NEC teams. A couple of youngsters should provide Braica some insurance at the point guard position. Sheldon Hagigal is more of a combo guard, but his body is college ready after a year of prep school and he could help immediately in the backcourt. The two other backcourt positions will be manned by Ben Mockford and Kevin Douglas. Mockford is an excellent, if streaky shooter and Douglas was coming into his own last season before an injury sidelined him for the second half of the season. Most importantly, Douglas is an athletic defender that has a better chance of staying in front of top NEC guards that run the offense at CCSU, Mount St. Mary’s and LIU Brooklyn. There’s a lot of depth on the wing too as Aleksandar Isailovic was forced into starting duties last season and proved a capable defender. He came to Brooklyn Heights with a good reputation as a shooter, but struggled a bit last season from beyond the arc. He could provide a boost during his senior season. P.J. Santavenere and Anthony White along with the newcomers provide plenty of competition for playing time.

It’s up front where the Terriers are going to see a big change. Amdy Fall is only listed at 6’6″, but his athleticism and reach give him a chance to be one of (if not the) the best shot blockers in the NEC. He should also add a physical presence up front that the Terriers have lacked since Braica took over. Both Jalen Cannon and Braica are impressed with Fall’s early work in practice. Cannon, of course, gives the Terriers an all-conference talent in the front court. One of the best rebounders in the nation Cannon knows what to do when he gets the ball in his hands. Wayne Martin and Matt Milk provide depth on the interior as well, while Lowell Ulmer will once again be a spark plug off the bench.

Braica loves to run out a deep rotation. This Terriers roster gives him the ability to mix and match players to fit certain situations and could lead to a very successful season. It’ll come down to how fast the personnel gels and if the changes really help improve SFC’s defense as much as anticipated.

Coach’s Quotes:

“I think even watching the tapes of practice we look much more athletic than we were last year. That’s undeniable I think. But we did lose some good offensive players, so we’re going to have to make up for that. I think the ceiling is higher on this team.” – Glenn Braica on the Terriers’ new athletic look

“We had a lack of focus at the time. We have be a little more disciplined. I think that Canada trip helped a lot of people mature.” – Jalen Cannon on last season’s team

“I think he’s developing a better feel of when to go, when not to go. He’s developing more like a point guard and playing more under control and with more confidence… I’ve liked the way he’s looked in practice.” – Braica on his junior point guard Brent Jones

Predictions:

Ryan – Even though the Terriers have, in my opinion, top four potential, I’m somewhat bearish on their chances to crack into the top half. Jalen Cannon is fantastic and the athleticism of Amdy Fall and Kevin Douglas can’t be ignored, but until Brent Jones learns not to cough it up 25% of the time, I’ll remain skeptical. This is a team poised for a run at the NEC title for ’14-15, but not right now. (13 wins, 7-9 NEC)

John – I’m trying not to get too excited about the Terriers as more meaningful games at the Pope Center certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing. While the gym is tiny, the place absolutely rocks when there’s something to play for whether a city rivalry or the final spot in the NEC tournament. There are a bunch of reasons to like the Terriers this season, but the talented recruiting class will probably take some time to adjust to the Division I game. (13 wins, 7-9 NEC)

Top NEC Impact Transfers of the 2013-14 Season

The 2012-13 season was the year of the transfer in the NEC. Rashad Whack and Sam Prescott were vital in leading Mount St. Mary’s to the NEC title game. Matthew Hunter mastered Howie Dickenman’s up-tempo offensive scheme to garner a deserving all-conference third team selection. JUCO transfer Karvel Anderson, despite suffering from a gimpy wrist, terrorized NEC opponents with his long-range shooting. Continue reading “Top NEC Impact Transfers of the 2013-14 Season” →

St. Francis Brooklyn Brings In Athletic Reinforcements

A few times last season St. Francis Brooklyn did the unthinkable – played zone defense. The Terriers have hung their hat on tough, man-to-man defense during head coach Glenn Braica’s tenure, but due to injuries and personnel SFC was forced to occasionally play zone defenses in hopes of slowing down the NEC’s high-powered offenses. Continue reading “St. Francis Brooklyn Brings In Athletic Reinforcements” →

Mark Cisco and the Australian Football League

Mark Cisco at the Australian League Football tryouts. (Photo courtesy Australian Football League)
Mark Cisco at the Australian League Football tryouts. (Photo courtesy Australian Football League)

In case you missed it, Yahoo!’s Jeff Eisenberg wrote out an outstanding piece today about how Australian Football League teams are looking at American basketball players to fill an important void. Two recent New York City graduates – Mark Cisco of Columbia and Akeem Johnson of St. Francis Brooklyn – are featured in the article. Check it out! Also, here are galleries for Cisco and Johnson’s time at the combine.