Category: Wagner

Wagner loses coin flip in OT

It’s not time to freak out. Yes, Wagner is 0-1 a season after winning 25 games, but it’s nothing to be too concerned about. Coming into this game Ken Pomeroy gave Wagner a 57% shot of winning with a predicted final score of 66-64. The score going into overtime? 66-66. Wagner allowed two more points that expected. Yes, the jerseys said Delaware State, but there was really nothing to be concerned about.

Continue reading “Wagner loses coin flip in OT” →

NEC Team Capsules: Wagner

Head Coach: Bashir Mason, 1st year
Last season: 25-6, 15-3 (NEC), lost in the semifinals of the NEC tournament to Robert Morris, 71-64
NEC Preseason Coach’s Poll: 3rd out of 12 teams
State of Program: Continue rising
Key Player Lost: Tyler Murray (12.0 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 2.1 APG, 1.2 SPG, 49.0% 3PT%), Chris Martin (7.1 PPG, 1.9 RPG, 1.0 APG, 1.1 SPG, 82.3% FT%)
Incoming Players: Jay Harris (G), Eric Fanning (G), Dwaun Anderson (G), Langston Burnett (G)
Previous Articles: NEC Welcomes Four New Head Coaches, Wagner Reloads with Three Talented Newcomers, Jay Harris a Great Fit for Wagner

Projected Starting Lineup:
PG: Kenneth Ortiz (8.1 PPG, 4.5 RPG, 4.3 APG, 1.8 SPG)
G: Latif Rivers (14.6 PPG, 2.6 RPG, 2.2 APG, 88.4% FT%)
G: Dwaun Anderson (rookie season)
F: Jonathan Williams (14.0 PPG, 5.0 RPG, 53.4% FG%)
F: Naofall Folahan (4.3 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 1.7 BPG)

Key Reserves: Mario Moody (F), Marcus Burton (G), Orlando Parker (F), Josh Thompson (G/F), Eric Fanning (G), Hugo Naurais (F)

Major Storylines:

  1. The Best Player Might Be On The Bench – Considering how much talent is on the Wagner roster, this might be a silly thing to suggest, but Valparaiso transfer Jay Harris might be the best player on the Seahawks. He’s reportedly been killing it in practice. The thing is, he can’t play this season. Just remember, Wagner will have a bunch of good players for a while.
  2. De-FENSE, De-FENSE – The Seahawks had the best defense in the NEC last season at 0.908 points per possession during conference play. That’s absolutely stifling. It starts with Kenneth Ortiz, who was named one of the nation’s 50 best defenders by CBS, but continues throughout the lineup. If you didn’t play defense for Dan Hurley you didn’t play. Considering Bashir Mason’s background that figures to continue to be the case. Expect the Seahawks to consistently pickup in full-court press, because they certainly have the athletes to keep running at you. Their weakness? Foul trouble. If you can get to the line, you can mess things up.
  3. Postseason Or Bust – 25 wins, including a win over then No. 15 Pittsburgh, didn’t mean much by the time March came around. A disappointing home loss to Robert Morris in the semifinals of the NEC tournament left Wagner hoping for an NIT bid. When that didn’t come and the CBI and CIT were filled up, Wagner sat at home as knockout play continued. The objective this season is to be playing in one of those tournaments – especially one that starts with the letter N.

Lineup Analysis: This lineup is deep and talented. All 10 guys expected to be in the rotation regularly would compete for playing time on any other NEC roster. Mason has the ability to go big with Folahan (6’11”), Moody (6’7″), Williams (6’6″) and Anderson/Fanning (6’4″) on the court at the same time with a point guard. Or he can go small with Ortiz (6’0″), Burton (6’0″), Rivers (6’1″), Anderson (6’4″) and Williams (6’6″). Those are two completely different looks and both have the potential to be devastating. It gives you a sense of how versatile the pieces were that Dan Hurley assembled before heading off to Rhode Island. Also, NEC teams know about Williams, Rivers and Ortiz. Williams though is probably the most underrated of the bunch. He was Wagner’s most consistent offensive threat last season and did it by shooting 61/30/75 2PT/3PT/FT from the field. Some computer models like Parker to break out. Most humans think Burton is in for a big season. Anderson is expected to make a huge impact during his freshman season. Can it all happen at once? If it does, it’d make Wagner the most talented team in the NEC and give them hopes of knocking off Robert Morris and LIU on the way to the title.

Coach’s Quotes:

“He got a semester under his belt in terms of practicing, but he’s still a freshman, but he doesn’t look like it. I’m certainly surprised by that. He looks a lot different than the other two freshmen. For a kid who hasn’t played a game of college basketball yet.” — Mason on Dwaun Anderson

“We’ll have to do it. We haven’t done it in my two years here at Wagner. We’re 0-4 against LIU. They’re a really solid team. They’re a tough team to beat and you have to beat them. They don’t make many mistake to hurt themselves. That’s a game that I’m looking forward to. I know our players are.” — Mason on playing LIU

Final Prediction:

Ryan – It’s hard to believe that Wagner is overlooked with most of the attention going to LIU and Robert Morris. One of biggest keys – beside the rookie head coach – is replacing Tyler Murray, who was so underrated and could hurt you without the ball. If Anderson can seamlessly step in for Murray during the conference tilt, then the sky (aka an NCAA berth) is the limit for Wagner.

John – This might be the best team in the NEC. So why were they picked third? Because of a new coach and a frustrating inability to beat LIU. One or the other of those two things is going to come back and bite Wagner this season. Maybe they’ll take the postseason bid this time?

Previous NEC Team Capsules:
October 24: St. Francis (PA) Red Flash
October 25: Fairleigh Dickinson Knights
October 26: Bryant Bulldogs
October 29: Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers
October 30: Central Connecticut Blue Devils
October 31: Monmouth Hawks
November 1: Sacred Heart Pioneers
November 2: St. Francis (NY) Terriers
November 3: Quinnipiac Bobcats

NEC Welcomes Four New Head Coaches

Four new head coaches were introduced to the conference during NEC “Social” Media Day at the Barclays Center on Tuesday. Jack Perri, Bashir Mason, Jamion Christian and Rob Krimmel all got to speak with their peers and the media. All four will have their own challenges to deal with in the season ahead.

Continue reading “NEC Welcomes Four New Head Coaches” →

NEC Breakout Candidates – Part 2

For the second part of my NEC breakouts segment, I’m introducing the lesser known players to you. These players needed a season or two to fully accommodate themselves to the rigors of Division I basketball. Now seasoned, I’m expecting these young men to emerge into reliable, and at times very good contributors to their respective teams. Given the talent here, it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see any of these players land on an All-NEC team before their careers are over.

Continue reading “NEC Breakout Candidates – Part 2” →

Ranking the 2012-13 NEC recruiting classes

We released our Top 10 NEC Recruits for the 2012-13 season on Tuesday.  It was a challenging list to say the least, and rating how each NEC team stacked up against each other proved to be equally as difficult.  We wanted to summarize our extensive recruiting research, and link all of the previous posts in case you missed them along the way (just click on the team for their detailed recruiting profile).

So without further ado, here’s our rankings of the incoming Northeast Conference recruiting classes for 2012-13!

Continue reading “Ranking the 2012-13 NEC recruiting classes” →

Top 10 Recruits of the Northeast Conference – The rich get richer

With many of the top NEC programs returning most of their talent, playing time will be scarce for a majority of the recruits coming in.  Nevertheless, we here at Big Apple Buckets painstakingly created our consensus list of the top 10 NEC recruits.  Ranking them wasn’t easy – information on most newcomers is limited at best and there are easily 20 players that could have an immediate impact on their team.

We apologize in advance if your favorite recruit missed the list.  This is the time of year when every fan-base believes their newcomers will push their team to great heights.  Just remember, all of those Youtube clips of your favorite team’s recruits are highlight videos.  Everyone looks good on those.  They edit out the bad plays for a reason.

(Cut to the confused Monmouth fan asking, “Wait, you mean to tell me Tyrone O’Garro won’t finish every play this year with an alley-oop jam??”)

Later this week, we’ll submit our NEC recruiting class rankings for all 12 teams.  For now though, we give you our 2012-13 Top 10 preseason newcomers of the NEC!

10) Ronnie Drinnon, PF, St. Francis (PA) – With Scott Eatherton heading to Northeastern, Drinnon will see significant minutes in a brutally thin Red Flash frontcourt.  There will be struggles early on, but Drinnon’s high basketball IQ and nose for the basketball should serve him well in his freshman season.  It certainly doesn’t hurt that Drinnon practiced with the team a semester early.

9) James Ford, SG, Quinnipiac – Ford does one thing that none of Quinnipiac’s other newcomers can do as well – shoot lights out from beyond the arc.  With the Bobcats’ need for a shooter to stretch the defense, Ford should occupy a niche role as he improves in other facets during his rookie season.

8) Eric Fanning, SG, Wagner – We have difficulty placing Fanning any higher on this list, due to Bashir Mason’s crowded backcourt.  Nevertheless, Fanning should have the opportunity in limited minutes to display a wide array of scoring abilities, which allowed him to score over 1,000 points at two different stops in high school.  His athleticism and length at 6-foot-4 should also help on the defensive end.

7) Tariq Carey, SG, Quinnipiac – Tom Moore made it a priority in the offseason to bolster his backcourt, and Carey may have been his best acquistion.  The moderately recruited combo guard has a chance to make up part of James Johnson’s production on both ends of the floor, given his ability to attack the basket, get to the charity stripe, and defend with tenacity.

6) Matthew Hunter, F, Central Connecticut – After two very productive seasons at junior college, Hunter persevered to earn a Division I scholarship after a difficult upbringing.  The “stat filler” – as Howie Dickenman likes to call him – should help Kyle Vinales make up 56% of the scoring CCSU lost due to last year’s graduating class.  After all, Hunter was offered by three DI schools for a reason.

5) Shivaughn Wiggins, PG, Mount St. Mary’s – Wiggins is the type of player Jamion Christian covets – a celebral athlete that makes excellent decisions with the basketball in transition and the half-court set.  This season, he’ll most likely share time with Josh Castellanos, but make no mistake, Wiggins is the player with more potential.

4) Vaughn Morgan, PF, Robert Morris – An athletic freak who reeks havoc in the paint, Morgan will contribute to a deep Robert Morris team that returns their top seven players in terms of efficiency.  Morgan should see the majority of Lawrence Bridge’s minutes if he can grasp the mental aspect of the game and let his athleticism shine.

3) D.J. Griggs, SG, LIU-Brooklyn – The Blackbirds lost a potential NEC star in Waller-Prince, but Griggs is certainly a nice consolation prize.  LIU has a thin bench, so the opportunity is there for the Texas native to grab the final spot of LIU’s backcourt rotation with Jason Brickman, C.J. Garner, and Brandon Thompson.  As a high schooler Griggs was a high-scorer, averaging 22.6 points per game and scoring 2,590 points, so he should provide a spark off the bench for the Blackbirds.

2) Karvel Anderson, SG, Robert Morris – A prolific, yet efficient scorer at every level he’s played at, Anderson should serve as a nice offensive weapon off Andy Toole’s bench.  His insertion into the Colonial’s rotation will take pressure off of Coron Williams – who struggles at times creating his own shot – and will give Robert Morris the reliable deep threat they dearly missed last season.

1) Dwaun Anderson, SG, Wagner – This was the easiest pick by far.  It’s not very often when Tom Izzo has recruited and signed a future NEC player.  Anderson’s athleticism will make him an impact player immediately, especially when he’s allowed to create in transition or off the dribble in half-court sets.  We’d be shocked if he wasn’t a finalist for NEC Rookie of the Year at season’s end.

Other newcomers we considered:
E.J. Reed, G, LIU-Brooklyn
De’Aires Tate, PF, Sacred Heart
Jalen Wesson Palm, PG, Monmouth
Aleksandar Isailovic, G, St. Francis (NY)
Sekou Harris, PG, Fairleigh Dickinson