FAIRFIELD, Conn. – As LIU Brooklyn eviscerated Sacred Heart in the first half Wednesday night, a natural question to ask was where the heck this team had been all season.
The simple answer is they were there the whole way. Sometimes.
Continue reading “Enigmatic LIU Brooklyn Eliminates Broome, Sacred Heart”
It’s tournament time! Continue reading “The 2016 NEC Tournament Preview”
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – We’ve reached the portion of the season where everything comes down to how you perform in conference tournaments, but before we get too crazy, it’s a good time to recognize those teams who had great regular seasons that may sadly get soon forgotten, no?
Sacred Heart came into the 2015-16 with high hopes, largely because Cane Broome was now a sophomore and, well, Cane Broome was on the team. But one player, even a Cane Broome does not make a team, a lesson the Pioneers should have learned in the non-conference season when they finished with 10 straight losses after a season-opening win.
Continue reading “Sacred Heart 88, St. Francis U. 78: Pioneers Have Come A Long Way”
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – In the sometimes alternate universe that is the NEC, a 10-game losing streak like Sacred Heart endured in November and December is not all that concerning. There were a couple of bad losses in there and the defense was porous at times, but Tevin Falzon was just getting back into form, and, well, it’s not like anyone in the NEC is getting an automatic bid or anything.
But after a decent split of the annual western Pennsylvania trip to open conference play, Sacred Heart was run off its own court by Fairleigh Dickinson and blown out by Wagner. Looking for a response the next week, the Pioneers were extremely fortunate to survive Central Connecticut and then were blown out again at St. Francis Brooklyn.
Continue reading “Sacred Heart 74, St. Francis Brooklyn 70: Gutty, Gritty Pioneers”
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – If Sacred Heart comes back to make a run at the NEC title, you can probably pinpoint the moment where things started to come together.
Thursday night in front of a packed Pitt Center with 3:30 left and the Pioneers trailing league-leading Mount St. Mary’s by two, a double-teamed Cane Broome found senior Tevin Falzon wide open at the top of the key.
Continue reading “Sacred Heart 76, The Mount 71: Pioneers Finally Break Out Of Slump”
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – Greg Herenda swears the only numbers he notices on the scoreboard is the time. But even he had to be amazed to look up and see his Fairleigh Dickinson team – picked ninth by the coaches in the preseason NEC poll – leading 47-19 with two minutes left in the first half Thursday night at the Pitt Center.
“I don’t really look at the scoreboard, I look at the clock and the clock never ticks quick enough, even when you have a big lead,” Herenda said. “We have in on the board, ‘Every second of every possession for 40 minutes if not more’. We practice hard every day. Most programs keep score of everything and do competitive drills with scores in practice, but we don’t. We just play hard, and if we play hard and well, we’ll do well.”
Continue reading “FDU 80, Sacred Heart 68: Break Up The Streaking Knights”
WORCESTER, Mass. – The past, of course, is an extremely poor place to live, but if you’re a mid-major fan, particularly the Ivy League, you couldn’t help but root for Bill Carmody at Northwestern. For 12 seasons, he tried mixtures of magic potions and illusions that seemed to rival the Copperfields and Blaines of the world, trying to get the Wildcats to their first ever NCAA Tournament (one of five with St. Francis Brooklyn, Army, The Citadel, and William & Mary who have been a Division I institution since the beginning in 1939 and never gone to the NCAAs).
While it was tough sledding, Carmody always had an upset or three in him, and from 2010-2012, looked to have gotten over the hump. In each of those three seasons, Northwestern ranked in the top 30 nationally in offensive efficiency, with a deliberate style that almost never turned the ball over, and seemed to miss shots even less (as he did at Princeton while going 92-25 in Ivy games from 1996-2000). He won 20 games in 2009-10 and 2010-11, but just fell short of the NCAA bubble. The Wildcats started 10-1 in 2011-12, but finished 8-10 in the Big Ten, the last two losses coming in overtime to ranked Michigan and by a pair to Ohio State, who eventually ended up in the Final Four. The verdict, once again, was NIT.
Soon after that (two seasons later), Carmody’s sleeves were out of tricks and he was fired.
Continue reading “Holy Cross 69, Sacred Heart 60 : Welcome Back, Bill Carmody”
As the NEC writer for the upcoming Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, I’ve started my deep analysis for each individual program. I still have several coaches to speak with throughout the summer, but I wanted to convey my current thoughts on the conference’s returning individual talent. Because 10 of 15 players have graduated or transferred from last year’s Big Apple Buckets all-NEC teams, this Way Too Early exercise would surely garner a ton of differing opinions. Continue reading “Way Too Early NEC All-Conference Teams”
“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection.”
– Thomas Paine
When I last saw Greg Herenda, he was basking in the glow in yet another improbable NEC victory, this one at LIU Brooklyn. No one was quite calling Herenda’s Fairleigh Dickinson squad a contender, but the word sleeper was bandied about quite a bit. Herenda had a young, energetic team, it was now his second time around the league, and the Knights also had non-conference wins over St. Joseph’s, Princeton, and Towson on the resume. They were 7-6 overall and 2-0 in league play with both wins coming on the road.
It was Jan. 5.
Fairleigh Dickinson hasn’t won since.
Continue reading “Herenda And FDU Humbled This Season; But Future Still Bright”
We all want to think our hard work will pay off in whatever we do, maybe it’s a promotion, maybe it’s just benching more or running a faster 5K. The zero-sum game of team athletics doesn’t always lend itself to linear growth, however. To climb the ladder, you must push someone else down a rung.
Coming off a dreadful 5-26 (2-14 NEC) campaign last season, Sacred Heart said and seemed to do all the right things in the offseason, then finished 6-7 in non-conference play, with most of those seven being extremely competitive. But then the Pioneers started NEC play 1-5 and needed overtime to beat Fairleigh Dickinson at home.
Continue reading “Three Thoughts: Sacred Heart 80, Robert Morris 76”
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