Upward mobility continues on for Quinnipiac in year three under Dunleavy

Now entering his third year at Quinnipiac, Baker Dunleavy has evolved in lockstep with his program, which looks to be among MAAC’s upper echelon again this season. (Photo by Morgan Tencza/Quinnipiac Chronicle)

With a pair of successful seasons in each of Baker Dunleavy’s first two campaigns at the helm, Quinnipiac got exactly what it wanted when it tabbed the then-34-year-old to lead its men’s basketball program in 2017. But for all the progress made in returning the Bobcats into a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference competitor, there remains a sense of not only unfinished business, but also a firm belief that the best truly is yet to come in Hamden for a rising star who continues to evolve in his own role as the developer of an up-and-coming unit.

“You learn a lot about yourself and a lot about your players, how you respond to situations as the games progress,” Dunleavy said as Quinnipiac prepares for a season in which it will be expected to be forwardly placed within the MAAC by taking a three-game trip to Canada that begins Thursday evening. “I felt like in year two, we handled a lot of situations better than we did in year one, and that’s a good sign. We’re certainly not where we want to be, but we feel like if we can continue to maintain this growth, we’re going to do some good things.”

“I think I’ve learned the things that I thought as an assistant at Villanova translated into being a head coach at a different level, and you learn some of the things that you’ve got to tweak and adjust based on some of the factors that are different. A little bit of it is trial and error, a little bit of it is having a good staff that can help you through certain situations and choices, and I certainly have that.”

An integral part of the Bobcats’ leap last year — one that saw Quinnipiac finish tied for second place in the regular season MAAC standings — was the emergence and evolution of Cameron Young into the conference’s leading scorer and player of the year, coupled with the development of Rich Kelly and Jacob Rigoni into legitimate team leaders as opposed to ancillary options. Young has since moved into the professional ranks, but his ascent into the standard-bearer for Dunleavy’s system and its potential has left an indelible mark on Quinnipiac’s identity as life after its offensive rock begins.

“Cam is obviously a very unique story, and at the core of it is just how good of a player he is,” Dunleavy reiterated. “That’s the main thing. There is a void in terms of the numbers, but that’s not all the game is. The roles will shift across the board, so we’ll lean more on the experience of Rich Kelly and Jake Rigoni. Tyrese Williams started 30 games as a freshman, we’re bringing Aaron Falzon in as a fifth-year transfer, Kevin Marfo’s been in college for three years now, so it’s across the board. We feel good about it, especially the fact that we know what we have.”

Falzon, a New England native who returns home by way of Northwestern, and Marfo — the George Washington transfer who was the MAAC’s leading rebounder at one point last season before being derailed by a knee injury — will take on the joint task of replacing Abdulai Bundu in the Bobcats’ four-out, one-in attack, and Dunleavy seems satisfied with the early returns of having experience on the front line in a conference that has gotten progressively younger over the past two seasons.

“Kevin can be a special player,” he said with regard to Marfo, who is now operating at 100 percent. “I think he can be one of the best rebounders in the country, and his game offensively is developing. But replacing Abdulai is like replacing Cam, just in a different way. To replace that edge that he brought every day in practice is going to be hard. I think at this level, you value continuity and experience.”

“Aaron hasn’t been on our roster before, but he’s got great experience and he’s got great intelligence. He’s a team player and he’ll want to fit into what we do, he’ll want to get into our mold, and that’s important when you bring somebody in for one year. The fit’s gotta be there, the mentality’s gotta be right, or it could definitely blow up on you. We trust that a guy like Aaron is in it for the right reasons. He believes in what we’re doing and he’s a pure team guy, and we’re lucky to have him.”

Experience comes in all shapes and sizes on this year’s Bobcat squad, even in the form of Williams, a sophomore who was a MAAC All-Rookie selection last year that gave Dunleavy the option of shifting Kelly off the ball or playing him at the point while Williams got his repetitions in offensively. With one year under his belt, the combination facet of Williams and Kelly has given Quinnipiac a two-dimensional backcourt that promises to win more games than it may have lost in months and years past, as well as the long-awaited arrival of Matt Balanc and Savion Lewis to the plethora of guards after both redshirted last year.

“Both of those guys, very similarly as freshmen, we kind of threw them to the fire,” said Dunleavy of Williams and Kelly. “We started them, were dedicated to them and played them through mistakes, and because of that, they’re more equipped to go into the battles as sophomores and juniors. We think they could be a good backcourt for us in our league, and they’re guys that’ll stick together for the next couple of years.”

“I’m really excited about what both those guys can bring, especially because they’ve both been in our program,” he added when highlighting the potential impact of Balanc and Lewis. “They see what’s expected in practice, and even on the bench in games, and now they’ll get a taste of it themselves. I think Matt and Savion both bring incredible energy and athleticism to the game, the ability to really break down a defense off the dribble and defensively pressure people — something we haven’t really had — and I think that’s exciting.”

In addition to Balanc and Lewis, Quinnipiac’s rookie class includes a trio of true freshmen highlighted by seven-foot center Seth Pinkney of Philadelphia — whom Dunleavy praised as a rare commodity in the MAAC given his size and length — as well as 6-foot-7 forward Brendan McGuire of Long Island and a second Philadelphian in Jamil Riggins, a 6-foot-6 wing who can play three positions on the floor at any given time. All in all, the influx of talent blended with the established incumbent pieces has shown — if nothing else — that the Bobcats may not miss a beat no matter how irreplaceable Young may be to this roster.

“We’ve got a lot of competition within the roster,” Dunleavy observed. “We’ve got an energetic group that’s gonna play hard, play fast, shoot a lot of threes and spread it out. If we can combine all those things, I think we can have a really great year. We’ve got great chemistry, the guys like each other, but there’s competition for spots, which I think makes everybody better.”