Paulus takes flight in fourth year at Niagara, with new roster and same goal of developing and contending

Greg Paulus brings new core together going into fourth year at Niagara, with deceptively strong track record that will help Purple Eagles develop ahead of curve. (Photo by Niagara University Athletics)

Recent storylines around the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, be it Saint Peter’s historic run to the doorstep of the Final Four, or Rick Pitino’s renaissance at Iona, have made it easy to forget some of the other success stories that have quietly fermented within the league over the past several seasons. Take Niagara as a primary example.

The Purple Eagles, an outlier within the MAAC footprint just from a geographic standpoint, usually operate in the shadows, but more attention should be focused on the recent efforts on Monteagle Ridge, where head coach Greg Paulus enters his fourth season at the helm with a track record that is silently among the better ones in his conference. Paulus has taken Niagara to a finish in the top half of the MAAC in each of his three prior campaigns, including first-round byes in each of the last two years, and has continued to adapt and evolve as a coach, coming a long way from when he was thrown into the fire two weeks before the start of the 2019-20 season and promoted to the head chair following the abrupt resignation of Patrick Beilein.

“I think each situation’s been a little bit different,” Paulus recollected. “The first season, you’re learning your group and you’re working to put your fingerprints into the program and the different facets. Year two with the COVID year, not having a summer, barely having a preseason and you’re going in and out of pauses, and this past year, we just continued to work and stay true to the process. To be able to earn byes the last two years, that shows a credit to the guys’ trust and development to that process.”

“We want to be better tomorrow than we were today, and just kind of take those steps and trust the process. For us, hopefully we can do that with this group. We have ten new guys and we’re trying to learn them, learn their strengths, they’re trying to learn what it’s like to play Division I, to be here at Niagara, how our style is and what our system is. Certainly, we want to be able to play our best basketball at the end of the season.”

Perhaps the biggest benefit for such a new — at least at the Division I level, as Niagara has a bevy of players who plied their wares in the junior college and Division II ranks, such as Braxton Bayless and Aaron Gray — contingent of players is the ability to go through an uninterrupted summer and offseason, a luxury not afforded to the team in either of the last two seasons as the country recovered from the pandemic.

“This has really been the first time that’s happened, and it’s been really good for this team,” Paulus said of the normal offseason procedures fostering player development. “We certainly were able to learn a little bit more. Every time we go through something, it’s going to be the first…first time for a road game, first home game. There’s going to be a lot of firsts, so it’s going to be our ability to respond and learn those lessons as quickly as we can.”

“I see a lot of room to grow because we’re still in the infant stages of us learning and implementing how we’re going to play. I really like how this group works. There’s a lot of experiences this group has. We’ve had guys at the junior college level who have gone to Final Fours, had success at different places. I think it’s a group that the time over the summer and this period of the preseason has been better for us. We’re learning something about individuals and our group each day.”

One of the bigger question marks surrounding Niagara will be what the Purple Eagles do in the backcourt following the departure of Marcus Hammond, who transferred to Notre Dame for his graduate season. But with Bayless, Noah Thomasson, and Joe Kasperzyk; who comes to western New York by way of Bryant and Southeastern Louisiana, Paulus has a trio of steady and proven hands to fill the void. Up front, with Sam Iorio and Touba Traore returning to mentor a group of newcomers that includes redshirt freshman and seven-footer Harlan Obioha; as well as Donovan Hill, Keith Kiner and graduate transfer David Mitchell, the versatility that is present in the backcourt manifests itself even greater up front, especially with the addition of Gray — who played for a former Division I coach in Jack Perri while at Southern New Hampshire — as well.

“Marcus, with what he’s done over here, impacted us a great deal with what he was able to do, but we need to have more balance,” Paulus admitted with regard to his stable of guards. “That’s something we’re trying to develop and create those habits where we could have more consistency. I think it also gives us some flexibility. Being able to have some of that is something that gives us a chance to play one way or the other.”

“I think Aaron is a guy that has versatility, whether you want to play him on the wing or play him as a forward. He’s a guy that had a lot of success scoring the basketball at the Division II level, he really shot the ball well from three, but he’s got great size and great strength and he’s somebody that has done it before. Hopefully some of that experience will be able to help him as we move forward with him.”

On a roster loaded with intriguing pieces, none may be more exciting than the potential growth of Thomasson as a scoring guard. The Houston native’s playmaking ability and natural skill set as a facilitator allowed Hammond to play off the ball and reprise his status as one of the MAAC’s leading scorers, but also placed the now-senior among the league leaders in assists, cultivating another facet to his game that his coach hopes to see on a more consistent basis this season.

“I thought he got better throughout the season,” Paulus said. “He was a guy that, early on, had some ups and some downs, and I thought as he got into conference play, was able to develop some more consistency. He can create for himself, he can create opportunities for other people, and that’s the type of consistency we’d like to see throughout the whole season.”

Niagara has a challenging non-conference schedule yet again, with trips to Maryland and St. John’s headlining a slate that also includes an excursion overseas to Dublin as part of the MAAC-Atlantic Sun Challenge. Regardless, Paulus is steadfast in his end objective, to simply improve his team with each passing day and shepherd a unit in whom its fans can be proud no matter the result.

“We want to continue to grow the program and develop,” he said. We’ve seen the improvement, whether it’s analytically speaking, in individuals, and that’s what we want to continue to do. When you watch Niagara basketball, you want to watch a hard-playing team that’s connected, that’s unselfish, and we want to make sure there’s such great pride in the program so that when you watch Niagara basketball, those are the things you’re seeing.”