Monmouth soldiers on in first taste of CAA life, improving despite lack of results

King Rice has been deliberate in developing this year’s Monmouth team, which has struggled to adapt to CAA in first year removed from MAAC but continues to improve. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — King Rice has always been one to wear his emotions on his sleeve through his dozen years in charge of the men’s basketball program at Monmouth University.

Win or lose, be it a season opener or conference championship game, Rice always tells it like it is and is refreshingly candid and bold in a world of coachspeak and canned platitudes. Sometimes, the words and tone of the former North Carolina point guard get taken out of context and are magnified larger than necessary, but hidden in the midst of the bluster is always a kernel of truth.

No further was that evident than Wednesday, when Monmouth — in its fourth Colonial Athletic Association contest since joining the league in July — battled Hofstra and ultimately took a 20-point loss. For the Hawks, life in their new home has been equal parts humbling and unkind since departing the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, where Monmouth spent the last nine years, reaching three MAAC championship games and becoming the program many know it to be today. But the aforementioned bumps on the new road in West Long Branch have not been as smooth to navigate, as evidenced by the Hawks’ 1-16 start to the season.

Rice has been through this journey before, guiding Monmouth into the MAAC from the Northeast Conference in the early stages of his tenure, so the adversity his program currently faces has given him a different perspective, having traversed this path before. Such experience has contributed to a different side of Rice in most games this season, where the exuberance has often been mixed with a soft-spoken, introspective look at just why the adjustment process has gone the way it has on the Jersey Shore.

“The big deal is these guys are bigger and stronger bodies,” Rice remarked of the physicality differences between the CAA and MAAC. “We’ve got 6’9 guys, and Warren (Williams, a Hofstra forward Rice had coached against for four years when he was at MAAC rival Manhattan) just looked bigger than our guys, and (Aaron) Estrada is just so good. I thought our kids tried hard. Hofstra’s one of the better teams, I thought we did a few things to mess with them here and there, but they were too much for us.”

“We’re just trying to get better. When you’re losing like we’ve been losing, it’s hard on everybody. But we’re big boys, and if this is the hardest thing that happens in their lives, then they’re very fortunate people.”

In two months, Monmouth has grown tremendously even if the results are not present to accompany the maturation of the Hawk roster. In its first game since mustering just 35 points in a 32-point loss to Drexel last Saturday, Monmouth got the early jump on Hofstra, opening the game on a 10-4 run and remaining competitive for most of the first half before giving way to a more experienced, veteran Pride unit that asserted itself against the younger Hawk side.

“These are basketball games, alright? We’re all supposed to have perspective,” Rice reassured those who may have lost faith in his and his players’ abilities amid the slow and steep learning curve. “This is a basketball game and nobody cares more than me, but it’s a basketball game. And at this point, our team is struggling to get wins. It doesn’t mean we’re bad guys, it doesn’t mean we’re not working hard. It’s just that at this moment, our team is struggling.”

Monmouth has also been beset by injuries, particularly the latest health blow to senior forward Jarvis Vaughan, who was projected to have a major role on this year’s team but instead, has yet to even practice this season. Fellow forward Tadhg Crowley has dealt with concussions and their lingering symptoms, keeping him off the court as well, and guard Sam Fagan has also missed the bulk of the season. In their place, Rice has relied on sophomores Tahron Allen and Jayden Doyle, while also shepherding role players the likes of Jack Holmstrom and Jakari Spence into larger roles as freshmen Andrew Ball, Jack Collins and Amaan Sandhu learn their way (a fourth freshman, Jaret Valencia, was highly touted upon his arrival, but had preferred to redshirt this season and is doing so). Myles Foster, Myles Ruth and Klemen Vuga, all of whom made the most out of the minutes they saw behind a senior-laden team last season, have become the team leaders by necessity and are slowly bringing the Hawks out of the darkness, one game at a time.

Rice actively recruited the transfer portal prior to last season to bolster a roster that was already a MAAC contender, and secured a pair of all-conference talents in Walker Miller and Shavar Reynolds. He and his staff elected to bypass the quick fix, instead wanting to develop the incumbent pieces to acclimate them to the CAA style and gameplay sooner with a long-term payoff squarely on the horizon.

“Last year, they played a little bit of minutes,” he said of his returning players.” Now they’re the main guys. Myles Foster is a main guy. When you look at what we lost and then you take Jarvis out of the mix, every kid is in a new role, stepping up to a new league, and it’s just hard to be in new roles when everybody’s in that role. A lot of guys go through the portal, we did that last year and we hit grand slams. This year, I chose not to do it, and you give kids a chance to get better. Right now, we’re getting lumped up, but when you get lumped up, there’s brighter days in front.”