At 10-2, Marist is enjoying best start in decades, but focused on gradual progress

Josh Pascarelli (5) has helped shoot Marist to best start in over a quarter-century. Red Foxes are 10-2 heading into Sunday’s game against Quinnipiac. (Photo by Jaylen Rizzo/Marist Athletics)

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — As the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference becomes more unpredictable year in and year out, the success John Dunne has had this year at Marist—to—this point may be incredibly fitting.

Dunne, the longest-tenured coach in the MAAC between 12 seasons at Saint Peter’s and six-plus at his current employer, has guided the Red Foxes to a 10-2 start, the program’s best since the 1998-99 season, the school’s second in the MAAC after leaving the Northeast Conference. Marist’s 3-0 beginning to conference play is also its first since 2001-02, a stretch that looks to be furthered Sunday when Quinnipiac comes to McCann Arena.

With a veteran core headlined by sophomore guards Josh Pascarelli and Jadin Collins-Roberts, Dunne has added supporting pieces and developed most of his role players from a season ago. In addition, Marist has improved enough offensively to where its efficiency on that side of the basketball would be the third-highest of any Dunne team in Poughkeepsie or at Saint Peter’s. And according to Collins-Roberts, the culture of consistency is the reservoir from which players and coaches have tapped into on an everyday basis.

“Honestly, one of the biggest things, I think, is the confidence that comes from each teammate,” he said. The returning guys like Jackson (Price), (Jaden Daughtry), Trace (Salton), people like that, give Josh confidence. If he misses the first 10 shots, whatever it is, we’re gonna tell him to shoot the 11th. We don’t really care. That’s a big part of it.”

“These two guys right here, they’ve been extremely mature from day one,” Dunne said of Collins-Roberts and Pascarelli. “The first day of summer school, they showed their maturity, and not only are they good players, they’re both winners on and off the court. They’ve got high character. I can coach them extremely hard and they respond positively every time. Most guys nowadays, when you coach them hard or you tell them something, you have to convince them why you’re saying what you’re saying. With these two, it’s like, ‘yes, Coach’ and ‘I’m gonna get better next play and move on.’ And they’ve done that from day one into where they are right now.”

Long reputed for playing one of the slower paces in the country year in and year out, Marist is still only averaging around 65 possessions per game, but the transition game has been more prevalent for the Red Foxes this season. The uptick in getting out in the open floor has been partially by design with the personnel improvements made in the offseason, but also a byproduct of the versatility of the roster and its adaptability to win games in various styles.

“We’d like to get shooters shots in transition, get Josh shots in transition,” Dunne admitted. “We’d like to get Elijah (Lewis) open in space, and then when (Collins-Roberts) gets out in transition in the open court, playing with a high level of confidence, he’s finishing and making great decisions. I think transition suits us well, but we’re okay either way. If we don’t have looks in transition, we’ve got some shorter sets, we’ve got some longer sets, whatever the game calls for. I think we’ve got a little more ball handling, a little more playmaking this year, so it’s easier to get out in transition when you’ve got more playmaking as well.”

“Listen, we’ve won different games different ways this year. We’ve won some slugfests defensively, we’ve won some games in the open court. We’re just trying to get better every day and hopefully play our best basketball in March.”

Dunne has seen more than his share of teams who have peaked too soon, and refuses to get too caught up in his team’s record at the moment. The coach admitted he had not developed a keen enough sense of the conference at large yet, simply going one game at a time with his own unit.

“Kill ’em by one, man, that’s all,” Dunne said. “We just want to win the game any way possible. We’ve just gotta bring a confidence level on offense, keep working on the stuff we need to keep working on, and a defense that makes multiple efforts. The one thing about these guys, regardless of how I’m coaching them, they never feel like they’re out of a game. They never panic. It starts with (Pascarelli and Collins-Roberts) right here, and Daughtry’s really grown up as a player. Jackson Price is extremely mature, you add Elijah Lewis, who’s coachable and is extremely mature, and the bench that’s accepting their roles right now, so we just gotta stay the course, man.”

“We’re not gonna get caught up in the record, but they deserve to be 10-2. We’ve got a long way to go, but it starts with these two guys. We’ve got a high-character group. I would say this, I’ve been saying it the last week or so: When you have a team that buys into coaching, constructive criticism, that has a growth mindset, that does well academically, that cares about one another and plays selfless basketball, from a coach’s standpoint, you don’t take that for granted. I’m blessed to be coaching, and I’m enjoying this group immensely, regardless of the record. It’s been a pleasure to coach these guys up to this point, and the journey is far from over.”