Once winless, Monmouth has chance to cash in ultimate payoff with MAAC title

King Rice and Monmouth play for MAAC championship Monday night two months removed from 0-12 start to season, in position to complete improbable turnaround. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)

ALBANY, NY -- Can you believe it?

From 0-12 in December to a date with Iona for the MAAC title Monday night?

With his final call on the radio broadcast of Monmouth's Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference semifinal win over Canisius Sunday night, play-by-play announcer Eddy Occhipinti encapsulated perfectly the dream that, to nearly everyone in college basketball, seemed impossible on New Year's Eve.

It was then that Monmouth -- winless in twelve games to begin the season before finally breaking through against Penn at The Palestra -- was essentially left for dead, the nadir in a decline that accelerated rapidly when first team all-conference talent Micah Seaborn left the program in June, turning to a professional career after his junior season. Not long before that, the Hawks were the darlings of the college basketball landscape, racking up 55 wins over two seasons and multiple upsets of high-major programs behind two-time MAAC Player of the Year Justin Robinson and a gregarious group of reserves whose celebrations on the bench commanded nationwide attention. Monmouth's coach, one who always wears his heart on his sleeve -- good, bad, or indifferent -- heard the chatter, and offered an introspective and human take on how the losing affected his program.

"This job is a stressful job for everybody," King Rice said after Monmouth opened its MAAC tournament journey by defeating Niagara in Thursday's opening round. "We didn't start well for whatever reason -- maybe I scheduled too hard, maybe Micah wasn't on the team, maybe we weren't together enough, maybe I was just doing a poor job as a coach -- but we were 0-12 and everybody on social media was saying I should get fired, and athletes from our school were saying stuff about how I'm the worst coach and I should get fired, and all this stuff."

"Dr. (Marilyn) McNeil (Monmouth's athletic director) must have seen it and must have heard it, and people were probably saying it to her. So she called me in the office, and she said, 'King, you have nothing to worry about. You are our coach, and you're doing an incredible job. I just want you to know you are the coach at Monmouth.' And when she said that, I could relax. It made me just take a deep breath and coach my team."

Since McNeil gave Rice her vote of confidence, Monmouth has been a completely different team. Now 14-8 since the winless start to the season, Rice has coached with greater purpose and greater joy. Ray Salnave has taken the next step toward becoming the point guard Monmouth missed in the wake of Robinson's graduation, Deion Hammond has fulfilled expectations as a knock-down shooter and lethal scorer, and Diago Quinn has put together an impressive string of big games as he closes his collegiate career as the Hawks' all-time leader in games played. On top of that, the supporting cast -- which includes senior Louie Pillari, a member of the former bench mob that has now stepped up to be an X-factor this weekend on more than one occasion -- has raised its own collective game, making sixth-seeded Monmouth deceptively strong.

"We knew coming in that the team that's together will get it done," Hammond said Sunday. "Every time we hit a hardship, we just stayed with it and got it done together."

Monmouth's shared goal -- one that was almost expected three years ago when it remained on the NCAA Tournament bubble after a narrow MAAC championship loss to Iona -- takes on a new life Monday night. And while the irony of it all may be that the Hawks are the underdog chasing a destiny many felt awaited them in a prior life, the satisfaction and desire is just as prevalent, and regardless of the result Monday night, this team has already won in a sense.

"A lot of people didn't expect to see us here," Rice admitted. "I kept saying all along that we had a better basketball team than 0-12. Our team just kept coming every day trying to get  better. I told them we've had harder things in our life than this, I kept telling them that if we keep our heads in the right place, we'll have a chance against anybody. They kept believing, and now they're believing in each other more than ever."