A Q&A with Kyle Neptune

Kyle Neptune ascends steps to Rose Hill Gymnasium, and up the ladder to his first head coaching job after Fordham made his hire official Tuesday. (Photo by Fordham University Athletics)

Fordham greeted its future Tuesday, unveiling Kyle Neptune as the new head coach of the Rams to complete a two-month search process initiated by athletic director Ed Kull and university president Rev. Joseph McShane by bringing the 36-year-old Brooklyn native back to his home city after eight years on the staff of Jay Wright at Villanova, under whom he helped develop the Wildcats into two-time national champions in his stint on the Main Line.

Further insights into how Neptune will mold his program will come as the offseason rolls on, but on the day he was introduced, I was able to take a few minutes to get a feel for what lured him to the Bronx, the type of players and coaches he will target to join him on this endeavor, and what he sees Fordham becoming under his watch:

Jaden Daly: If you can, just take me through the whole process of being a candidate, meeting with Ed, meeting with Father McShane, the administration. What attracted you to Fordham, what convinced you that this was the move after spending 13 years as an assistant, the last eight with Jay?

Kyle Neptune: I’m a New York City guy. I’m from Brooklyn, and I’m passionate about New York City basketball. Growing up, I’ve come to Fordham as a player in grassroots as a teenager, and as a coach coming here to recruit for the catholic school playoffs. I’ve always looked at it as a special place, a place I could possibly end up at, and I’ve always been passionate — always kept an eye on this place — and now being here, it’s very apparent, just meeting a lot of the people here, how special a place this is. So being a New York City guy and the great academics here, I look at this place as a place I could have ended up at as a New York City private school kid. This is one of the schools that I looked at — I guess I wasn’t good enough of a player to get here, as Ed told me earlier — but I’m definitely passionate about Fordham University.

JD: How much has changed in terms of New York basketball since you left on your own to start your coaching career, and now that you’re back, how much better has it become and how much more can you add with your experience to an already evolving talent pool and game here?

KN: I think New York has always been known as the Mecca of basketball, and I think that it’ll always be that place because of the amount of people here, and there’s enormous talent to choose from. I’m planning on using my relationships that I’ve gained from growing up here and then coming back to recruit here to Fordham’s advantage, and I’m excited to kind of reaffirm the relationships that I’ve had over time here. Hopefully they’re as passionate about Fordham basketball as I am.

JD: For those who don’t know you, what goes into a Kyle Neptune player, a Kyle Neptune team, your personal brand of basketball? What can we expect?

KN: I’m just looking for special people. I think that we’re trying to find special people who think a little different and want to achieve special things. I really believe that if you’re willing to do things and create very good habits, you can accomplish great things, and that’s what we’ll be looking to do on the recruiting trails and for our staff as well.

JD: I know it’s too early to speculate on who you would hire for a staff, but what are you looking at in prospective assistants? What kind of qualities would endear you to them to jump on board with you?

KN: For me, I’d like every coach to be a great mentor to our guys, to be a good coach, and be a great ambassador for our university. I think everyone will have a different role in terms of assistant coaches, basketball operations, video coordinator, all those things, but I want those three things to be consistent: Being a mentor to our guys, being a great basketball mind and a great coach, and being a great ambassador to Fordham University.

JD: From watching Villanova over the years, the culture has always been the biggest part of that program. How much of that will you bring with you here to Fordham, and what particularly are you looking to instill?

KN: I think it starts with finding special people who want to be special. I think culture’s a big buzzword that people talk about a lot now, especially in college athletics, but I think that really starts in recruiting and finding people who are willing to do things and go through things that most people aren’t, and are willing to commit themselves at a different level. So it starts there for me, finding special people willing to give of themselves and commit at a different level.

JD: You mentioned you’re looking to get challenged as far as the out-of-conference schedule. What kind of profile do you eventually hope to attract with this school and this program to get it back to the level it once was at?

KN: We want to be the type of program where we’re looked at as the best of the best. I want to compete at the highest levels, I want to compete with anyone in the country, so that’s what’s going to be the goal. At the end of each season, we want to be the best we can possibly be, with the ultimate goal being known as one of the best of the best.

JD: Have you met with any of the current players in the program yet, and if so, how much of their skills translate to the type of system you want to run?

KN: We got a chance to meet with our guys earlier today, we’re going to set up some individual meetings to kind of dive in further and start to build some relationships, and then we’ll get on the court in the next week or so here and start building those relationships and start trying to figure out exactly what we’re going to do on the basketball court moving forward.

JD: Is there a particular style that you’re looking to implement? I know Jay ran the four-out offense.

KN: Yeah. For the four-out, you’re going to need great basketball players, guys who can read and react and make plays, and maybe not running as many sets. To do that, you’ve got to recruit really good basketball players who make good decisions, and that’s definitely something I’m going to do.

JD: As far as Fordham overall being one of the better jobs in the New York area and the reach that the A-10 has, what can this program ultimately become in your eyes?

KN: I think we touched on it before: I want to compete with the best of the best. I think the Atlantic 10 is one of the best conferences in the country, I think the league is going to get better, and I want to compete to be one of the best teams in this league. That’s always going to be the goal.

Of all Shaka’s qualities, his ability to connect and inspire are his most admirable for Marquette

Shaka Smart poses with athletic director Bill Scholl after being introduced as Marquette’s new head coach Monday. (Photo by Marquette Athletics)

By Jaden Daly (@DalyDoseOfHoops)

To know Shaka Smart is to love him, to become like him.

Immerse yourself in his contagious and infectious enthusiasm, let it envelope you in its all-encompassing grip and understand that there is more to life than just basketball, but also that the hardwood contains a philosophical and familial aspect to it that renders Marquette’s new head coach similar to the fan base he now inherits:

Hungry. Thirsty. Boundless.

Smart spoke intimately and passionately of the family atmosphere that lured him from the football hotbed of Austin and a lucrative payday at the University of Texas back to his native Wisconsin, and the excitement with which he met it Monday afternoon and pledges to uphold as he connects with the players, the fans, the community.

For that is the true ethos of Shaka, a man who thrives on cultivating and intensifying the relationships he forges with an effervescent smile and unblinking eye contact. There is a reason why Smart remembers someone forever even if he has not spoken to him or her in years, and vice versa. It was that quality that made him so widely revered in his first stop at VCU, and one that made him such an appealing choice to replace the droll and sometimes canned personality of Steve Wojciechowski.

Yet for all of Smart’s gifts and accolades, one stands out in particular, the ability to hype the tenth man in the rotation as much as the leading scorer, the ability to make every young man he is entrusted to lead feel like he matters. When VCU won the Atlantic 10 Conference championship in 2015, Smart made it a point to single out JeQuan Lewis and Doug Brooks — reserve guards who saw minimal minutes in the grand scheme of things, but in the wake of Briante Weber’s torn ACL, crucial cogs in the Ram machine — for their vitality to the program and contributions that belie the final numbers.

So how is it that a coach is able to create such a harmony within the walls of his locker room, where productivity may not matter as much as the positive energy and impact contributed? Smart gave a candid and eye-opening answer.

“That’s a great question, and it has become tougher and tougher,” he said. “I would say 25 years ago, when I was a teenager, it was more, ‘Hey, everybody, do what the coach says,’ and some guys might not like it, but if the coach says it, you went and did it.”

“It’s a different world we live in now. I think social media, the 24-hour news cycle, continuous coverage has changed things, so it’s incredibly important for guys to know and feel like they’re valued members of the team. Now, you only have 200 minutes to dole out in a regulation game.”

And how is it that a man who exudes infinite confidence can do the same with a finite number that shrinks ever so smaller in the heat of battle? Observe this glimpse into the Tao of Shaka:

“One of the exercises I do with my teams is letting the guys go up on the whiteboard and write out how many minutes they would play each guy on the team,” he revealed. “But it can only add up to 200. And it’s interesting, because you talk about games — you mentioned the A-10 championship game — anytime you’re able to do something special, inevitably, there’s a guy that maybe doesn’t have eye-popping numbers, maybe doesn’t start or even play significant minutes most games. But there’s a guy that helps you win, and that’s the unique dynamic we have in basketball.”

That innate eye for the unassuming reserve who affects the game with his intangibles was just as much a characteristic of Smart’s VCU teams as his Havoc defense, which stresses aggressive defense with disruptive pressure and a premium on forcing turnovers to get in transition and fuel the 3-point shot. But it takes a special person to recognize the dichotomy between team success and individual betterment, one Marquette now has well within its grasp, made even sweeter after waiting seven years to turn the words “done deal” from a regional punchline to a promising marriage.

“It is a consummate team game, but in so many ways, it is evaluated and even marketed at times at the highest level by the individual,” Smart cautioned. “And so our job as coaches is to deal with that kind of interplay between team sport and individual evaluation, because let’s face it: Players that are good enough to play at this level, they do have goals — individual goals — even beyond college, and that’s a good thing.”

Fordham turns to Kyle Neptune as next head coach

Shown here cutting net after Villanova won national championship in 2018, Fordham is hopeful that Kyle Neptune can lead Rams to similar fortune after hiring him as head coach. (Photo by VUHoops.com)

Fordham’s last six head coaching searches resulted in five sitting college coaches and a former NBA coach, leading many to question the state of a program mired in a decades-long morass since its most recent NCAA Tournament appearance, back in 1992.

Monday morning saw the Rams try something new to reverse the course of its orbit around the college basketball landscape, turning to a hungry young coach with tremendous upside and a proven championship pedigree.

Kyle Neptune, who spent the past eight seasons on the staff of Jay Wright at Villanova, has reached a deal to become Fordham’s next head coach, replacing Jeff Neubauer — who departed the program in January after a disappointing start to his sixth season at the helm — and interim head coach Mike DePaoli, who guided the Rams to the finish line of a pandemic-marred campaign.

A Brooklyn native, Neptune, 36, gets his first taste of head coaching experience after helping to leas the Wildcats to a pair of national championships, and does so at a program still lauded as one of the best mid-major jobs in the New York metropolitan area, further cementing the Hall of Fame credentials of his mentor Wright, who adds another branch to a fruitful coaching tree that now counts nine head coaches with this latest hire.

Neptune recently completed his second stint on the Main Line, having spent two seasons from 2008-2010 with Wright and the Villanova program following his graduation from Lehigh, where he played for four years and was a team captain as a senior. He then served as an assistant at Niagara from 2010-2013 before following Joe Mihalich to Hofstra for a brief period, only to return to Villanova when Billy Lange left his post on staff for an assistant coach position with the Philadelphia 76ers. Praised as an effective communicator and developer of NBA talent the likes of Ryan Arcidiacono, Saddiq Bey, Mikal Bridges, Jalen Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, Josh Hart, Darrun Hilliard and Eric Paschall, Neptune now takes the next step in cultivating further professional success stories, this time at a shop of his own.

“Kyle is going to make an excellent head coach at Fordham,” said Quinnipiac head coach Baker Dunleavy, who worked alongside Neptune at Villanova before taking over the Bobcats’ program in 2017. “He combines a tireless work ethic, great knowledge for the game, and most of all, a passion for New York City basketball. I look forward to watching him build a terrific program.”

Neptune had risen to the forefront of Fordham’s coaching search two weeks ago, emerging from a pool of candidates that included Yale head coach James Jones, Saint Peter’s head coach Shaheen Holloway, and Bryant head coach Jared Grasso, who was reportedly the runner-up in the process. Sources had indicated on March 18 that Neptune was the favorite, and that the job was “his if he wanted it,” with Fordham athletic director Ed Kull presumably waiting for Villanova to be eliminated from the NCAA Tournament to make an official announcement. Kevin Sweeney of CBB Central and Sports Illustrated was first to corroborate this report Monday morning, with CBS Sports college basketball insiders Matt Norlander and Jon Rothstein following suit shortly thereafter.

Terms of the contract have yet to be disclosed, and an official announcement from Fordham on Neptune’s arrival is expected later this week. More information will be posted as it becomes available.

Rutgers’ season deserves to be remembered for more highs than its heartbreaking end

Rutgers’ final game of 2020-21 will show a loss on paper, but program’s defining memory of this season should be that of raising bar in Piscataway for future success. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

By Jaden Daly (@DalyDoseOfHoops)

Rutgers alumnus Jim Valvano said it best when he took Iona on a magic carpet ride just over four decades ago.

Dare to dream.

Years later, with his coaching career having ended and in a fight for his life, the affable and colorful Valvano offered more sage advice.

“Think about it,” he said in his iconic speech at the 1993 ESPY Awards. “If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that’s a full day. That’s a heck of a day. If you do that seven days a week, you’re going to have something special.”

Sunday night, Valvano’s alma mater ran that emotional gamut and then some, leading Houston by eight with just over four minutes remaining and just the program’s third-ever appearance in a regional semifinal awaiting it. But when Myles Johnson’s missed dunk led to a 3-pointer by DeJon Jarreau at the other end, a five-point swing set the wheels in motion for what became a game-ending 14-2 run and a 63-60 victory for the Cougars in what amounted to a double dose of heartbreak for the Scarlet Knights, who learned after the game that beloved radio analyst and former assistant coach Joe Boylan had passed away earlier in the day at the age of 82.

But the fact remains that this Rutgers season should be remembered less for how it ended than for how it began, and the program-changing milestones along the way.

A 6-0 start. A victory over eventual No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed Illinois. Road wins against Maryland and Indiana for the first time in program history. Defeating Michigan State, a perennial Big Ten heavyweight, for the first time and holding the Spartans to just 37 points in the process. The maturation of Geo Baker, Myles Johnson and Jacob Young into three senior bedrocks and standards for which Rutgers should come to expect from its upperclassmen. The emergence of Ron Harper, Jr. as the flag-bearer for the next iteration of Scarlet Knights. The upside of Montez Mathis, Caleb McConnell and Paul Mulcahy. The potential of Cliff Omoruyi after leading a four-pronged freshman class into their baptism to college basketball.

All those accomplishments outweigh the agony of a three-point loss and a handful of unlucky bounces.

“We need this group to be remembered for a long time,” a visibly dejected Steve Pikiell, no stranger to the cruel realities of March anguish from his four near-misses at Stony Brook before finally breaking through in 2016, concurred. “I’m just sad for us. I never wanted to put these uniforms away. This group has been awesome. Whenever we got knocked down, this group always got back up.”

“This team made history. They got through a two-year journey — COVID, never missing a day, never having a pause — all the obstacles they had to fight through. They now become the standard for what we want to be at Rutgers.”

So much has been made over the years of Rutgers — before Pikiell arrived in Piscataway five years ago today — having never been able to punch above its weight class, to survive a heavyweight fight with its dignity not shattered, its overall reputation enhanced. In winning its first NCAA Tournament contest since 1983, the colors on the mural that is Rutgers basketball became ever more vibrant, richer and more symbolic. Baker proved that in a poignant postgame press conference, noting that while he blames himself for his turnover in the final minutes as Rutgers looked to steal a victory, a moment like that only lays the groundwork for a comeback.

“Losses are lessons,” the senior point guard reflected in what could be the coda to a four-year career that will be forever remembered on the banks for a belief in something bigger and a litany of step-back jumpers emulated by thousands of fans young and old. “This is probably just going to be another one of those.”

“How do you take it in? How do you react to it? How do you bounce back and make something positive out of it? But there are better days ahead. You just have to understand that and work through it, just continue on.”

Rutgers will do that now, possibly without Baker, most likely without Young, who hinted on social media in a thank-you post that is likely taking the next step. The core of the team should return largely intact, and in prime position to make this season one that harkens back to Pikiell’s own senior year at UConn in 1990, when the Huskies reached an improbable regional final:

Only the beginning.

Iona’s NCAA showing proves how far Gaels have come, with more ground to cover

Rick Pitino’s latest run through March left lasting impression on Iona’s long-term prospects while highlighting immediate progress. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

In the wake of Iona’s latest postseason success and conference-record 13th Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament championship, it seems as though the Gaels’ renaissance under Tim Cluess has been forgotten, by some, due to the national headlines garnered by Rick Pitino in taking over in New Rochelle, turning over approximately three-quarters of the roster and guiding it to the NCAA Tournament amid four separate pauses related to COVID-19.

But let’s be clear: Cluess deserves all the credit in the world for leaving the program in such great hands, something Pitino alluded to after Iona’s MAAC championship moment one week ago today, profusely thanking and congratulating his predecessor for the legacy he had forged and standards he upheld in cultivating and establishing the status quo of a winning culture.

That said, Pitino should not be short-changed either for winning with three of Cluess’ holdovers in Asante Gist, Isaiah Ross and Dylan van Eyck. The Hall of Famer added to his already proven pieces with a promising young contingent the likes of Nelly Junior Joseph, Berrick JeanLouis, Ryan Myers and Osborn Shema — among others — and has indicated one thing despite the ever-present rumors of him wanting one last shot at the big-money landscape of the high-major level, that he is just getting started sewing his own patch on the maroon and gold-colored quilt, content to operate at his own pace to the beat of his own drummer.

“I don’t have to look over my shoulder to see who I’m going to trust and who I’m not going to trust,” Pitino said moments after Iona’s loss to Alabama Saturday when the oft-discussed subject of his future was broached for what felt like a millionth time. “I’m in heaven right now, and (I’m) where I need to be. It’s what I call a ball, a boy, and a dream.”

And who is anyone to deny Pitino — even more so after his body of work over the past four decades, which includes a pair of national championships and two separate stints in the NBA — the right to dream on such a grand scale? Through the adversity on and off the court, a seemingly endless struggle to remain in shape as the program endured shutdown after shutdown, and a glimpse of what could be under the lights of March, Iona saw the early stages of Pitino’s dream come to fruition. And the encouraging part, unless you happen to be a fan or coach one of the ten other MAAC institutions, is that this journey is far from over.

“We were offensively challenged this year,” Pitino conceded. “I think they’re going to be terrific basketball players. We have some guys coming in from Australia, from other places, that are really going to help us offensively.”

“Coming back with 12 new players (and) two seniors giving me everything they have is a good first step to building a culture that can play against the Alabamas of the world and hold their own. They did it for a period of time. We’ve just got to improve the program and take the next step. We will take the next step. There’s no doubt in my mind that Iona is going to be a force to be reckoned with down the road.”

“Super special” win makes Rutgers’ journey worth the wait

Geo Baker (0) is embraced by his teammates after layup in final seconds sealed Rutgers’ win over Clemson Friday, the first for Scarlet Knights in NCAA Tournament since 1983. (Photo by NCAA Photos)

It stands to reason that Rutgers’ NCAA Tournament victory Friday night — the program’s first since 1983 and its first appearance since 1991 — began and ended with Geo Baker.

After all, who else but Baker, the scrappy point guard ranked 414th in his recruiting class four years ago and one who spoke so eloquently of making and rewriting history before the Scarlet Knights converged upon Indianapolis, would be a more apropos author of a lasting impression?

The senior drew first blood for Rutgers Friday, connecting on the first of his two 3-pointers against a Clemson team that essentially served as a mirror image of sorts for the State University of New Jersey. Then, inside the final four minutes of regulation with the score tied at 55, he launched another trifecta to give his team the lead for good. Not done yet, and in need of one more body blow to put the Tigers away, he put on a master class in playmaking in a give-and-go with Ron Harper, Jr. that culminated in a layup and the final tally in a 60-56 final score of a battle that was so deliciously, unabashedly, typical Rutgers.

“It was everything I hoped for,” Baker gushed. “This experience today? It’s better than I imagined, honestly. Just knowing that we survived and advanced in March, it was crazier than I ever expected. It’s just super special. I can’t think of any other type of word, honestly.”

“It feels like we did a big thing,” Jacob Young added. “This is what we’ve been working for, not just to make it to the NCAA Tournament, but to win games in the NCAA Tournament. It’s just been a blessing doing it with these guys, and now finally being here and getting that win, my emotions are going crazy.”

Baker made the plays that mattered in crunch time, but without Caleb McConnell flying all over the Bankers Life Fieldhouse court, Rutgers may not have been in position to win in the final minute. McConnell, who missed the beginning of the season after initially planning to take a medical redshirt to rehab an injured back, saved his best effort for the most opportune time, posting 13 points and 10 rebounds. More than that, though, it was his nose for the basketball on both ends that saved Rutgers when it appeared Clemson and guard Clyde Trapp were on the verge of driving away with the game, and his awareness to place himself in the right spots to ensure the bounces fell his and his teammates’ way.

“It was really just my will to win, my will to get stops on the defensive end,” McConnell said of his adrenaline. “That just led me to rebound, getting stops and getting steals. It was just my will, wanting it a little more tonight.”

Baker concurred, highlighting the necessity of McConnell-like cogs in a postseason team’s identity.

“You need players like that,” he advised.

Now five years after head coach Steve Pikiell was steadfast in his conviction that Rutgers would dance — on the basketball court, not in a nightclub, as he put it in his introductory press conference — the Scarlet Knights get to continue their magical narrative Sunday against a formidable No. 2 seed in Houston, who overpowered Cleveland State and possess several matchup problems. Regardless of the name on the opposing jersey, the positive energy that has propelled Rutgers to this stage is ubiquitous, and that alone gives it more than a puncher’s chance against Kelvin Sampson and the Cougars.

“I was always confident it was supposed to happen,” said Pikiell. “Last year was supposed to happen, but because of COVID, it cut our season short. But we had to fight back this year and prove it again, and our guys did. When we stay focused and we’re together, we can do some good things.” 

“We just feel like a special unit, man,” an emotional Baker declared. “For some of us, it’s been two years now that we’ve been waiting for this moment, and at the same time, we feel like this is meant to be and we should be here. We just knew it was going to happen.”

Bonnies begin NCAA Tournament with clash in styles and a familiar opponent in LSU, Wade

Mark Schmidt and St. Bonaventure open NCAA Tournament against LSU Saturday. (Photo by David Jablonski/Dayton Daily News)

By Ray Floriani (@rfloriani)

When St. Bonaventure lines up inside Assembly Hall on Saturday, its first round opponent, LSU, will know something about the Bonnies. 

Beyond studying and breaking down tapes and providing detailed scouting reports, LSU coach Will Wade has first hand familiarity with the Bonnies. Prior to his arrival in Baton Rouge, Wade assisted Shaka Smart at VCU, then was head coach for two seasons. He’s faced head coach Mark Schmidt, and certainly knows his style and what the Bonnies are about.

“I’ve actually watched St. Bonaventure play a couple times this year,” Wade told the Olean Times Herald. “They’ve got a top 40 offense, a top 20 defense and are 17th in the country in defensive efficiency. They’ve got some good guard play and a shot blocker, a 6-10 kid down there (Osun Osunniyi). They’ve got a good team. Coach Schmidt, I’m familiar with from my days in the Atlantic 10. He’s as good a ball coach as there is in the country.”

St. Bonaventure captured both the Atlantic 10 regular season and conference tournament titles on the way to a 16-4 record. LSU finished third in the SEC, and advanced to the conference final, dropping a 80-79 decision to Alabama.  

From a numbers standpoint, a few things bear mentioning. Looking at the two teams’ respective conference numbers, one of the first things that stands out is pace, with LSU playing 10 more possessions per game on average, a significant number that could go a long way toward determining who advances. The Bonnies prefer the slower grind it out tempo, LSU wants to get out on the break and push the ball. The team dictating the tempo of this contest will have a decided advantage.

“They’re number one in the country in scoring,” Schmidt said of the Tigers. “They space you out and are really talented. If the game is in the eighties, we’re probably not going to win, so we’ve got to somehow control the tempo. We’ve got to be able to keep the game in the half-court against a team that wants to push it.”

While the Tigers run a high-octane attack, LSU takes relatively good care of the ball. Their offensive turnover percentage is just 16, an impressive number no matter the tempo. The Bonnies’ turnover mark offensively is also 16 percent. Schmidt has preached taking care of the ball and emphasized it all season.

“They run some stuff they ran at VCU,” Schmidt told the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, “but a lot of it is isolation and one-on-one stuff. They didn’t do as much of that as they’re doing at LSU, but you can see his personality. They are really athletic and try to play downhill.”

For the record, KenPom predicts a 74-73 Bonnies victory.

For St. Bonaventure, it will be Schmidt’s old reliables: Defense, rebounding and a rotation featuring a short bench, which has worked all season long. Given nearly a week to prepare, don’t expect Schmidt to not come up with something different. Remember the NCAA win over UCLA in 2018? In that game, the Bonnies threw the Bruins off balance with a 1-3-1 zone defense.

Defensively the Bonnies will contend with not just one main threat, but several in Wade’s arsenal. Cameron Thomas, a 6-4 freshman, led the SEC in scoring at 22.6 points per game. Trendon Watford, a 6-9 was fourth in scoring. Javonte Smart, a 6-4 junior, is a deadly outside threat, hitting 43 percent of his attempts from beyond the arc. LSU takes 37 percent of its shots from distance, hitting at a 35 percent clip. Inside the arc, the Tigers shoot 53 percent. Undoubtedly, this is a team that poses multifaceted threats for opposing defenses. This is an area Osun Osunniyi factors in prominently. The big man is settling in more comfortably on offense, but the defense is his calling card. 

“Shun allows our guards to cheat a little defensively on the perimeter,” Schmidt said in the Atlantic 10 tournament. “If the guards get beat by penetration, Shun is there. He’s our eraser, and anyone going into the lane has to think about his presence.”

On offense the message is clear: Don’t get into a track meet with the Tigers. Kyle Lofton will be a key. Beside giving his regular 40 quality minutes, the Bonnies’ lead guard will be entrusted with caring for the ball and making sound decisions. As Osunniyi remarked, “our offense runs right through him.” Jalen Adaway, Jaren Holmes and Dominick Welch will all play roles that call for contributions — especially in rebounding — on both ends of the floor for the Bonnies.

For LSU a primary objective will be to force a faster tempo. That should be the primary objective in Wade’s game plan. A tempo in the mid-70 range would largely benefit LSU, while anything in the sixties puts the ball in the Bonnies’ court. Wade will work on a way to speed the game up.

All week Wade has thrown bouquets in the Bonnies’ direction. He’s gone on record saying they will be “unbelievably well-prepared” and that they’re a “tremendous basketball program.”

The praise has been flattering, but one must agree there is sincerity. After all, as the Times Herald pointed out, Wade was the first and one of the harshest critics of the NCAA for denying the A-10 co-champion Bonnies a bid in 2016.

Wade respects Schmidt and his program. The key here is getting your players to buy in and share that respect. Too often, Power 5 teams may look at a representative from an unfamiliar league and not give the same respect. Wade must ensure his players are on the same page, and would be ill-advised to take the Bonnies lightly.

The campaign has transpired as a memorable year for St. Bonaventure. Battling through the pandemic and winning the A-10 are part, but not all, of it. On Sunday after defeating VCU for the title, Schmidt said the season was dedicated to the memory of late President Dr. Dennis DePerro, one who did so much for the team and entire university. In an outstanding touch of sentiment and class, Schmidt said part of the net cut down in Dayton would be given to the late DePerro’s family.

The Bonnies would love nothing more than to see this special season extended beyond Saturday.

Rutgers’ NCAA Tournament return even more meaningful to long-thirsting fan base

Dave White and his son, Ben, in stands at the RAC in 2017. (Photo by Dave White)

As Rutgers completes its final preparations for Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Clemson, it means just as much, if not more, to a long-patient fan base that has clamored for this moment over the past three decades in lockstep with the numerous coaches and players in between Bob Wenzel and Steve Pikiell, Keith Hughes and Geo Baker, who tried to bring March Madness back to the banks of the old Raritan.

For Dave White, a longtime season ticket holder who also contributes to Rutgers media coverage for On The Banks, he remembers 1991, even if he was not fully immersed in college basketball at the time.

“I was in sixth grade,” White, 41, recalled. “I was reading comics and watching sitcoms. I think my first college hoops memory is Christian Laettner beating Kentucky (in the 1992 NCAA Tournament).”

As the years went on, though, White — a class of 2001 Rutgers alum who later became an award-winning author — soon lived and died with his alma mater along its circuitous road to the promised land, citing last year’s overtime win at Purdue that would have locked the Scarlet Knights into last year’s field of 68 had the pandemic not cancelled the tournament among the greatest moments of the last three decades. Seeing Rutgers’ name on the bracket this past Sunday provided a sense of closure, and also relief, to the two-year journey Pikiell has often spoke of.

“I hate to put it that way, because this is awesome and exciting, and I’m really happy, but it’s a relief,” said White. “Logistically, I knew they were in, but I still needed to see it. It would have felt really crummy if the team did all that work, made it last year and then missed it this year. And seeing it? It was awesome.”

Now a father of two sons, 8-year-old Ben, who tags along to a few games, and 21-month-old Carter, White gets to take in a moment that felt impossible once upon a time, seemed improbable, and now lies ever so close, while sharing it with a new generation of Rutgers fans blessed to enjoy such an experience so early in life.

“Ben is even going to try to stay up with me on Friday to watch it,” he declared. “But I don’t know if he’s going to enjoy how gray-haired this game is going to make me. Either way, though, it’s just awesome. They got here. We exhaled. Now, it’s time to be excited to try and beat Clemson.”

***

Danny Breslauer (far right), taking in a Rutgers game with (from left) his father, brother, and mother. (Photo by Danny Breslauer)

Danny Breslauer was only two years old in 1991, but the youthful innocence of that time did nothing to hinder the significance of the past three decades and the journey back to prominence.

“There was an understanding of it,” he admitted. The son of Dr. Kenneth Breslauer, a biochemist and cancer researcher who has been a part of the Rutgers community for the past 47 years as the founding dean of the university’s department of life sciences and also as an administrator while also attending several games at the old College Avenue Gymnasium during the Final Four season of 1975-76, Danny has seen the struggle both inside the trapezoidal walls of the RAC as a student, alumnus and broadcaster, and on the outside looking in as a lifelong fan raised on basketball in Piscataway from the Scarlet Knights’ last days in the Atlantic 10 Conference.

“I lived a lot of this, so I have a greater understanding,” he said as he counts Rutgers’ run to the quarterfinals of the 2018 Big Ten tournament as the moment which sold him on a brighter future for a program mired in a decades-long morass. “They showed up Friday and played Purdue toe-to-toe, and from that point forward, I was like, ‘it’s not going to be pretty, but there will be a time when the ball bounces the right way.’”

But even the prospect of better days did not quell the nerves on Selection Sunday for the 32-year-old, who remembers taking the train to Madison Square Garden with his family to see Rutgers in the 2004 National Invitation Tournament semifinals and seeing firsthand the euphoria of nearly 15,000 scarlet-clad fans, not to mention the previous season’s upset of Carmelo Anthony and eventual national champion Syracuse.

“If we didn’t see a bracket for a second straight year, it would have broken me,” Breslauer said in a voice equal parts serious and light-hearted. “It would have been hard on me mentally to have it stolen from me two years in a row, so I think Sunday was the catharsis moment.”

“Once it went to the third bracket, it was just a matter of which Big Ten team was a 2 (seed). When they weren’t a 9, I knew it was either of two draws: UConn-Alabama, or Houston-Clemson. I knew it was a statistical impossibility.”

Breslauer and his brother, Jordan, born in October 1991, seven months after Rutgers’ last NCAA Tournament appearance — “the perfect encapsulation of the Rutgers drought,” Danny joked — will be on hand in Indianapolis to see the historic return, driving from New Jersey Thursday and staying at an Airbnb near Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Should the Scarlet Knights defeat Clemson, the two will work on extending their stay, but neither will be dissatisfied should Friday’s contest end in a loss.

“I spoke to Bob Wenzel, and I think he’s happy he’s no longer the answer to a trivia question,” Danny quipped. “(It means) so much, it’s almost impossible to put into words. Being there myself, I feel like the experience of being there is enough. If they lose to Clemson, am I going to say it was an unsuccessful season? Absolutely not. Taking on a Houston team many people probably have in the Elite 8 or Final Four, on a Sunday with all the eyes on you, that’s the exciting part.”

“1991 was a black eye. It means a ton to the people who are basketball-first, so considering the trials and tribulations the program went through, this is the payoff.”

Giorgis, Marist scratch seven-year itch in NCAA Tournament return

An ecstatic Brian Giorgis handles postgame interview after his Marist team won 11th MAAC championship Saturday. (Photo by Mike Ferraro/Marist Athletics)

Seven years without something that defined one’s career is bound to make one wonder whether or not that experience can ever be relived.

Brian Giorgis would agree.

Once the unquestioned gold standard in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference with nine consecutive conference tournament championships and a span of 10 league crowns in 11 years, Giorgis and the Red Foxes spent the past six seasons since their 2014 triumph in Springfield watching Quinnipiac join the MAAC from the Northeast Conference and claim four titles in five years before COVID-19 left a champion uncrowned last season. This past Saturday, the king reclaimed his throne, as Marist claimed its 11th MAAC trophy and automatic NCAA Tournament berth with a dominant victory over Saint Peter’s, a doormat in recent years now on a noticeable uptick under head coach Marc Mitchell.

After a roller coaster of a season that he likened to Space Mountain, in that “you’re in the dark and you don’t know when it’s going to drop,” the jubilant relief was ever-present on Giorgis’ affable and charismatic visage.

“I always wondered if it was going to happen again,” he admitted. “I kind of felt like Tony Bozzella when he was at Iona, where he could have won four or five if we weren’t there. You had a team like Quinnipiac come in, and Trish (head coach Tricia Fabbri) just does such a great job with the Quinnipiac program.”

“If we were a horse and we were win, place and show, we had a lot of them. But they kept working at it and people didn’t think that we had a chance, that we were part of the also-rans, and we went through the season and beat everybody.”

After losing the likes of Rebekah Hand, Alana Gilmer and Grace Vander Weide, a trio of seniors instrumental in stabilizing the Red Fox program and maintaining it in the MAAC’s upper echelon, Giorgis himself expressed doubt as to whether or not a group led by seniors Willow Duffell and Allie Best, plus an emerging supporting cast including Sarah Barcello and Trinasia Kennedy, who drew comparisons to past lockdown defenders Alisa Kresge and Leanne Ockenden, would be able to eclipse what he termed a distant fourth-place preseason ranking attributed partially to respect and prior history. But in typical Giorgis fashion, his unit delivered, and made a name for itself in its own way.

Brian Giorgis, doused with celebratory water by his Marist players after Red Foxes won first MAAC championship since 2014. (Photo by Mike Ferraro/Marist Athletics)

“This group was not to be denied,” he proudly declared. “They’re the most amazing group of people I’ve ever seen, they’re so special. I remember telling some of my closest friends that we’d be lucky to win two games this year because we lost six seniors and 80 percent of our scoring. To go 18-3 and put on the defensive performance we did — and the offense wasn’t bad, either — the kids just stuck to a game plan. I have the two best senior captains in the world, who just refuse to lose.”

Marist’s next stop is San Antonio, and a meeting with Louisville on a stage that may be unknown to any of the young ladies wearing red and white this Monday. For the man leading them onto the floor, and a coaching staff he effusively praises every chance he gets, it marks a significant and emphatic return to a level that was once a birthright, and the euphoria in this latest dance mirrors that of the program’s first back in 2004, potentially greater than that of the Sweet 16 appearance three years later.

“They’re all really special, first and foremost,” a laconic Giorgis interjected. “But this one and my very first one are probably the two best, because nobody expected it. I don’t think anybody was saying, ‘this year, you’re going to the NCAA Tournament.’ The first one, Marist had no respect. I think we were preseason eighth and finished as co-champions in the regular season and won it, and this one, we were picked a distant fourth and it was like, ‘wow.’ These guys are amazing, and to go through what they’ve been through, I think, makes this one as special as any that I’ve ever had.”

Its 30-year-old demons finally exorcised, Rutgers now takes dance floor

Geo Baker shot Rutgers into NCAA Tournament for first time in three decades, but Scarlet Knights’ senior guard is not satisfied with just being there. (Photo by Rutgers Athletics)

The 30-year wait is over.

But just because Rutgers finally exorcised its 1991 demons once and for all when the Scarlet Knights were announced Sunday as the No. 10 seed in the Midwest Regional and Clemson’s opponent in the NCAA Tournament, by no means is New Jersey’s representative in the field of 68 just thrilled with merely showing up.

“For two years now, this has been a journey,” a visibly relieved Steve Pikiell remarked after Rutgers was locked into the field, making good on his guarantee the day he was hired in 2016 that March Madness would be present on the banks. “Last year never ended, the season just stopped. Not being able to play last year just carried over to this year, and these guys just kept plugging away. But I’m just happy for our guys. They did all the sacrificing, they did all the work. My staff, too, does an unbelievable job.”

“To have an opportunity for a national championship — 30 years ago, I was playing in this tournament at Connecticut — I’m happy now our guys get to experience now what I experienced as a student-athlete. They made history.”

With the exception of Jacob Young, who suited up in the NCAA Tournament at Texas before his arrival in Piscataway, the events to come over the time between Selection Sunday and the opening tip sometime after 9 p.m. Friday are a maiden voyage for every other player on the roster. Despite the uncharted territory, Pikiell believes the mindset will be a positive one, in an atmosphere he considered his team to be well-equipped to handle.

“What are you going to do with this opportunity? That was my first question to them,” he said. “Confidence is never a problem with this group, it hasn’t been for two years. We’ve played really good basketball, so I feel really good. We’re ready for any challenge, we’ve seen every style. We’re a confident group. If we defend and rebound, we can play with anybody, and we’re exciting to watch, too.”

“Even though we haven’t been to the tournament, I feel like we have an experienced group,” Geo Baker added, doubling down on his head coach’s optimism. “We understand that we can’t let our emotions get the best of us during games, so as long as we stay level-headed, I’m not too worried about that. I think we should be okay.”

Last year remains a sensitive subject, and rightfully so given the abrupt and uncontrollable nature of the circumstances that snatched a potential deep run into March away from this group, but all it has done is make this iteration of the Scarlet Knights more determined to prove they belong on the national stage.

“That disappointment turned into hunger,” Ron Harper, Jr. declared. “It adds fuel to the fire, it makes you want to do it again.”

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Paul Mulcahy proclaimed, citing an education received along the way. “It really kind of told us a lot about the history of the program. Obviously, 30 years is a long time, none of us were alive, but there’s also been a lot of people that supported the program those 30 years, so I’m really happy for those people.”

Delirium has set in, the anticipation of getting there having culminated in the achievement of one goal. But as one door closes, another opens, a new sense of enthusiasm and big dreams waiting to greet its newfound visitor on the other side.

“It was just everything we dreamed of, everything that we’ve been waiting for,” said Baker. “We’re just really happy to see our hard work paid off. We’re a big part of history. That’s something that’s always going to be really special to me and all the other guys.”

Its time, at long last, has arrived, and if this blue-collar group has its way, the culture and style it spent the past two years honing into a unique brand will not be a cameo appearance on the dance floor after working this hard to come this far.

“(We're) a bunch of humble and hungry guys,” Young opined. “I feel like we’re always looked over and we’re always talked down on, and we feel like we’ve got something to prove.”

“We’re all winners,” Baker reiterated. “I feel like we all came here to win, and now we’re in a tournament of winners, so we get to really see what could happen. I just really feel like it’s destiny.”

Pitino’s latest success is, at first blush, his most meaningful

Rick Pitino soaks in MAAC championship celebration, relishing return to NCAA Tournament with Iona. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

By Jaden Daly (@DalyDoseOfHoops)

Rick Pitino may be many things, and his brutally honest nature will allow him to be one of the first people to openly tell you that.

But behind all the bluster and the checkered past that is already being dredged up in some circles as Pitino goes along on his latest magic carpet ride to the NCAA Tournament after his Iona team — sidelined on four separate occasions due to COVID-19, including once for 51 days — won four games in five days to claim yet another Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and accelerate the Hall of Famer’s notoriously complex learning curve lies a passion as strong as it was over four decades ago, a competitive fire burning wildly and brightly with the flames of personal vindication.

“Somebody showed me an article,” Pitino said after Saturday’s coronation in a tone that was equal parts fiery and playful. “If there are any writers out there, stop saying I’m old! Joe Biden may be a little up there. I’m young. Although I’m 68, I’m going on 48 with my passion, so stop saying I’m old. Tommy Abatemarco, my assistant, HE’S old!”

It has been said, time and again, that being in the game keeps you young. No further is that evident than in the genuine emotion shared by Pitino and his staff simply watching their players take it all in, a first-time experience for most, a recurring episode for some, but a cathartic revelation for all in light of the path traversed and the numerous hurdles jumped along the way.

“You have no idea how difficult it was coaching this year, and it was even more difficult playing this year,” Pitino reminded everyone. “It’s very difficult to imagine what we went through from a practice standpoint. Every time we got into shape, we got out of shape.”

“When you see, as a coach, the players so happy, it really fulfills you as a basketball coach because the coaching staff is in it for the players. We live vicariously through the players, so I was tickled pink about watching them celebrate, and I’m really proud of them.”

So too is Iona athletic director Matt Glovaski and president Seamus Carey, both of whom took a chance on an embattled Pitino a year ago today, flying halfway across the world to Spain to meet with him after coaching Panathinaikos in a Euroleague game against Real Madrid and afford him the chance to write his own ending, on his own terms, to a career that seemed destined to an ignominious demise. While serving his penance, it was a message from his son, Richard, the head coach at Minnesota, that got him to change his outlook on the game, and on life.

“My son gave me the greatest piece of advice,” Pitino recollected. “He said, ‘Dad, all I can tell you is nobody cares whether you’re innocent, so you might as well stop saying it, because nobody cares. Why don’t you just do you what you do best: Coach, recruit, and stop trying to defend your honor because nobody believes you? We love you, that’s all that counts. So I’ve taken that. I went to Greece with that advice, and I learned a lot at 65 years of age. To me, it’s a great way to end a very long career.” 

“I’m just really pleased to be at Iona. I grew up on 26th Street on the east side of Manhattan, I’ve lived in Queens, I’ve lived on Long Island, I’ve lived in Westchester when I was the Knick coach, I’m New York strong all the way through. It means a lot to be at Iona because the president and the athletic director stepped up for me, they believed in me and my principles, and I’m really appreciative of that. I wanted to coach at a New York school or a New England school, a small Catholic school. It was my goal to end my career. I was able to do that, and that makes me very proud.”

Pitino’s pride was on display in his opening remarks as well, where he made it a point to thank and celebrate his predecessor, Tim Cluess, for establishing the status quo in New Rochelle, which now counts a seventh NCAA Tournament appearance in the past ten years among its accolades, but not long after, it gave way to more self-reflection.

“It’s special, but it’s a lot different,” he said of his latest March experience. “I’ve always said this, my favorite years were at Providence College, where we went from dead last place in the Big East to the Final Four, and you remember that because you were in last place for seven years. This year, we were stopped four different times, we had key injuries, and we still get there to cut down the nets, so it’s pretty darn special.”

Now, the pageantry and accompanying games will come, which if Pitino has his way, will not end anytime soon.

“I told them that I was packing eight suits and I packed for a long time,” he quipped. “And I’m not sure anybody believed me. Now we’ve got a lot of dirty laundry, and we’re heading to Indianapolis.”

Asante Gist’s long road leads back to NCAA Tournament after taking new route to get there

 

Asante Gist, one of Iona’s elder statesmen, has Gaels back in NCAA Tournament. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

Rick Pitino’s first encounter with his current starting point guard took place far beyond the walls of the Hynes Athletics Center.

It came in 2016, eight days before Christmas, in the bowels of the KFC Yum! Center. Pitino, midway through what would turn out to be his final season at the helm in Louisville, had just finished coaching his Cardinals to a 31-point win over Eastern Kentucky, whose own head coach — Dan McHale, a product of the rich Pitino coaching tree — had recruited a combo guard from New Jersey who had led Bob Hurley’s prestigious St. Anthony program to a Tournament of Champions crown. His name? Asante Gist.

Gist, a freshman starter for the Colonels that night, scored 12 points on 5-of-15 shooting in the losing effort, and added three assists for good measure. After the final buzzer, Pitino took it upon himself to offer words of encouragement for the burgeoning young talent.

“I went in the locker room and I spoke to the whole team,” he recalled when addressing Gist and his teammates. “And I told him, ‘Son, you’ve got to make people better.’ That’s the key to a 5’10” guard. It isn’t just scoring, and he had a good year.”

“I was young when he came and spoke to me at Eastern Kentucky,” Gist echoed. “I didn’t really understand it back then, but now I understand it more being around him. I definitely understand it.”

Four years later, fate intervened as the two crossed paths again. Pitino, eager to get back in the college game after coaching in Greece, had been hired last March at Iona following the unexpected resignation of Tim Cluess due to health issues. Among the returning talent he inherited was Gist, who had matured into a third guard behind Rickey McGill and E.J. Crawford on the Gaels’ last NCAA Tournament team, which led North Carolina at halftime and challenged the Tar Heels deep into the second half. However, Gist would take on a different role, and do so while battling injuries and COVID-19.

“This was the first time I was going to play him at the true point,” Pitino revealed. “And I said, ‘look, you’ve got a lot to learn.’ But he has. He’s a willing learner. He wanted to play the point, learn how to run a pick-and-roll, learn how to set people up. And outside of his injuries, he’s done a fabulous job with that.”

On top of his already established scoring and shooting prowess, Gist complemented his numbers by averaging four assists per game, good enough for third-best in the MAAC. More than that, though, he gained an education about the finer points of his position to go with a renewed sense of self-value from his mentor’s convictions.

“He’s been around the game for 40 years,” Gist said of Pitino. “He’s just been showing me all the different things I’ve got to do to be a better point guard, and mainly, the biggest thing is just believing in me. Building that confidence in me — and I always had confidence in myself, of course — but when you have a coach that believes in you like he believed in me, it’s just something special. I feel as though that’s what every player needs, somebody to build that confidence in them. He did.” 

I GOT FIVE ON IT!!!!! Iona wins 5th straight MAAC tournament title

Iona celebrates fifth consecutive MAAC tournament championship after Gaels defeated Fairfield Saturday in Atlantic City. (Photo by Iona College Athletics)

With just over five minutes remaining in a rock fight of a first half and his Iona team clinging to a two-point lead, Rick Pitino called for a pep talk.

“I just kept reminding them of last night,” the Gaels’ head coach reflected Saturday, as Iona had survived a late rally from Niagara to advance to this Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship stage against a Fairfield team that was threatening after five straight points from senior guard Taj Benning. “We had a great lead, and because we let up defensively, we let them back in the game. And I said, ‘there’s no letup. We played fabulous defense, we held a very good offensive player (Jake Wojcik) to zero points. So I just told them, ‘we’re not going to let up, we’re going to stick with our defense.’”

Message received.

Leading wire-to-wire, Iona flexed its defensive muscle with a 13-3 run out of the timeout to end the opening stanza and remained on the accelerator for the final 20 minutes, forcing Fairfield to shoot a meager 30 percent from the floor and denying the Stags on nearly every opportunity en route to a 60-51 victory for the program’s record 13th MAAC tournament title and fifth straight win in a league championship game.

For the Gaels (12-5), seeded ninth after the MAAC sorted its tournament field by conference wins in an effort to level the playing field after no team was able to play a full 20-game league slate, the latest taste of March Madness comes for a program ravaged by COVID-19 to the tune of four separate pauses, one of which was a program-long 51 days. Upon returning from that hiatus, Iona got five games in before having to shut down again on February 22 for the duration of the regular season, necessitating four wins in five days to author a fairytale ending to a nightmare of a season that saw more than half the Iona roster, as well as Pitino himself, contract the virus.

“I don’t think everyone understands what it’s like when you have to get shut down,” said Asante Gist, whose 18 points landed him tournament MVP honors. “You really are down. There’s no working out, nothing, just sitting in the house. We all love playing the game, so just sitting out, it’s crazy.”

Fairfield (10-17) used a 10-2 run out of the intermission to pull within four points, but the momentum was short-lived. As the Stags tried in vain to find an offensive rhythm, Iona slammed the door at every turn, both inside and outside the 3-point line, to leave little doubt in the end.

“We knew we had to play defense to make the tournament,” Berrick JeanLouis, the MAAC leader in steals per game, imparted. “Coach P told us the only way we were going to win was if we defended. Offense would come, but everybody defended, and now we’re going dancing.”

As Iona awaits its fate on Selection Sunday in what has become an annual rite of passage in the program, it will likely land on the No. 15 or 16 line before being called by Greg Gumbel. Regardless, the coach who attempted to slay the dragon recognizes the formula in the Gaels that could prove lethal to a potential national championship contender.

“I wouldn’t want to play them if they were a 15 or 16 seed, I know that,” Fairfield head coach Jay Young acknowledged. “They’ve got answers offensively and they can defend, and when you get to the NCAA Tournament, that’s dangerous.”

“Our defense is key for us,” Pitino reaffirmed. “We’re going to get stronger offensively, but like I told the players almost daily, we’re never going to complain because over 500,000 people have lost their lives and never had funeral services. But for them to win four games coming off a COVID pause and to do these things is remarkable to me. We’re excited to be in the tournament, and we’re getting better with each game that we play.”