Paulus continuing to build identity with scrappy Niagara program in year three

Niagara’s growth has made Greg Paulus optimistic, but Purple Eagles’ head coach is still working to perfect his team’s identity. (Photo by The Buffalo News)

At just 35 years old, Greg Paulus may be one of the younger head coaches in the nation, but what the former Duke point guard lacks in time on earth, he more than makes up for with his understanding and knowledge of what it takes to build a college basketball program and his desire to perfect it much like the master craftsman for whom he once played, unwavering from his grand vision of what he believes it can ultimately be.

The former Mike Krzyzewski point guard now enters his third season as head coach at Niagara, where he has led the Purple Eagles to a pair of top-half Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference finishes, overcoming obstacles and hindrances most schools were not subject to, from a coaching change weeks before the season started to not knowing its postseason fate due to a late-season COVID pause, to inject new life into a program overlooked, but in many ways, overachieving.

“We’ve certainly made a lot of progress, on the floor and off the floor, as we’re trying to create the identity of our program,” Paulus said in the midst of his first true offseason since since assuming the reins on Monteagle Ridge. “Every year, each team is a little bit different, whether it’s guys returning in different roles or new guys coming in trying to learn that. This is the first offseason that we’ve had, so for us, we’re trying to still create that identity with this team. What you did the previous year doesn’t mean that that’s going to happen the following year.”

What Niagara did do, and has done since Paulus was named head coach in late October 2019, is habitually make believers out of cynics, including rebounding from its aforementioned February pause to being cleared to compete in the MAAC tournament and nearly upsetting eventual MAAC champion Iona in the semifinals, and complementing the success on the floor with a program record-setting grade point average in the classroom to give the architect of the latest iteration of hoops on the shores of Lake Erie even more reason to smile when recollecting on how far his journey has come.

“I was really proud of our team and how responded to that specific situation,” said Paulus of the Purple Eagles’ late-season showing. “We didn’t know if we were going to be able to play in the MAAC tournament, I think we only had one or two full team practices before we were able to do that, but if you look back at that whole entire season — not only on the basketball court but in the classroom as well, last year we had a program record-setting GPA in the fall with a 3.45 — to do that with the pauses, the COVID, the unpredictability of everything, I think it shows great resiliency from our guys and what we’re trying to do. When I take a step back and reflect on the season, I think the growth that the team showed throughout the course of it was something I was really proud of.”

Niagara’s latest challenge will be that of replacing all-MAAC forward Kobi Nwandu, who took his talents to the professional level last spring. In his stead, Marcus Hammond will become even more of a focal point as the former Cardozo standout enters his senior year in search of a third straight all-conference honor and a crowning moment to cap a stellar career.

“Kobi had a tremendous season,” Paulus said of Nwandu, whose transition to Division I from Le Moyne College proved seamless. “He did a great job of continuing to grow in player development, he took advantage of it, and that time and investment certainly showed throughout the season. He did a lot, we ran a lot through him and Marcus, but there are certainly going to be some other guys who are going to need to step up, and collectively as a group, going to need each other to create opportunities for us each time down the floor.”

“With Marcus, you were able to see where he got better and better as the season went on, but also the way that teams started to adjust what they did. There’s a lot of attention on him, whether it’s trying to take the ball out of his hands or pick him up full court and try to trap him with the ball screen. That’s different for a player to go through that when the attention on the scouting reports is focused on trying to disrupt you, and so for him to go through that experience and see how his approach has grown, he’s certainly somebody that’s going to have the ball in his hands for us, and we have great trust and confidence in his being able to make the right play for the team.”

Aside from Hammond, the Purple Eagles return their most experienced core in Paulus’ tenure. Raheem Solomon, Justin Roberts, Shandon Brown and Steve Levnaic all reprise their backcourt duties, while Jordan Cintron, Nicholas Kratholm and Greg Kuakumensah are joined up front by 6-foot-7 South Alabama graduate transfer Sam Iorio, giving Niagara a total of eight seniors and/or graduate students in a conference that has matured as a whole.

“There’s depth,” Paulus affirmed. “Everybody’s competing to earn that opportunity. It’s been fun, they’ve made each other better, and for us, that’s what we want. We’re going to have that all across the board. The level of competition has increased, and I think that as a result of those things, the competitive spirit in our program has grown. I’ve really enjoyed watching them compete each day.”

“When you’re able to have experience coming back, being able to have relationships with them, coach them and see their growth, you’re able to see them understand more and more as time moves forward the standards for our program, and being able to have those guys understand where we’re trying to go, I think it’s helpful for our younger guys to be able to look and see our older guys teaching them what our program is about.”

Niagara opens its season with two daunting non-conference tests against Xavier and Ohio State, where Paulus served as an assistant coach under Thad Matta for six seasons. But while Paulus would obviously like to win as many games as possible, his greatest objective is to simply expand his already budding foundation to create a more complete team heading into MAAC play.

“When you have a new team each year, hopefully you can develop an identity,” he reiterated. “We want to be a team that cares and is connected on both ends of the floor. We want to be a team that develops consistency, that takes care of the basketball. We want to build our identity, and that doesn’t happen from one year to the next. You’ve got to work at it. It takes time, and that’s something that we’re trying to create right now.”

“We have a saying in our program: Be better today than we were yesterday, be better tomorrow than we were today. And so for us, hopefully when you see us in practice to opening day, to January to February, there’s progression along the way. That’s what we’ll focus in on, so as we continue to grow our program, we continue to keep taking steps forward.”