Monmouth’s maturation, motivation has positioned Hawks as prime threat in MAAC

Two points away from a 5-0 start, Monmouth has inside track toward emerging as Iona’s biggest competition in MAAC. (Photo by Monmouth University Athletics)

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — After Rick Pitino led Iona to a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship in last year’s abbreviated season and having a full offseason to tailor his roster into one of his more typical outfits, it came as no surprise to see the Gaels recognized as the unanimous preseason MAAC favorite, with visions of NCAA Tournament grandeur from the fan base in New Rochelle accompanying the opinions of the pundits.

And with five wins in as many games, Iona’s hype has proven to be justified through the first fortnight of the young season, but those who predicted a coronation before the ball was even tipped for the first time may want to look closely at one of the Gaels’ main rivals over the past several campaigns.

Just two points shy of a 5-0 start of its own, Monmouth — off to its best beginning to a season since 1990 — has gained steam and ridden an experienced core fused with the arrival of graduate transfers Walker Miller and Shavar Reynolds to a wave of momentum that began last March when the Hawks earned a share of the MAAC’s regular season crown. Despite the tangible success, Monmouth was still picked a surprising fourth in October’s preseason poll, which begs the question:

Is there something to prove in West Long Branch?

“For sure,” said George Papas, the senior guard who carried a preseason first team all-MAAC recognition into his fifth year. “I’ve just been working my tail off. When the preseason stuff came out, I was just in shock. I expect that from myself, but there’s a lot of stuff on social media talking about, ‘what the heck is Papas doing up there?’ I’m simply just going to show them why I was picked. It’s pretty simple.”

Rebounding off their only loss, an opening night heartbreaker on the road in Charlotte, the Hawks have since authored authoritative victories over Towson, Lehigh, Saint Joseph’s and Princeton, the latter coming in a defensive clampdown in which Monmouth allowed just one field goal over the final eight-plus minutes of regulation to further illustrate the incremental progress being made both during and between games.

“I think we’ve been building each day,” Reynolds revealed. “You can see each game that we’re weathering adversity. That’s what championship teams are made of. We don’t change. We stay even-keeled, we stay steady and we just keep going.”

“That’s how championship teams are made. You can’t argue or bicker, you can’t get down, you just have to keep going because in that adversity, that’s when you find out what your team is made of. So I think we’ve been doing very good in that aspect.”

With the most experience in the program since the days of Justin Robinson, Josh James and Je’lon Hornbeak among others, Monmouth has the added luxury of allowing its elder statesmen to simply do what they do, a key attribute for a veteran group that has been on the doorstep and may not need to be coached up as hard as a younger roster still finding its way.

“These guys are grown-ups,” head coach King Rice reiterated. “When you have older guys, I’m not going to be yelling at them and telling them. I’m drawing up stuff and asking them, ‘if you don’t like it, guys, tell me and we’ll come up with some new stuff.’ Because they’re grown-ups, they’ve seen every situation and I’d be a fool not to lean on them. They’re running the locker room, they’re running stuff, I get to step back and help them when they need it.”

“This has been great so far, and they’re leading the young guys. We don’t have a lot of bickering, we don’t have bad stuff in our locker room like we’ve had the last couple years. It’s clean, everybody’s pulling in one direction, and I think you can see that on the floor.”