Tobin Anderson replaced entire roster again this offseason, but believes his Iona team can be a factor in wide open MAAC this coming year. (Photo by Bob Dea/Daly Dose Of Hoops)
NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — For three consecutive years now, the whirlwind has yet to stop for Tobin Anderson.
The architect of a perennial Division II powerhouse at St. Thomas Aquinas, Anderson received his first Division I break two years ago at FDU, and led the Knights to an historic upset of Purdue in the NCAA Tournament despite a truncated offseason due to his not being hired until early May. Last season, he parlayed his Cinderella stroke into a step up at Iona, but had to recruit an entire roster save for Osborn Shema, the lone holdover from Anderson’s predecessor, Rick Pitino.
This year, Anderson has had to reconstruct the Iona program yet again, literally from scratch. When Jean Aranguren became the last of the Gaels to enter the transfer portal, the coach had nothing incumbent other than his staff and the walls of the Hynes Athletics Center. Still, he maintained an upbeat outlook through a process that has now become de rigueur in college basketball, especially among mid-major programs, and conceded that the mass exodus was not the most demoralizing point of the past five months.
“What was demoralizing was getting beat by Manhattan (on March 7, a 77-60 loss to the rival Jaspers),” Anderson recalled. “The lowest point of last year, for a long time for me, was leaving Manhattan’s gym not competing, not being in the game, getting our ass kicked. That was the lowest point, so whatever had to happen happened. Changes had to be made with how we did things, how we approached things. I was not demoralized when guys were leaving. If you don’t want to be here and do what we have to do to be successful, then we’re better off going someplace else.”
Anderson and his staff made short work of recruiting 14 players and bringing them together for 38 summer workouts since reconvening as a unit in June. And where some programs have navigated the transfer portal by following the siren songs of neon lights and marquee value, what the haul Iona has lured to New Rochelle lacks in notoriety, it more than makes up for in potential and intangibles.
“First of all, you’re not building an all-star roster,” Anderson reiterated. “You’re building a team. We have guys on this year’s team who do things that are specific to helping us win. Kernan Bundy and Jalen Barr probably didn’t average 10 points a game for their college teams — one was at a JUCO and one was Division II — but they’re winners. We didn’t try to build an all-star roster, we did a better job building a team and finding guys who could help us win in a lot of different ways.”
“We kind of went back to our roots as far as defensive guys, speed, quickness, toughness, guys who could play our tempo, play our pace. We went back to what we call the Iona DNA. It came from STAC, it went to FDU. We love gym rats, we love guys who have a chip on their shoulder. The guys who are here want to win, want to do big things. They’re winners. Guys that come from winning programs have habits that help you win. The guys we’ve got here are guys from great programs, and I think that’s gonna be a big asset to us as we go through a whole season.”
In an open practice this past Tuesday, Anderson highlighted senior forward Clarence Rupert — a Southern Illinois transfer that die-hard Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference fans will remember from his freshman year at Saint Peter’s, where he helped lead the Peacocks to the Elite 8 as a No. 15 seed — for his leadership and toughness. The coach is hopeful that some of his other upperclassman arrivals, such as Dejour Reaves (Northern Colorado), Jalen Barr (Division II Flagler College), James “Biggie” Patterson (who Anderson recruited at St. Thomas Aquinas but never got to coach, having left for FDU) and Luke Jungers (Nebraska-Omaha), will shore up the gaps in rebounding and defense that plagued last year’s iteration of the Gaels.
“Clarence Rupert’s been great, obviously,” Anderson said as he ran through the list of elder statesmen under his aegis. “He knows what it takes to win, he’s been through a summer before, he knows what it’s like. Dejour Reaves, same thing, he’s a guy who’s had success at this level, had a chance to win. The guys that have been impressive, like a Jalen Barr who comes from a Division II school and was a two-time defensive player of the year, just knows how to make things happen. And our freshmen are good. Adam Njie’s gonna be a real good freshman point guard for us, Jojo Wallace can score. If (Wallace) was playing against me and my staff 3-on-3, he would score, if he plays against you guys in practice, he would score, if you put ten NBA guys out there, he’d score as well.”
“And our front line, I think we’re bigger, we’re stronger, we’re more physical with Yaphet (Moundi), Rupert, Luke Jungers has had a great summer. Obviously you get caught up sometimes in wanting to be overly optimistic, but I feel like I have a pretty good feel. I like these guys. They give me energy. These guys are fun to be around.”
Patterson, a 6-foot-7 swingman who averaged nearly 24 points and nine rebounds per game at STAC this past season, will be an impactful player almost from the opening tip at Princeton on November 4. Anderson mentioned he could see time alongside both Rupert and junior college import Yaphet Moundi, giving Iona a physically imposing look down low.
“We brought four guys to FDU, but I probably should have brought five,” Anderson said of Patterson, who stayed in Rockland County and helped uphold STAC’s dominance. “Matt Capell, his head coach, is a pretty good friend of mine, so we rented him out for two years to him and Matt did a great job. (Patterson) just knows how to win now, he shoots the ball much better, he’s been a focal point of the scouting report so he knows what it’s like to get a lot of attention, and he just brings a good pedigree of success both personally and as part of a good team. And he knows our system. We have no one here who knows our system like he knows it. He kind of teaches the other guys well, so that helps.”
“We have a good group of guys up front who are physical. We won’t get bullied. The bullying time up front is over. Yaphet and Rupert, they’re not only physical, they want to inflict harm. They want to hit people. They’re like defensive linemen, and then a guy like Luke Jungers, a 6-foot-9 guy who can shoot the ball, is a change of speed, change of pace guy who can play with those guys, so I’m really excited about our front line.”
As the Gaels — like most teams of their ilk — now acclimate themselves to an almost consistent annual turnover, Anderson cited the need to build team chemistry expeditiously, something he initially cultivated by making sure he personally saw every player he ultimately signed and met with them and their families to establish relationships early.
“Every one of these guys on the roster, I flew out to and I’ve seen them in person,” Anderson proclaimed. “(I’ve had) face-to-face contact, met them, met their families, spent time with them, and you have to do that. If you don’t do that, you don’t get a chance to know them as well. You have to build those bonds quicker. We’ve spent so much time together just because you have to. Two months has to feel like two years sometimes.”
“It’s just reality. You have to manage it, you have to accept it. It used to be (where) you’d plan things two or three or four years in advance, but it’s not the same anymore. You have to adjust, and we constantly talk more about the options that are out there recruiting-wise. A big thing is getting guys who come here to stay, and I think getting them to stay is having a lot of success. Iona’s had a lot of success traditionally, so if we could win and make it a great experience, it only helps to make them feel more at home and keep them here.”
Iona still has three months before it opens the season, but early returns suggest the Gaels could be forwardly placed in a MAAC that could be more parity-laden and unpredictable than last season, no small feat considering the largely unknown makeups of half the conference’s rosters. Anderson cited the patience in layering his style and desired pace, but was also effusive in his praise of how the group has coagulated to date.
“We spent much more time as a staff with how we’re gonna teach things, being more patient, simplifying things,” he shared. “I want them to be instinctive. I want them to play with reckless abandon, and to do that, you’ve gotta feel comfortable. We’ve definitely changed our implementation of things. We didn’t put the press in until about two weeks ago. We may be behind team concept-wise, but we’re way ahead as far as competitiveness, camaraderie, playing together, playing for each other. That part’s more important than anything else.”
“You’ve gotta build a culture and all that stuff, and we didn’t have that last year, so we had to get to that. I think we’ve done a good job, but time will tell, obviously. You can talk all you want to in August, but what happens in the winter will make the difference. We had to get to that point and build this culture. These guys all want to be here, they all want to compete, they’re all here for the right reasons, and I feel really good about that.”
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