Sacred Heart shows signs of life, upside in decisive win over UNH

By Ray Curren (@currenrr)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — From the outside, it might have been a big surprise that Sacred Heart was leaving the Northeast Conference, where it had resided and seemed to fit in quite well since moving to Division I in 1999.

But if you had been to the campus in the last few years, let’s just say there’s some money going into things, most notably new buildings everywhere, including a new $70 million hockey arena that opened last year.

And so into the MAAC Sacred Heart goes, whether its men’s basketball program is ready or not. While they won’t get a new arena, the antiquated Pitt Center has undergone a massive renovation, and (much like the Hynes Center) will be largely unrecognizable from its old self when it reopens Thursday as the Pioneers take on, ironically, old NEC pal Central Connecticut.

While Sacred Heart was picked dead last in the MAAC preseason poll and began the year 0-4, it showed plenty of life Saturday night in the second of three games at the Brown College Hill Classic, rolling past New Hampshire, 80-63, despite playing without injured starters Anquan Hill and Tanner Thomas.

Head coach Anthony Latina was also not in attendance due to a family emergency, so longtime assistant Kyle Steinway—who has been with the program for a decade—took the reins and the team recognized him by chanting his name as the final buzzer sounded.

“Obviously we’ve been struggling,” Steinway said. “We challenged them (Friday) night after the game. We had a long film session. I thought the effort was a losing effort from too many guys, so we challenged them to raise it up. They answered, and we need to do that every night.”

One look at the data shows where the Pioneers (1-4) will need to improve to be competitive in the MAAC, and it’s on the defensive end. Sacred Heart has not finished higher than 227th nationally in defensive efficiency during Latina’s tenure (he’s now in his 12th season), and it’s perhaps the biggest reason Sacred Heart has never gone to the NCAA Tournament.

Last season was a prime example. The Pioneers led the NEC in offense by a wide margin and even being sixth on defense, were able to go 12-6, but lost in the quarterfinals of the conference tournament to eventual winner Wagner.

Steinway and his staff are obviously aware of the issue, and after what they thought was another flat defensive effort in an 82-75 loss to Holy Cross, which put up 1.32 points per possession Friday night, worked hard overnight to make adjustments. 

The result was an energetic (even in an empty gym) defense that held an opponent under 80 for the first time all season. Per KenPom, New Hampshire has one of the worst offenses in the country (355th currently), but it’s a start, with another tough test against host Brown to finish the College Hill Classic on Sunday.

“The biggest thing that is different about this year is I think we have a team that can defend,” Steinway said. “We’ve always had super talented guards and offensive guys, but there are pros and cons there, we’ve had smaller guards. We haven’t always had the personnel to be a great defensive team, but I can say we are going to be a good defensive team. We have athleticism, length, we can do this.”

As always at this level these days, there are plenty of new faces for Sacred Heart, but—also as always—the Pioneers should be able to score. Hill was the 2021-22 NEC Rookie of the Year at FDU before transferring to St. Bonaventure. Two separate injuries have kept him out, but he is 8-for-9 from the field and 4-of-5 from three in limited action. Hofstra transfer Griffin Barrouk is a pure shooter who hit a couple of big long-range bombs Saturday night. And three returners (other than Thomas who has been injured) that should play a huge role are: Siena castoff Aidan Carpenter (who leads the team in minutes), Bryce Johnson (who spent last season at Northeastern before returning), and Raymond Espinal-Guzman (who is from Rhode Island). All three of those players come with the aforementioned size the Pioneers have often lacked.

They also got some big minutes Saturday from freshman guard Nyle Ralph-Beyer, who played just 10 minutes in their first three games.

“When we had that meeting yesterday, we said everything is on the table, the lineup, everything,” Steinway said. “We’ll play anyone if they can get the job done. We even had a couple guys we didn’t get to today that I feel comfortable with.”

But the biggest key may be at the point guard position, which has been turned over to true freshman Mekhi Conner, who dominated Connecticut high school basketball and the staff has very high hopes for, especially on the defensive end. Saturday, Conner had four steals as the Pioneers forced 14 turnovers and dominated on the glass, 44-22, getting 17 offensive rebounds.

One game does not a season make, and the MAAC (although won last season by Saint Peter’s, which finished 305th in offensive efficiency) is sure to pose problems that Sacred Heart did not see in the NEC. But they think they can do a lot better than last.