The 2012-13 Sacred Heart Men's Basketball Preview!!

It seems so long ago thinking back to the “glory years” of the Sacred Heart (SHU) Pioneers. It was only six years prior when players like Drew Shubik, Joey Henley, and Jarrid Frye were selflessly guiding the Pioneers into the upper echelon of the Northeast Conference (NEC). After watching awful Division I basketball for several seasons, Pioneer fans were suddenly spoiled with winning conference records, NEC playoff wins, and just a solid, fun display of good offensively efficient basketball.

That period, as it turned out, lasted for a grand three seasons. And it yielded two heartbreaking losses in the NEC title game, with the first defeat to Central Connecticut serving as one of the worst losses for me as a sports fan. It was the stomach punch game of all stomach punch games, when the Pioneers blew a 10-point lead with three minutes remaining and fell to the Javier Mojica led Blue Devils(1). In their second attempt to go dancing in the NCAA tournament, the Pioneers put forth a putrid home performance versus the Mount that allegedly led to an apologetic, rambling late night e-mail addressed to the entire campus by Mr. Dave Bike himself. In season three of the short-lived turnaround, the Joey Henley led Pioneers fell short in the semifinals to Milan Brown’s Mountaineers once again.

And that was it. Three years of above average basketball and nothing to show for it.

But rather than conger up awful feelings among the Pioneer faithful (oh wait, too late!), I’m laying out this cruel history to make a point. At least I think that’s what I’m doing.

The 2012-13 season in Fairfield (ok ok, the campus is really situated in Bridgeport) is supposed to be about hope. Can the Pioneers finally make a legitimate run at the NEC championship after toiling in mediocrity for the past three seasons? Can they once and for all capitalize on a signature Shane Gibson season by cutting down the nets in early March? Or will this be another merciless twist of agonizing losses that could slide the Pioneers back into perpetual mediocrity?

Lots of questions to answer, so let’s start with the season preview, shall we?

If you read my team preview last year (shameless plug alert), you knew I was bullish on SHU taking that next step from a lower tier team to a team with an outside chance at league contention. Bike’s Pioneers did in fact improve, but they only made it halfway based on my expectations. SHU finished 8-10 in the conference - their third consecutive losing season in the NEC – en route to a disappointing first round loss in the NEC tournament at the hands of eventual champion LIU Brooklyn.

The season left such a bitter taste in the Pioneer fan’s mouth, thanks to a record of 4-8 in NEC games decided in the final two minutes. The late game futility was not only responsible for a significant drop in the NEC standings, but it was simply brutal to watch. Justin Swidowski missed two free throws with SHU down one point with 13 seconds remaining against Central Connecticut. Velton Jones drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer to give Robert Morris a stunning comeback victory in SHU’s second to last home game of the season. SHU was leading Monmouth by eight points with three minutes left, only to inexplicably lose by seven. Watching this team when it mattered most felt like sitting through a Philosophy 101 class … at 8 AM … while hungover.

Despite the lack of execution during crunch time, it’s fair to deduce that bad luck was partially involved. Perhaps the Pioneers will not only be better late in the game, but also they’ll be more fortunate. After all, if just two of those games were converted into wins, then SHU’s 10-8 NEC mark – and number five seed in the conference tournament – would be viewed as a success. But enough with cherry picking data and theorizing about the “what-ifs.”

First let’s focus on the good. Shane Gibson is returning! The greatest player in SHU history (I’m sorry if I keep repeating that in other posts, but it’s 100% true) is coming off a junior season where he averaged an absurd 22.0 points per game, while posting fantastic shooting percentages of 51% FG/ 43% 3PT/ 86% FT(2). Quite simply, Gibson’s efficiency was off the charts, even though the Pioneers were devoid of a consistent scoring threat alongside Gibson, which consequently led to a stifling amount of defensive focus thrown at the 6’2” guard. This offseason, Gibson has built up his lower half so he can defend better late in the game and will focus on being more aggressive driving toward the rim. Really, to expect anything less from the borderline NBA prospect than an efficient 21 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 1.5 steals per game would probably be as foolish as expecting SHU’s tuition rate to trend downward next semester.

As awesome as Gibson is though, we all know you can’t win a college basketball conference championship with just one superstar. In past ten seasons, only one team has represented the NEC in the NCAA tournament with the conference's scoring champion on their team. Within the same period, Sacred Heart has had three NEC scoring champions (Kibwe Trim 2005-06, Corey Hassan 2009-10, Gibson 2011-12). The combined conference record of those three Pioneer teams? 23-31(3).

Therefore, it’s paramount for any team to have a strong supporting cast, in order to compete in an ultra-competitive conference such as the emerging NEC. Are there players who can step up to become the reliable second, third, and even fourth option behind Gibson?



It all begins with 6’9” senior power forward Justin Swidowski. Despite putting up good numbers (11.1 PPG, 5.3 RPG, 1.3 BPG) in his first season at the Division I level, Swidowski was plagued with inconsistency. The versatile Swidowski had difficultly staying on the court, fouling out in six games and finding himself in foul trouble for many more. It’s his health, however, that is of more concern at the moment. After missing four games this past season, Swidowski had shoulder surgery in the offseason. Currently, he hasn’t been cleared to fully practice, although he's probable to begin the season in uniform.

If Swidowski misses time in the foreseeable future, the pressure lands partially on freshman Tevin Falzon’s shoulders. The 6’7” Falzon is a bit of a Swidowski clone - he has excellent range, is comfortable on the perimeter, and possesses several on-the-ball skills that should help him become an all-conference type of player down the road. To ask a freshman to fill in seamlessly for a veteran, however, may be asking a bit much(4).



Beside Falzon, the other freshman of note is 6'6" forward De'Aires Tate. Arguably the most athletic player on the team, Tate is the rare player who revels in doing the dirty work around the basket. In high school, Tate was a superb rebounder, shot-blocker, and running of the floor, therefore it’s safe to expect the same role for him moving forward. He's the kind of player Bike has been missing on his team for years. If utilized properly, Tate could have an immediate impact, much like Falzon.



Another important contributor bitten by the injury bug is junior guard Chris Evans. An All-NEC rookie team selection in 2010-11, Evans showed marginal improvement in an injury plagued sophomore season, yet still finished in the team’s top three in points, assists, and steals per game. He’s a stat-filler, for the lack of a better term, whose presence on the floor absolutely helps the Pioneers on both ends. Recently though, Evans has been shutout of practice, thanks to swelling in his surgically repaired knee. The timetable for his return, like Swidowski, is currently unknown and possibly even more dire(5).

If Evans misses a significant amount of time – and reports suggest that could be the case – then the onus falls on redshirt-sophomore Steve Glowiak. The 6’3 guard came to SHU from hard-hitting New Britain, Connecticut with the ability to drain the long-range jumper, but his first season in Fairfield disappointed in that regard. After a couple of solid performances early last season, including a 16 point effort versus Hampton in late November, Glowiak morphed into a ball-chucking guard who would heave the basketball toward the rim seemingly at first touch. By the middle of the conference season, Bike had no choice but to delegate garbage time minutes to Glowiak, not just because of the guard’s putrid 24.2% three-point percentage(6), but also because he was providing little else on the court.

In essence, that was a long-winded explanation just to say the following about Glowiak’s future prospects: He really needs to improve his shot selection and help the Pioneers in other ways off-the-ball. Can he do that? I have no freaking idea and neither do the coaches at this moment…

With Swidowski and Evans’ health issues hardly settled, the player most likely to become Gibson’s Robin is junior Louis Montes. Once the young man with the best neck beard on campus(7), Montes came to SHU this fall in … (wait for it) … the best shape of his life(8)! Yep, I just unloaded an tired sports cliché, but with Swidowski and Evans already less than 100% healthy, this is what we’re going with. Louis Montes is in the best shape of his life, so much so that Dave Bike proudly told me how much Montes has been sweating on the court these days. I’m not kidding.

In all seriousness, the 6’4” Montes is coming off a season where he finished in the top 15 of the NEC in rebound rate and showed flashes of becoming an excellent forward in this league. Once again, consistency has been the issue. This season, if Swidowski can ever get healthy and Falzon and Tate can play meaningful minutes at power forward, then Montes can slot back to his more natural position at small forward. He's been reportedly working hard on his ball-handling skills and outside shooting, thus to forecast a breakout season for Montes is far from a stretch.

At the point guard position, the minutes will go to junior Evan Kelley and Pioneer Pride favorite Phil Gaetano. The latter is the most natural floor general of the two, although Kelley is a better playmaker with the athleticism to slash to the hole and pop from the outside. Gaetano, however, is far more heady and composed, and was quite impressive running the point last season as a college basketball novice. If Gaetano can successfully look for his shot more and improve his turnover rate, then I'm expecting big things out of the diminutive point guard in his sophomore season.

In the frontcourt is team captain and noted Republican Nick Greenbacker(9), who surely provides value in the locker room, but on the court shouldn't play more than 15-20 minutes per game. Like Swidowski, Greenbacker has added range to his game, so at the very least, the senior could pull post defenders out of the paint if he sinks more than 35% of his three-point attempts.

Rounding out the bench are big men Femi Akinpetide and Mostafa Abdel-Latif, who by design should play no more than 10-12 minutes per game. Each player, though limited, has his strengths – Akinpetide can provide energy on the offensive glass and Abdel-Latif gives SHU one of their few … check that … their ONLY back-to-the basket post presence. Abdel-Latif, a transfer from Egypt with an awesome afro, may be a liability on the defensive end despite his burly 6’8 body.

Add it all up, and you have a SHU roster that can excel on the perimeter, but will probably struggle to defend and rebound the basketball. The Pioneers once again will rely heavily on their shooting – especially outside the paint – to win games. Hmm, doesn't that sound familiar?

Unfortunately, it may not be enough to crack the upper quarter of the NEC, which is depressing as hell with Gibson and Swidowski no longer eligible to play collegiate basketball after this season. Right now, I’m forecasting a 15-14 regular season mark, right in line with popular advance statistician Ken Pomeroy. A 15-win season would mark their first winning season in four years, which as I said earlier in this preview, seems so long ago. The Pioneers should win ten conference games, good enough to tie for fifth place in the NEC standings.

I’m hoping for more, but I’m an unapologetic realist who fully understands the limitations of his favorite team. To ask the Pioneers to lock down a LIU Brooklyn on offense, to match up with Wagner’s athleticism, or to grind out victories versus Robert Morris is a ton to ask, yet stranger things have certainly happened.

This is why they play the games. I know I’ll be watching this winter and you should too. At the very least, you’ll get witness the great Shane Gibson in his last season before he begins what should be a successful professional career. But maybe, just maybe, Pioneer fans can be treated to some meaningful basketball in early March.

Footnotes:
(1) The fact that Mojica led the improbable comeback made for a great story, because Mojica's mother was close to committing suicide before being saved by her son 12 years prior. This story was rightfully pumped up by ESPN 2 during the televised broadcast, and surely helped the Worldwide Leader with a prominent storyline as CCSU was making their comeback. 
(2) I did not need to look up Gibson’s shooting percentages, since I already knew them by heart. I wish I was joking. 
(3) Again, I did not need to look that record up. I may have a problem…
(4) Personally, I like Falzon and his long-term potential A LOT, but it's never easy for any freshman big man to produce right away. Not every rookie will produce out of the gate like Jalen Cannon or Julian Boyd.
(5) Gulp.
(6) Glowiak has the dubious distinction of having the worst single season three-point percentage (with more than 60 attempts, aka ~2 attempts per game) in Sacred Heart history since Tre Samuels made only 23.3% of his long-range bombs in the 2001-02 season.
(7) Because of the beard, I almost gave Montes the nickname, Baby Lebron. Almost…
(8) I always think back when baseball player Jeff Franceour, then of the Atlanta Braves, bragged to the media how he added lots of muscle in the offseason and was in the best shape of his life. I took the bait in my fantasy draft and six months later, Franceour had hit a pedestrian 0.239 with 11 HRs and 71 RBIs in 155 games. So much for being in the best shape of his life! And for those of you keeping score, that is two Franceour references in as many SHU blog previews.
(9) Greenbacker's tweets per minute during the Presidential debates was, and I'm totally estimating, about 23.4 tweets/minute. Quite entertaining.

Ryan Peters covers Sacred Heart men's basketball and the Northeast Conference at Pioneer Pride and Big Apple Buckets. You can follow him on Twitter @pioneer_pride

Pioneer Pride Quick Hits I

It is time for the first installment of the Pioneer Pride’s Quick Picks!  Let’s begin…

• I’m excited to announce my inclusion into Big Apple Buckets Power Poll!  John Templon, the creator of nycbuckets.com, does a terrific job covering college basketball programs in the New York City area.  Every month on his website, he releases a Power Poll, which ranks all the teams in the tri-state area.  The NEC teams included in this poll are St. Francis (NY), Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson, Wagner, Long Island University and, of course, Sacred Heart.  I’ve been recently added as a voter of the poll, along with 13 other beat reporters and bloggers of different teams.  Time to study up before I cast my vote this Sunday night!

• It’s been a light week in college basketball – thanks to finals week – therefore I’ve caught up on some reading material.  In the past 2 weeks, there have been 3 features on individual Pioneer players.  William Paxton, of the Connecticut Post, wrote an excellent piece on SHU forward Femi Akinpetide, detailing his charitable work off the court.  Chris Elsberry, also of the Connecticut Post, featured junior forward Justin Swidowski, by illustrating the toxic losing atmosphere Swidowski was subjected at his prior school, Holy Family.  Reading this article is a must, because if you stick with it until the end, you’ll be rewarded with a Dave Bike fat joke!  And finally, a small piece on Phil Gaetano was penned yesterday by Record Journal writer John Petit.  It was evident in the article that Bike is expecting big things from his freshman guard.  Look for Gaetano's playing time to increase during the conference season if Evan Kelley continues to provide erratic minutes at the point.

• Tim Tebow is clearly God's quarterback.  But who is God's team in college basketball?  We are about to find out!  On Monday night, SHU will travel to South Bend to take on their second and final Big East opponent of the year, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame (7-4, RPI 228) has struggled out of the gate, thanks to senior Tim Abromaitis shredding his knee ligament, thus requiring season-ending surgery.  Without Abromatitis, Notre Dame has failed to defeat anyone in the RPI top 175 and now finds themselves only a couple RPI points ahead of SHU (6-6, RPI: 231).  So does SHU have a chance to end Notre Dame’s 26 game non-conference home winning streak?  Quite simply, no.

• David Wright apparently has it all.  A very good baseball player entering his prime, check.  Good looks and a boyish innocence, check.  A multi-million dollar contract, check.  But is he a dominant player in fantasy football??  David is currently part of a MLB players 12 team fantasy football league hosted by CBS Sports, and from the looks of it, he has one hell of a team.  Now if only David can hit the goddamn ball out of Citi Field every once in a while…

(Side note:  Ben Sheets evidently sucks at staying healthy and fantasy football)

SHU Holds Off Quinnipiac in an Ugly NEC Battle

On Thursday night, Sacred Heart (5-3, 1-0 NEC) opened up their Northeast Conference season with a valuable road win over in-state foe Quinnipiac (2-4, 0-1 NEC).  The Pioneers were led once again by Shane Gibson with 21 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists, and they also received significant contributions from Chris Evans and Femi Akinpetide.  But before I analyze this game further, I need to get something off my chest…

(WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  SUCK IT QUINNIPIAC!!!!!!  WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!)

Ok.  My apologies, but my hate for the Quinnipiac University Bobcats runs deep.  You see I’ve experienced the SHU/Quinnipiac rivalry as a former college “athlete” of the tennis team.  My first ever college match was against Quinnipiac, and I remember it like it was yesterday.  There I was, a freshman, pumped up beyond belief before the match, only to get thoroughly beaten by my opponent, 6-2, 6-1.  In the second set, my arrogant adversary began hitting drop shot after drop shot, and doing it well I might add.  He was absolutely having some fun at my expense.  Once the match mercifully ended, as we were shaking hands at the net, he smugly proclaimed that he had never hit drop shots like that before our encounter.  It doesn’t sound like much on paper, but trust me, it was the way he said it and that shit-eating grin on his face.  It also didn’t help that he high fived his equally arrogant coach right in front of me. 

Since that day as a 19 year old, I’ve openly rooted against Quinnipiac.  These days, despite being far removed from campus life, it still isn’t difficult to hate Quinnipiac.  Their head coach Tom Moore, the former UConn assistant coach to Jim Calhoun, just has a slimy feel about him.  Moore was the center of attention in the Nate Miles recruiting scandal, a scandal that nearly derailed Calhoun’s legacy.  Moore allegedly tried to pry SHU assistant coach Anthony Latina from Bike’s staff a couple years ago.  Recently, he merely suspended one player for one game, even though 5 of his players – 4 of them starters - were arrested after a campus fight in September!  Let’s see, three students get their face smashed in, one player is arrested for assault, 2 others for misdemeanor assault, and very little discipline is handed out?  What was Moore’s final punishment to the players, extra suicides at the end of practice?

And to add the cherry of top of the Tom Moore hate sundae, he even enjoys killing bunnies for fun!  Ok, I made that last sentence up.  Sorry, I couldn’t help myself.  But you get the point, therefore you can imagine my excitement when SHU broke their 5 game losing streak to the Bobcats yesterday in Hamden.

So how did SHU do it?  With some defense, quality bench play and, quite frankly, luck.  Quinnipiac, the nation’s leader in rebounds, grossly outrebounded SHU 45-29 (the SHU website wrongly reported the Pioneers having 39 rebounds).  SHU turned the ball over 16 times, yet only compiled 12 assists.  They shot a pedestrian 42% from the floor and 69% from the charity stripe.  Justin Swidowski, their best low block presence who’s quickly establishing himself as a human foul machine, played only 16 minutes in the game before fouling out for the second time in the past 3 games.  Senior Stan Dulaire played 11 of the most unproductive minutes you’ll ever see on a box score.  Based on those stats alone, you’d think it was an easy home victory for Quinnipiac.

Enter the Pioneer defense.  They held Qunnipiac to a 31% field goal percentage and were somehow able to clamp down whenever the Bobcats made a run.  My man Chris “The Future” Evans, after a couple of lackluster games, scored 11 points on only 3 shot attempts.  He also added 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block.  Even more unexpected was the performance of Femi Akinpetide.  After I called him “offensively inept” in my previous post, Akinpetide responded – I’m sure to my criticism - by filling in admirably for a foul-troubled Swidowski and an ineffective Dulaire.  11 points and 6 rebounders for the 6’6’’ Akinpetide is a solid performance, especially when he had to bang bodies down low with the leading rebounder of the NEC, and alleged assaulter, Ike Azotam.  And finally, Shane Gibson was just being, well Shane Gibson. 

Later this afternoon, the Pioneers head to lovely New Britain, Connecticut to face another NEC in-state rival, Central Connecticut.  Central has been red-hot lately, having recently routed Hartford and Bryant University.  The Blue Devils are spearheaded by a 3-headed scoring monster, led by the 2010-2011 NEC Player of the Year, Ken Horton.  This will serve as a terrific litmus test for the Pioneer defense, although we must be cautious before thinking SHU has the team to compete at the top of the NEC.  Another victory today however and I move that much closer to delusional dreams of a future NCAA tourney birth.

SHU Defeats Brown in my Highly Anticipated (OK Maybe Not) Return to Campus

For the first time this season, I was on campus to witness a Sunday afternoon basketball showdown between the Sacred Heart Pioneers and the Brown Bears.  Before the game, I decided to visit the recently built Chapel of the Holy Spirit, which now occupies a portion of the campus quad where the famous (or infamous, depending on who you ask) 1998 J-Hill Football Battle took place.  I knelt down and prayed for a SHU win, and for my friend Dave’s future mental health, since my bony knee collided with Dave’s temple during a tackle to leave him mildly concussed in the aforementioned football game (sorry Dave, but if someone gets concussed while I compete for a win, so be it).  After this brief one-way conversation with God, I found myself in the Pitt Center amongst a raucous crowd of…..434 people.  Not even the mascot, Big Red, made a pity appearance.  It was just the type of atmosphere I would expect for a NEC/Ivy League basketball game over Thanksgiving break.

Nonetheless, there I was enjoying the game.  I was hopeful SHU could bounce back after a brutal loss against Lipscomb, where they were literally 10 seconds away from winning the "prestigious" Cancun Classic, Riviera Division Tournament at a Mexican resort in a giant ballroom. No really, they played the Cancun tourney in a freaking ballroom!  In the game, Evan Kelley competed masterfully down the stretch, but came up un-clutch by missing the tying free throws with 3 seconds remaining.  How would SHU respond to that?

Well, SHU played a frustratingly inconsistent game – especially on the defensive side of the ball - against Brown, but luckily for them, 80% of Brown’s starting lineup consisted of slowish white guys who had trouble creating their own shot.  Oh the joys of Ivy League basketball!  In the end, SHU avenged last year’s loss to Brown with a 77-64 victory, to improve their record to 4-3.  My notes from the game are below:

•  My first look at freshman guards Steve Glowiak and Phil Gaetano was positive.  Yes, Gaetano made a couple of costly turnovers in the 2nd half and Glowiak has never met a shot he didn’t like, but we must not forget that these kids need time to mature.  Gaetano is the only actual point guard on the roster with talent (sorry Steve Zazuri, but you’re only on the team because daddy played for Bike years ago), and Glowiak displayed his range in the 1st half by draining 3 quick buckets to spark an 18-2 SHU run.  There will be ups and there will be downs, but patience must be practiced with these freshmen.

• When Brown had erased a 15 point deficit midway through the 2nd half, it was Shane Gibson and the bearded Louis Montes who stepped up their play late in the game.  Gibson really played the part of team leader, by willing SHU through some brutal offensive stretches by sinking some critical shots when it looked like Brown could extend their lead.  Once Gibson and company took back the lead, Montes drained a couple of wide open three pointers to effectively ice the game.

•  For the most part, Bike did a good job rotating his players, although I’m still scratching my head over the offensively inept Femi Akinpetide getting 17 minutes on the floor.  Luckily, Bike came to his senses by removing Akinpetide for good with 12 minutes remaining in the 2nd half.  On a related note, SHU outscored Brown 26-10 to close out the game!

•  The afro on inactive junior forward Mostafa Abdel Latif is growing in nicely.  To the 5 SHU students who read this blog – please, please, please keep Abdel Latif away from the Haircutters Salon at the Trumbull Mall.  His hair has great potential if it avoids clippers for the next few months.  Thank you.

Later this week, the Pioneers begin conference play with a couple of difficult road games, at Quinnipiac on Thursday and at Central Connecticut on Saturday.  I would easily sign up for a split, which is realistic if we get the Sacred Heart team that defeated Hartford, Stony Brook and Hampton.  If we get the team that coughed up a 15 point lead to Brown however, then it could be a messy start for Bike’s squad in the NEC.

The 2011-2012 Sacred Heart University Men's Basketball Preview...Well Sort of

After three years of flirting with a NEC championship and the school’s first ever NCAA birth, Sacred Heart University (SHU) has toiled in mediocrity for the past 2 seasons.  The team, rife with inconsistency, poor front court play, and lousy defense, has failed to even qualify for its league’s tournament, even though the NEC is arguably the worst league in Division 1 basketball.  No wonder no one cares to write a team preview!

So here I am, as one of the three-dozen diehard Sacred Heart men’s basketball fans left, providing you with a blinded, unqualified, and late in-depth look at the 2011-2012 team.  Trust me, I’m the right man for the job.  I may reside in Maryland these days, but last year I received several incredulous glances from my wife for interrupting dinner because I was listening to the radio feed of a SHU/St. Francis (NY) game in the middle of January.  You may call it a sickness, I call it Big Red Pioneer passion baby!!  Anyway, you’re all welcome for the preview.  Feel free to high-five me next time we cross paths at the Pitt Center to show your gratitude.  Just please don’t interrupt me while I’m guiltily checking out the dance team.

OK moving along…despite their poor 2010-11 campaign, there are a number of reasons to be optimistic about SHU basketball this season.  Naturally, I’ll start with the most insignificant reason.  One of my all-time favorite players, Drew Shubik, has been hired as an assistant coach!  This former scrappy, hard-nosed guard was the heart and soul of those successful SHU teams and now he’s coaching 4 years later.  I guess he wasn’t good enough to play in Europe, but that’s beside the point.  Hopefully now, his youthfulness and energy will inject life and defensive intensity into the team, because God knows Dave Bike and assistant coach Johnny Kidd aren’t getting any younger.  Sure, adding Shubik to the coaching staff will probably account for, let’s say 0 extra wins, but at least I can look over to the bench and see a coach under the age of 50…and not wearing the same old tired black turtleneck/gray jacket combo like Bike.

(And now please excuse me for a moment, as I relive the Shubik glory years of 2006-2008)…

Onto to the actual players - guard Shane Gibson stepped up to have an extraordinary campaign last season, averaging 17.2 pts/game while shooting a solid 39% from beyond the arch.  Despite finishing second in NEC scoring, Gibson was inexplicably left off of this year’s NEC Preseason 1st team.  I’m not sure why, other than that no one respects the Pioneers.  Nonetheless, Bike is drinking the Gibson Kool-Aid, so much so that Bike recently said in an interview that Gibson was among the best offfensive players in New England.  Wow, really?!  Among stars like Jeremy Lamb of UConn?!  Regardless, Gibson has a chance to be the most prolific scorer in SHU history, and he’s only a junior.  Starting alongside Gibson at the point will be lanky sophomore Evan Kelley, or as his friends awesomely call him, Young Money.  This freshly minted point guard has big shoes to fill with the departure of the Jerrell Thompson.  Kelley’s length should give him a size advantage over most NEC point guards, although it remains to be seen if Young Money can shoulder the ball handling duties.  Backing up Kelley will be Bike’s best recruit of the 2011 class, 5’10’’ freshman Phil Gaetano.  Gaetano, although short in stature, posted impressive stats in high school and should play meaningful minutes to showcase his superior ball control skills.  Gaetano’s poise could act as the perfect complement to Kelley’s apparent lack of maturity.  

Two other sophomore guards, Chris “The Future” Evans and Louis Montes will play significant minutes for the Pioneers.  A 2010-2011 all-NEC rookie team selection, Evans does something that many former SHU guards never did, drive aggressively to the hole.  For years, SHU fans have been subjected to watching ball-chuckers like Ryan Litke, Luke Granato, and Corey Hassen, who all wouldn’t have driven to the hole if there were a free pie from Sergio’s Pizza waiting for them under the basket.  Their heave-first mentality has made this guy appreciate Evans, since he can score in a variety of ways.  The final piece of the guard rotation will be manned by red-shirt freshman Steve Glowiak, who should provide SHU with a deep threat off the bench.

Since the departure of power forwards Brice Brooks and Joey Henley, Bike has failed to recruit a respectable front court presence that could score and defend the paint (and no, I’m not counting Liam “The Big Suck” Potter and Mehmet “The Turkish Nightmare” Sahan as capable replacements).  Until now.  Justin Swidowski, or as I deem him The Polish Post-up (I’ll accept nickname suggestions until Dec. 31st), may be the dominating low-block presence SHU has been waiting for.  Swidowski averaged an impressive 24 points and 9 boards per game two seasons ago, albeit at division 2 school Holy Family.  Whether his production translates to the NEC remains to be seen, although his performance against Harford and Stony Brook are certainly an encouraging start.  Starting alongside Swidowski is undersized senior co-captain Stan Dulaire, whose athleticism will provide the occasional highlight reel dunk, and more importantly, help him compete with most NEC power forwards.

Other than Swidowski and Dulaire, the only other front court player worth mentioning is junior co-captain Nick Greenbacker.  By all accounts, Greenbacker is a smart, hard-working, and well respected presence in the locker room, but is an ultimately flawed player who should provide no more than 10 minutes per game.  Basically, he’s the Jeff Francoeur of SHU basketball.  It is our hope that Greenbacker doesn’t attempt to cheer up his teammates by shooting around in only his underwear, like Mr. Franceour would do.

The rest of the roster is filled out with non-contributors like Femi Akinpetide and slow-footed Steve Zazuri, who shouldn’t see significant minutes this season.  If they do, well it will be a third straight pathetic season of SHU basketball.  At the very least, the Egyptian bench-ridden power forward, Mostafa Abdel Latif should provide fans with an entertaining afro.

All in all, the Pioneers are most likely a year away from having a respectable chance towards clinching that ever-elusive NCAA berth.  For this season, I expect a sizable improvement in the team’s performance.  Like Bike said in a preseason interview, there are no more excuses with this roster!  My prediction - the Sacred Heart Pioneers finish near 0.500 overall, and finally qualify for the NEC tournament with a respectable 10-8 conference record.  They’ll eventually fall in the NEC semis to a “powerhouse” team like Long Island or Robert Morris, but in the end, we’ll be encouraged with the direction of the program.  With any luck, I’ll be in the Pitt Center cheering on the Big Red at the NEC championship game in March of 2013.  How glorious it will be...until I'm forced to relive the nightmare of the 2008 championship fiasco.  But that’s for another bitter blog entry.  Until then, let’s go Pioneers!