Four Excellent Candidates Fight for the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year

For the final installment of my Northeast Conference regular season awards, I delve into the Coach of the Year debate.  Like the Player and Rookie of the Year races, this vote is completely unpredictable.  In any given year, my top 4 coaches could all be the favorite to win the award, but this season has been unusual to say the least.  Below, I examine each candidate and attempt to make sense of which man deserves the 2011-2012 Northeast Conference Coach of the Year.

3b. Jim Ferry, Long Island University

The Case:  All Jim Ferry has done is lead the Blackbirds to back-to-back regular season NEC championships.  This feat was accomplished in dominant fashion, with the Blackbirds winning 16 of their 18 NEC games this season.  Under Ferry's watch, the LIU Blackbirds have become one of the most efficient offenses in the history of the NEC.

The Argument:  John Templon, in one of his latest posts, stated it perfectly when he wrote that Ferry was “a victim of expectations.”  Ferry’s squad was picked in the preseason to win it all, so their place at the top of the standings comes as no surprise.  Anything less than first place with LIU’s talent, may be categorized as an abject failure.

The Verdict:  Perhaps unfairly so, this season’s lofty expectations will prevent Ferry from earning another Jim Phelan Coach of the Year award, especially in a season where there are multiple candidates worthy of the distinction.

3a. King Rice, Monmouth University

The Case:  The rookie head coach has improbably led his Hawks to a 10-8 NEC record in his first season, despite inheriting a team that hasn't finished with a winning conference record since the 2005-2006 season.  Picked 10th in the Coaches Preseason Poll, Monmouth has greatly exceeded expectations by defeating NEC playoff teams LIU, Sacred Heart, St. Francis (NY) and CCSU, while battling Wagner and Robert Morris in closely contested battles at home.

The Argument:  I’m really digging here, but Monmouth has been a tad fortunate in several of their wins.  After stunning Sacred Heart in a terrific come-from-behind victory, King Rice admitted his team got a little lucky.  And Monmouth’s last two regular season victories came when one team was banged up considerably (St. Francis, NY) and another was just playing out the regular season after locking up a #1 seed (LIU).

The Verdict:  Rice has done a phenomenal job in his first season and has the Hawks moving in the right direction.  But given the seasonal accomplishments of the two coaches I’m about to discuss, I feel Rice falls just short of serious consideration for the Coach of the Year honors.

2. Dan Hurley, Wagner College

The Case:  Where do I start?  Dan Hurley led Wagner to 24 wins, a single season school record.  Wagner’s 12 road victories are tied for first in the country (with mid-major power Murray State) this season.  His Seahawks impressed in the non-conference portion of their schedule, with victories over Pittsburgh, Air Force, and Santa Clara to get them the national recognition that no NEC team has ever experienced.  Even if Wagner falls short of winning the postseason championship, Hurley’s Seahawks are still a virtual lock to qualify for the NIT tournament.  What a season it has been for the Green and White in Staten Island.

The Argument:  Like Jim Ferry, Hurley may be a victim of expectations.  Picked 4th in the preseason poll, Wagner was expected to compete for a NEC title given the talent on the roster.  It seems a bit unfair since Hurley did in fact recruit guys like Kenneth Ortiz, Latif Rivers, and Mario Moody, but their conference success comes with little surprise.

The Verdict:  It’s an agonizing decision, but the final coach I will discuss moves just ahead of Hurley, despite Wagner's terrific achievements.  I certainly wouldn’t be shocked if the NEC made Hurley a Co-Coach of the Year, because Hurley and this next coach would each have a legitimate gripe should they finish 2nd in the ballot.

1. Glenn Braica, St. Francis College

The Case:  Second year head coach Glenn Braica led St. Francis to a surprising 5th place finish last season, however the expectations were significantly lower heading into the 2011-2012 campaign.  The Terriers lost their two leading scorers to graduation and then point-guard and team leader Dre Calloway to a shoulder injury.  That situation seems dire, right?  Well all Braica did was better his conference record from last season, by getting his team to buy into a team first mentality while competing hard defensively and on the glass.  In spite of not having a player finish in the NEC top 20 in scoring, Braica willed his team to a 12-6 conference record and a first round home game in the conference tournament.

The Argument:  There really isn’t an argument against Braica, other than stating that Hurley’s record and accomplishments were simply better.  In fact, it’s difficult to come up with a solid argument for any of these coaches.  That's what makes this vote so difficult.

The Verdict:  Given the low expectations, and Braica’s ability to coach his team to victory in several close games, I would vote for Glenn Braica as my 2011-2012 Coach of the Year.

Do you agree or disagree?  And in case you missed it, go here for my NEC Player of the Year and here for my NEC Rookie of the Year selections.

You can follow Pioneer Pride on Twitter at @pioneer_pride

A Night Out With the Hurleys - Wagner/Mount St. Mary's Game Recap

Mount St. Mary's University is located a healthy 70 miles away from my workplace, and another 50 miles in a different direction from my home. It certainly makes for a challenging commute on a snowy weekday game night, and one that I shouldn't normally attempt (if only my wife really knew where Emmitsburg, Maryland was).

However, with the Wagner Seahawks in town, I couldn't pass up this opportunity. The Hurley brothers, Dan and Bobby, were now coaching one of the more hyped mid-major programs in the country. They were so hyped that features about Dan Hurley now existed in the USA Today, New York Times, and Andy Katz's ESPN college basketball blog. The national attention was so hot that people had recently begun asking silly questions on Twitter like, "could Wagner receive an at-large bid if they don't win the NEC tournament?"

(The answer: absolutely not, but they look good qualifying for the NIT at their current pace)

I needed to witness the Hurley Hype in-person, mainly because I was interested in Wagner's suffocating pressure defense, the same defense that held Northeast Conference opponents to a league-best 0.86 points per possession and 26.7 percent from behind the arc.

I arrived at Knott Arena a few minutes late, but just in time to witness an early 12-2 run by Hurley's Seahawks. As I had expected, the Mount players had great difficultly running their offense in the half-court set, thanks in large part to Wagner's pesky guard play of Kenneth Oritz and Latif Rivers. On the offensive end, a couple of Tyler Murray three-pointers gave Wagner a nice cushion merely five minutes into the contest.

If you didn't know the score, however, you would have thought Wagner was losing, due to the sideline antics of one Dan Hurley. The screaming of instructions, the foot stomping, and the constant pleading with the referees made Hurley appear as an angry and cantankerous man (and certainly not a favorite among the Mount faithful I sat near). His antics, I must admit, were tired and even at times, comical. It got to a point in the first half where I seemed more interested in watching Dan Hurley's reactions than I was in watching the game. Perhaps I should have instead sat behind the Mount's bench, led by their subdued and tranquil coach Robert Burke?

Nevertheless, I settled down, and so did the Mount St. Mary players -- well, to a degree. A few buckets in the paint from sophomore center Kristijan Krajina reduced Wagner's lead to six points, but a late rally pushed their advantage to 11 points, 30-19, going into the half. All in all, it was a game plan that couldn't have been drawn up better by Wagner's coaching staff. Force 12 Mount turnovers, hold them to 1-for-6 shooting at the three-point line, commit only three personal fouls, and make some timely outside shots. Even Dan Hurley must have cracked a smile in the locker room looking at the first-half box score.

In the second half, to Burke's credit, the Mount came out more aggressive and fought hard. Freshman Kelvin Parker was particularly impressive on both ends of the floor, contributing four points, two rebounds, an assist and some inspired defense, all in a span of five minutes. In spite of Parker's performance, the Mount never got any closer than seven points in the second half.

Wagner was simply a well-coached machine, excelling in ball movement, controlling the game's tempo, and of course, forcing turnovers with their in-your-face defense. After a 16-3 run extended Wagner's lead to 18 points with six minutes remaining, the game was essentially over. And I was afforded more time to study the Hurley brothers on the sideline.

Sure, Dan Hurley may be a little too animated out there, but one thing was for certain. This was a Wagner team that was dialed in, who fully respected and bought into Hurley's coaching philosophy. It was evident how much the team trusted and was inspired by their coaches, and it was a cool thing to see from afar. No matter how annoying Dan Hurley's antics were.

When the final horn sounded, the Wagner Seahawks earned their 20th victory of the season, an achievement that not even Dan Hurley could have imagined 24 games into the 2011-12 season. The win guaranteed playoff basketball for Wagner, but their goal of making the Big Dance still remains. And they have a fighting chance to do just that.

I certainly wouldn't bet against the Hurley Hype.

 This article can also be viewed on the Mid-Majority Website, here.

The Big Bad Seahawks Are Coming to Town - Sacred Heart vs. Wagner Game Preview

Now that Wagner College, the Staten Island community, and Dan Hurley’s players have finally exhaled after their ridiculously hyped up battle – and loss - to the Long Island Blackbirds last Saturday, everyone can now focus on the remainder of the NEC season.  After all, the Wagner Seahawks (15-4, 6-2 NEC) still have ten regular season games remaining in the conference! 

Their next contest finds themselves in Fairfield, Connecticut this Thursday night against the Sacred Heart Pioneers (10-11, 4-4 NEC).  In case you haven't heard from following me on Twitter (hint hint), Sacred Heart is fresh off two scintillating in-state home wins over Quinnipiac and Central Connecticut.  The next game versus Wagner, however, provides the Pioneers with their toughest challenge since NEC champ Long Island came into the Pitt Center earlier this month.

For this Sacred Heart/Wagner preview, I initiated a Q & A session with John Templon, creator and writer of Big Apple Buckets.  You probably heard me touting John before, but it’s worth repeating again – he does an excellent job covering college basketball, and specifically covering ten college basketball teams within the New York City area.  For this preview, John answered three questions I had about Wagner, and I returned the favor by answering questions about Sacred Heart for his site.

1) What has surprised you the most regarding Wagner’s improvement this season?

There's a lot that's surprised me, but I think the play of Jonathan Williams has been the most impressive. He came in pretty highly touted from California, but he's been great. He's given Dan Hurley another big body to play, which Wagner desperately needs, and has provided a solid scoring punch and an aggressive offensive attitude. Williams is averaging 13.4 points per game in just 25.2 minutes per game. I guess I'm also impressed by how the Seahawks have bought into Hurley's system in year two. The team in general has improved significantly and I think is running how Hurley envisioned it when he arrived.

2) Wagner has a balanced offensive attack with five guards averaging at least 7 points per game.  In your opinion, who is the most important player in their offense?  Are there one or two keys to slowing down their offensive attack?

I think that sophomore Latif Rivers is the guy you can take away if you try. So that's who I'd go after. Senior Tyler Murray has a lot of tricks up his sleeve. You can slow him down a bit, but he doesn't need to score. Also, frustrating Kenneth Ortiz is always a good strategy, because as the point guard he runs the show offensively. In Wagner's four losses the key has been that they failed to get it done on the offensive end. Teams have done it in different ways. LIU did it both times by forcing hard shots, but Lehigh rebounded extremely well. Everyone has kept Wagner off the free throw line. That's a great way to slow down this offense.

3) Since losing big man Justin Swidowski to injury, Sacred Heart has recently employed a more aggressive strategy that involves driving to the hole and getting to the free throw line as much as possible.  Given Wagner’s propensity to fouling, would this offensive strategy seem prudent for Sacred Heart to utilize?  Or will playing with a small lineup end up being a disadvantage against this stout Wagner defense?

No, that's exactly how you should attack this team. Unless you've got forwards that can aggressively go to the basket, which LIU and Connecticut happened to have, the right way to beat this defense is to get to the free throw line. The only decent team that fouls as much as Wagner does is Cleveland State. It's a big problem. You can get a lot of free points that way and help spell the droughts. I'd be worried that Wagner is going to wear down a key player like Shane Gibson with their relentless pressure. Finding ways to get him easy baskets off the ball is going to help SHU a lot. If I was a Pioneers fan I'd also be worried that SHU has turnover problems and Wagner feasts on those. If the Pioneers commit fewer than 12 turnovers they'll have a great shot at winning this game.

Thanks John for your input!  From his answers, it seems the Pioneer's best game plan on Thursday night could come down to this:

-       Continue their aggressive play and get to the free throw line as much as possible.  The goal should be to attempt and make more free throws than Wagner.

-       Limit their turnovers.  This goes without saying, but with Wagner’s efficient offense, turnover prevention becomes that much more important.

-       Pressure and frustrate leading scorer Latif Rivers and point-guard Kenneth Ortiz.  Shutting down two key contributors to the Wagner offense may slow them down a bit.

The Pioneers will need a big time effort on Thursday to pull off the upset, but that’s why they play the games!  A win in this spot would put SHU in excellent shape for the remainder of the NEC season.  Enjoy the game and fans, let's Pack the Pitt!!

Was Wagner's Victory Over Pitt the Greatest in NEC History?

I began my holiday vacation last Friday evening by witnessing Dan Hurley’s Wagner Seahawks surprisingly defeat the Pittsburgh Panthers, 59-54.  Wagner’s tenacious defense and composed guard play from Kenneth Ortiz, Tyler Murray, and Latif Rivers proved to be the difference and set Twitter a buzz later that night.  Compliments and praise galore was showered Wagner’s way, and rightfully so.  There was one statement on the Twitter machine however, that had me scratching my head – “Wagner’s win tonight is the greatest win in the history of the NEC.”

Was this true?  Sure, beating a Big East team on the road is a lofty achievement for almost any school, but I wanted to do some research to determine if the above statement was in fact valid.  So thanks to www.bbstate.com, I was able to sift through the Northeast Conference’s 30 years of games to find you the greatest wins in the conference’s history.   I know what you’re thinking, “But Ryan, how much time did you invest on this one blog post?  It must have taken forever!”

Not really.  In fact before I proceed with the brief history lesson (don’t worry this isn’t a history lesson on the Renaissance or the Roman Empire you dreaded in 8th grade), here are some sobering statistics to illustrate how easy it was for me to pick out the notable wins:

-       The NEC is the only existing conference to have never won a first round match in the NCAA tourney (The NEC has 3 NCAA tourney wins to their credit, however all 3 were in the play-in rounds, with the last one coming from Mount St. Mary’s in 2008)

-       The following NEC schools have never defeated a team ranked in the RPI Top 50 in its history – Sacred Heart (sigh), Fairleigh Dickinson, Quinnipiac, Bryant, Central Connecticut, Wagner, Long Island, St. Francis (NY), and Robert Morris (this surprised me a little)

Without further ado, here are the top 5 biggest wins in the Northeast Conference history:

5) Monmouth defeated St. Joseph’s (RPI 41), 71-62 on Dec 1994

I wish I could say this is the year that St. Joes made their remarkable run with Jameer Nelson and Delonte West, but I’m about 9 years off.  And Monmouth was still a year away before securing a 13 seed in the NCAA tourney by winning their first ever NEC crown.  So why is this fairly pedestrian win on the list?  Because it’s the NEC, that’s why!

4) Monmouth defeated Southern Illinois (RPI 29), 80-68 on Nov 2005

Where were you when you heard Monmouth had upset mid-major power Southern Illinois in the first round of the famous Great Alaskan Shootout?  (Silence….) Yeah, I don’t remember either...

3) Robert Morris (15 seed) lost to Villanova (2 seed), 73-70 in OT in first round of 2009-2010 NCAA Tournament on March 2010

Ok, I just broke the rule of my sacred list by selecting a losing game, but in terms of giving the NEC much needed notoriety, this game could be at the top.  Robert Morris, fresh off a hard fought NEC finals victory over Quinnipiac, nearly pulled off the unthinkable by losing to Big East power Villanova in OT by 3 points (and giving everyone who picked Nova as a Final Four team in their NCAA bracket a near heart attack in the process).  Despite the heartbreaking loss, I’m sure people were at least Googling questions like, “where the hell is Robert Morris?” and “who the hell is Robert Morris?” and “is Mike Rice a good coaching candidate to fix my mediocre D1 basketball team?” during the game.

(Side Note – Rutgers won the Mike Rice sweepstakes after the 2009-2010 season ended.  They are still mediocre, yet the jury is still out on whether Rice can turn the club around)

2) Wagner defeated Pittsburg (RPI 70), 59-54 on Dec 2011

Who cares if Pitt: A) lost to another mid major school in Long Beach State this season and B) is currently a NCAA Tourney bubble team at best.  It was an impressive win nonetheless, as Wagner managed to hold Pitt to season lows in points per possession (0.89) and effective field goal percentage (41.7%).  And after watching Dan Hurley’s masterpiece on ESPNU, one thing is for certain - Sacred Heart doesn’t have a freaking chance to win the NEC.

1) Mount St. Mary’s defeated Georgia Tech (RPI 9) on the road, 71-69 on Dec 1995

Number 1 on my list is the only time a NEC squad has upended a team ranked in the RPI Top 10.  The Mountaineers, who won a school record 16 regular season conference games that season en route to a NIT bid, took down Georgia Tech, led by legendary coach Bobby Cremins and guard Stephon Marbury (sorry, but I refuse to call Marbury a POINT guard).  Georgia Tech would later fall to Cincinnati in the Sweet 16, thus validating Mount St. Mary’s monumental non-conference achievement.

Did I miss a noteworthy moment for the NEC?  Please let me know in the comments!