Munir Completes The Comeback
Last fall, D.J. Munir was at an all-time low. He was academically ineligible to play basketball for the first semester, due to school policy and not NCAA regulations. A fierce competitor, he couldn’t play the game he loves.
“That was probably the toughest time I ever had in my career,” Munir says of that time period. “Up to that point, I had never missed a game in my career, at any level. I just wanted to come back and make up for those seven games when I came back.”
Head coach Nick Macarchuk said Munir has been instrumental in getting the program going in its Division I infancy.
“He’s the guy that we’ve built everything around,” Macarchuk said. “He has responded very, very well to things that we’ve asked him to do.”
The Seawolves had not joined America East when Munir first got there. Now in just their fifth season as a Division I school, they are in their third in America East. He felt he had a good opportunity to play right away when Stony Brook recruited him, and it came as he was doing a year of prep school at Bridgton Academy in Maine that he cites as a key in his development. Being a native of Rhode Island, a state that isn’t loaded with basketball talent, he didn’t get a lot of recruiting attention while in high school and felt a year of prep school would help him.
“I think I really learned how to play the overall game (in prep school), because I was about the fourth or fifth option on the team,” Munir says. I learned how to defend, pass, and rebound.”
After his first year, when he started all but one game and averaged 10.8 points and 4 assists per game, the Seawolves joined America East. Munir was excited at the prospect of playing there and likes what has happened during his career there, saying it has gotten better every year.
“A league is really just a vehicle to go to the (NCAA) Tournament,” Munir says. “When you’re independent, you don’t really have any chance to go to the tournament unless you go 30-0. When we got into a league, I was excited because that was our chance to go to the Tournament.”
Munir has played both guard spots over his career, which Macarchuk thinks has helped him. He mainly played the point his first two years, but lost his starting job last year when he had to sit out the first semester and mainly played shooting guard. He only recently moved back to the point, partly because the team’s other point guards had struggled to run the show.
Munir could always score, which was the primary thing he has been asked to do, but Macarchuk is impressed by something that doesn’t show up in the box score.
“The thing about him this year that has changed so much is that he’s become more of a leader and has become more vocal – those are things he didn’t want anything to do with,” Macarchuk reflects. “I think he’s done a good job with Mitchell Beauford as far as bringing him along.”
A quiet young man, Munir likes to lead by example. He always felt that coming out and working hard and competing would be enough to be a leader.
Beauford is one of the talented young guards in the program alongside Munir, along with sophomore Bobby Santiago, who has struggled this year after getting hurt early on. Sophomore Hendrick Feist and junior Mike Orfini together play most of the minutes on the wing, while freshman Mike Popoko has been an immediate contributor at both forward spots alongside senior Mike Konopka. Cori Spencer has been the team’s primary inside scoring threat, with the frontcourt hurt by a long illness that has kept out junior forward JonPaul Kobryn. They all play their roles, but the team revolves around Munir.
The Seawolves have been very close to victory in many games this season. They have lost seven games decided by eight or fewer points, suggesting that if they did one thing right most of the game, the result might have been different. In light of that, they figure to be a tough out in the America East Tournament.
Munir will try to close his career on a good note at the tournament. He is fourth on the school’s all-time scoring list and could finish third all-time in assists (he enters the tournament with 365, 7 shy of third place). Finishing fourth in the conference in scoring and fifth in assists this season, he figures to be an All-America East pick for the third straight season as well.
When basketball is all said and done, the sociology major isn’t sure exactly what he will do yet. He says he will miss the school, as he has enjoyed it and its overall setting. He has benefited from Macarchuk on and off the court and looks at how he has succeeded as a coach to help him go for his own success – all following his own ideas on leading by example. Macarchuk thinks he is well-prepared to succeed in life after basketball.
“D.J.’s been a model of excellence throughout his whole career,” Macarchuk reflects. “He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do, everything and more. I think he’s grown as a person, certainly he’s grown as a leader. I think he has some leadership skills and qualities now that he didn’t have when he came here, and that’s a credit to him because he didn’t have to do those things, he decided to do them on his own.”
