Northeast Conference 2006-07 Season Recap
by Zach Smart
NEC Postseason Awards
Player of the Year: Javier Mojica, Sr. Central Connecticut
Simply put, Mojica was the best player on the best team in the Northeast Conference this season. After playing a supporting role the past two seasons, Mojica came into his element, averaging 17 points and seven boards while playing lock-down defense on the other end of the floor. Mojica had a couple of games where he hung 30 or more, but it was his presence as a leader and his ability to hold top scorers in check that made him such a special player. His full-package game and aura propelled the Blue Devils into the NCAA Tournament for the first time in quite a while.
Coach of the Year: Dave Bike, Sacred Heart
Holding a resume longer than the O.J. trial, Bike has made basketball a 24-hour, 365-days a year commitment, while establishing a family-like atmosphere at the Heart. This season, Bike finished just one scoreboard reading short of his first-ever berth into the NCAA Tournament. The Connecticut-bred game general has, for nine summers now as a Division I member, sold some of Connecticut’s elite players on a small school with a burgeoning basketball culture.
Defensive Player of the Year: Mychal Kearse, Sr., Mount St. Mary’s
Kearse, an abnormal size guard in the northeast conference, sported the yellow hat, boots, and lunch pail every time he stepped on the floor this season. The workhorse, who’s covered in tattoos of Jesus and biblical quotes, has become the bulwark in the backcourt for the Mount these past two seasons, hounding down opponents and pestering offenses. The 6-4 physical specimen from Charlotte averaged 12 points and led the team in steals and rebounding.
Rookie of the Year: Jhamar Youngblood, Monmouth
The fresh-faced Youngblood, a speedy, Jersey-bred guard who gives everything he’s got in however many minutes, looks like the future for a program hoping to get back on its feet next season. Youngblood averaged 12.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.7 steals while shooting 52 percent from the floor this season.
All-NEC First Team
Tristan Blackwood, Central Connecticut, Jr.
Javier Mojica, Central Connecticut, Sr.
Jarrid Frye, Sacred Heart, Sr.
A.J. Jackson, Robert Morris, Sr.
Obie Nwadike, Central Connecticut, Sr.
Central Connecticut (22-12, 16-2)
It was a (Blue) Devil of a time for CCSU, which took the NEC world by storm this year. The Blue Devils, led by the three-headed monster of Javier Mojica, Tristan Blackwood and Obie Nwadike, ruled the conference with an iron fist. Led by Mojica’s 25 points and 10 rebounds, Central Connecticut captured the NEC championship, gutting out a 74-70 thriller over in-state foe Sacred Heart. This earned them a berth in the NCAA tournament, where they were bounced in the first round by Greg Oden (heard of him before?) and Ohio State.
An out-of-conference schedule featuring dates with some of college basketball’s top-tier teams – Michigan, UMass, and Davidson to list a few – paid dividends. Central ate up the conference schedule in shark-size bites, winning 16 of 18. Mojica and Blackwood emerged as one of the top backcourt tandems in the northeast region, while senior strongman Nwadike re-gained his title as rebounding leader. Nwadike, an undersized forward at 6-foot-4 (6-3 if you ask coach Howie Dickenman), was a beast down low to the tune of 14 points and 10 boards per game. Nwadike, who has led the conference in rebounding since his sophomore year, was a double-double waiting to happen. His toughness will be sorely missed by the program, which will undergo a rebuilding year next season.
Dickenman likes to go about seven-deep, but that will likely change for the 2007-2008 campaign. No player will be missed more than Mojica, who jumped from role player to superstar in one season. The 6-3 off-guard is currently playing professionally in Puerto Rico.
Dickenman will hand the keys to Blackwood next season. After orchestrating a potent offense to the tune of 17 points and four dimes per game, Blackwood appears ready to assume the leadership role. He showed flashes of brilliance throughout the season, dropping 40 in an 88-86 win over Robert Morris and earning player of the week accolades in late-January. For that week, he averaged 27.5 points, 4.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds while shooting 14-29 (.483) from three-point territory.
Sacred Heart (18-14, 12-6)
In his 28th season as head coach, Dave Bike has now made his presence felt around the world of Northeast Conference hoops. Bike, who won a national championship with the Pioneers on the Division-II level, guided the Pioneers to one of their finest seasons since being elevated to the Division-I ranks in 1998-1999. After shellacking Wagner and Quinnipiac in the NEC quarter and semi-finals, the Pioneers advanced to the title game for the first time in recent memory. Before the season, the Pioneers made it a goal to get to the conference’s biggest stage.
Jarrid Frye concluded a robust four-year stay at Sacred Heart, averaging 13.3 points and five boards per game his senior season. Frye shouldered the burden of leader for the Pioneers, as the 6-3, 190-pound guard came alive in several critical games down the stretch. The Heart received a big boost with the re-emergence of Joey Henley, who was sidelined for the entire 2005-2006 campaign after suffering an injury during football season. Henley averaged 17 points and 7.3 caroms during the post-season and played a physical, intimidating brand of basketball that Bike loves to implement. The Pioneers also have a pair of three-point assassins in Drew Shubik and Luke Granato. Sharpshooter Ryan Litke had a promising rookie season, highlighted by a 16-point performance against Quinnipiac in the semifinals. Litke, a Windsor product, is another weapon in the Pioneers’ perimeter arsenal.
The Pioneers return a rock-solid nucleus of players next season, as they lose just two players, just one of whom played a significant role.
Quinnipiac (14-15, 11-7)
Prior to the 2006-2007 campaign, Joe DeSantis knew he didn’t have a great job security plan. It was rumored that he’d be out the door following a paltry 2005-2006 season, but athletic director Jack McDonald agreed to give him one more year under one condition: That he deliver Quinnipiac, which now has lofty expectations for new head coach Tom Moore, its first-ever championship.
His players’ reaction? Though few of them saw eye-to-eye with DeSantis, the Bobcats decided to give Joe D. a memorable sendoff. The Bobcats, after moving into a sparkling new 3,500-seat arena in January, advanced all the way to the Northeast Conference semifinals, where they were KO’d by Sacred Heart, 83-69 at the Pitt Center.
The Bobcats clawed back after an abysmal start that landed them in the NEC dungeon after a 0-9 free-fall. They were plunged back into the playoff scene, however, after they ripped off a six-game winning streak behind the play of high-octane guard Adam Gonzalez and super-athletic wing DeMario Anderson. Anderson, an all-Northeast conference second team selection, came into his element after a rugged start. A transfer via Central Connecticut (Quinnipiac’s blood-rivals), Anderson averaged 15.7 points, including 20.3 over the nine-game tilt that wrapped the season up. His emergence as the Bobcats’ go-to-guy was underscored by a 31-point explosion against Sacred Heart. Undersized Center Victor Akinyanju, who garnered a Player of the Week award, emerged into the Bobcats’ top big, despite suffering nagging injuries and playing sparingly during the first half of the season. Akinyanju joined the prestigious 20-and-20 club after a titanic 21-point, 21-board showing in a 70-62 triumph over Mount St. Mary’s.
DeSantis was ash-canned despite one of the best seasons of his miserable 108-145 career on the Division-I level. Since the arrival of Moore, who served under Jim Calhoun as the associate head coach at UConn, hype and hearsay has brewed around campus faster than a beer fest on spring weekend. Many adjustments will be made, and some players might be coerced into signing transfer waivers. Once again, there’s a buffet-line of guards. Though guard play is a crucial element of the NEC brand of basketball, Moore might have to insert splinters in the behinds of some of last year’s starters. Moore has already signed transfer Jeremy Baker, a 6-2, 205-pound point guard by way of Garden City Community College (Kan.), to a letter of intent. Among the questions: how will he use Casey Cosgrove and Job Casimir, the duo of speedy guards who operated the offense in the 2007 and 2006 seasons, respectively? Where will point guard Bryan Geffen, a transfer from Boston University, fall into the rotation?
Fairleigh Dickinson (14-16, 9-9)
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. After ruling the NEC with an iron fist the past two regular seasons, the Knights had a down year, underscored by a first-round playoff exit. The Knights dropped a 78-77 heartbreaker to Quinnipiac on March 1, and the loss was certainly a tough pill to swallow. With 5.9 seconds remaining, the Knights watched a last-second shot, as well as their lofty expectations, fall short. The Knights never stopped battling, but they ran into a buzz-saw in Quinnipiac off guard Van Crafton. Crafton dropped a game-high 23 points, burying 4 of 7 from beyond the arc and thwarting any mounting momentum the Knights had.
“It was a hard-fought game,” said Knights coach Tom Green. “It’s a shame that someone had to lose. I can’t ask the team to play any harder and I can’t ask any more of them. We knew it was going to be a dogfight and it really was. There was too much Van Crafton for us.”
Next year there will be too much youth for them. The Knights return a callow nucleus of six, led by Manny Ubilla, a solid perimeter player who buried 63 treys this year. Graduation claimed three of the program’s top players in Michael Peeples, Cameron Tyler, and Andre Harris. This trio combined to average 45 points per game, producing 61 percent of the team’s 73 points per game. No player will be more sorely missed than Harris, who averaged 18.8 points in his senior season and captured multiple player of the week awards.
Robert Morris (17-11, 9-9)
The Colonials lose a top-flight inside/outside tandem in Derek Coleman and A.J. Jackson, both of whom were claimed by the recent graduation, but a larger loss is that of coach Mark Schmidt, who left to take over at St. Bonaventure. Point guard Coleman, a three-point threat who conducted the offense with quickness and pinpoint passing, averaged 13 points while dishing out a team-high 152 assists. Jackson established himself as perhaps the conference’s most skilled big man in his two years as a Colonial. The 6-foot-6, 230-pound Jackson, a transfer via East Tennessee State, led the team in points (16.9) and boards (7.8), during his two-year stint. With the return of combo guard Tony Lee and 6-7 wing Jeremy Chappelle, however, the Colonials should have one of the more formidable teams in the conference on paper. That will give new head coach Mike Rice, most recently an assistant at nearby Pittsburgh, something good to work with initially.
Mount St. Mary’s (11-20, 9-9)
With Maryland evolving into one of the nation’s premier basketball breeding grounds, coach Milan Brown should have no problem selling high-profile recruits on the burgeoning NEC program. And why wouldn’t he? The Mount earned a berth in the semi-finals, but the No. 5-seed’s upset bid of Central Connecticut was thwarted by a late spurt.
This season, the Mount got a taste of some of the nation’s stiffest competition with a non-conference schedule featuring games at North Carolina State, West Virginia, and Winthrop. With the recent signing of Marlin Cribbs, who starred for DeMatha Catholic, the Mount wraps up a solid class of 2011 recruiting class. The key returnee for the 2007-2008 campaign will be shooter Chris Vann, who averaged 14 points to lead the team this past season. Vann, who scored 28 against Quinnipiac and had five games of 20+ points, can be lethal when he catches fire. He’s also a bit trigger-happy at times, and the Mount will need to develop that complementary scorer to balance them and not force him to shoulder the scoring load. The Mount will miss the services of lockdown defender Mychal Kearse, the 2006-2007 co-defensive player of the year.
Wagner (11-19, 8-10)
The Seahawks recovered from a nightmarish 2005-2006 campaign that saw them jump out to their best start in 26 years before free-falling to the gutter, encountering a number of problems on the way. This season, the Seahawks used a well-balanced offense to emerge as one of the NEC’s sleeper teams. Unfortunately for the Seahawks, the road to the semi-finals was rutted, as they pitted No. 2-ranked Sacred Heart in the first round of the playoffs. The Seahawks were thoroughly mauled, 100-68, before a jam-packed crowd at the Pitt Center.
The key returnee for the 2007-2008 campaign is leading scorer Mark Porter, a 6-1 St. Augustine Prep product who’s made an instant splash since stepping foot on campus. With James Ulrich, Joey Mudweiler, and Jamal Smith also returning, the ‘Hawks have the potential to put together one of the finest seasons in recent memory.
Monmouth (12-18, 7-11)
The ecstasy part came at the conclusion of the 2006 season, when a last second, length-of-the-floor lay-in vaulted the Hawks to the NCAA tournament, where they eventually fell to Villanova. This was the agony part. The Hawks never resembled the team that took the NEC by storm last year, despite an early-season outlasting of Arkansas State. In the evenly-matched NEC, the Hawks had trouble closing out games.
The Hawks lose two of their top players in John Bunch – a 7-foot-3, 320-pound mammoth of a man who was never able to make his presence felt in the conference – and Dejan Delic, who led the Hawks with 14.6 points per game. Expect sophomore-to-be Jhamar Youngblood, the 2007 NEC rookie of the year, to take on a big role next season. The 6-1 guard from perennial New Jersey powerhouse St. Patrick’s mastered the transition to Division I basketball, averaging 12.3 points and dishing out 61 helpers. Another bright spot for the guard-heavy Hawks is the return of Mike Shipman, who averaged a team-high four dimes per game last season. Next season, Shipman needs to improve his 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio.
St. Francis N.Y. (9-22, 7-11)
The situation seems grim. A small school, with a rinky-dink, band-box gym (one that most high school students would laugh at), in the heart of the big city that can’t even get its highly-touted prospects to stay local. This year, however, a scrappy St. Francis N.Y. team showed that when at their best, they can play with anyone in the conference, registering victories over Robert Morris and FDU. Outside the NEC, St. Francis was boosted by victories over Manhattan and Columbia.
A deep bench and a balanced offense worked in the Terriers’ favor this season, but the team still lacks a legit big man. Undersized and vulnerable in the paint, the St. Francis was often out-boarded and exploited in mismatches down low. The Terriers bring back a go-to-guy in Robert Hines, a 6-5 wing who averaged 17 points and six boards in his first year of collegiate hoops. Fifth-year senior Allan Sheppard, the team’s second-leading scorer, will bring his experience and prolific scoring ability back to Brooklyn for another season.
Long Island (10-19, 6-12)
Inconsistency proved to be the Achilles heal for a Blackbird team that rode an emotional rollercoaster of a season. After suffering a 90-74 shellacking in the regular season finale, the Blackbirds failed to qualify for the post-season for the first time in recent memory. Next season, the Blackbirds officially begin the post-James Williams era. Williams, a three-time all-NEC selection, has been a one-man-band these past two seasons. He averaged 16.2 points this season and moved up to fourth on the school’s all-time list with 1,710 points. Williams, who played much of the season hurt, finished as LIU’s all-time three-point leader with 277 career treys. He went off for 24 or more points six times this season, including a 33-point eruption during an 82-79 victory over St. Francis N.Y.
Like the Blackbirds, however, Williams was too often spate by inconsistent play. When he drew double teams and defenses locked up on him, the Blackbirds often couldn’t get “Ws.” While the loss of Williams is colossal, Aubin Scott’s departure is also a tough setback. The 6-2 guard/wing averaged 10 points and seven boards this season, complementing Williams wherever coach Jim Ferry needed him. Scott was a versatile threat who could knock down a long-range jumper or knife through the teeth of the defense. Losing Scott the past five games with a shoulder injury certainly put their playoff hopes in jeopardy. Losing three of their last four didn’t help much either.
Eugene Kotorobai is flushed into a big role next year, as he will return after averaging 9.2 points and 6.4 boards as a role player last season. The biggest off-season boost the Blackbirds received was the signing of David Hicks (South Kent (Conn.) Prep/Mendota Heights, Minn.), a 6-1 guard who can shoot and get to the cup. Hicks is expected to help ease the loss of Williams next season.
St. Francis Pa. (8-21, 5-13)
Aside from a late-season victory at then-No. 2 Quinnipiac, along with a three-game winning streak to close out the season, it was a pretty measly 2006-2007 campaign for the Red Flash as they mustered just five conference victories. Despite a well-balanced scoring attack led by freshman Devin Sweeney’s 13 points per game, the Red Flash had no bench and could never recover from a dreadful 0-15 free-fall. The out-of-conference schedule pitted the basement-dwellers against teams like Akron, Liberty, and Georgia Tech, all of which defeated them handily.
A strong off-season blow is the loss of J.R. Enright, who averaged 12 points and established himself as an inside presence these past two seasons. Enright, a 6-foot-10 behemoth who averaged 12 and 10 his junior season, sat out the last five games of the season after losing his girlfriend in a tragic car accident. One look at the roster, however, indicates that a bright future may be paved for the Red Flash, which has a solid nucleus of young talent returning with guards Chris Berry, Cale Nelson, and jet-quick Marquis Ford, the 2006 NEC rookie of the year, along with Sweetney.
