by CoachAndy » Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:00 pm
I was so thrilled to be returning to Connecticut that accepting the job offer was a no-brainer. My contract was 3 years for $76,000 and I was going to be able to live near where I grew up. There would be challenges in winning games at a low reputation program but the Blue Devils were coming off a season where they won 6 straight including the NEC Title to earn a spot in the First Four of the NCAA tournament where they lost. My first job was to build my coaching staff. I retained assistants Ricardo Slider and Brian Nolan from the previous staff but Associate Head Coach Rick Alexander left to take the same position at Fairfield University. I replaced him with Tim Moye, an assistant at Hartford. Tim was named an assistant and recruiting coordinator but I elected not to give him the title of Associate Head Coach. With my staff complete it was time to move forward. We had a strong junior class and a few seniors who we hoped would contribute but no true star players.
The conference predictions came out and we were picked 8th out of 10 teams. The year before we had scored 62 points per game, good for second in the conference but had the worst scoring defense at 66 points per game. Knowing that I'm not a defensive mastermind, I decided to speed up the team's style of play and just try to outscore opponents. My goals from the Athletic Director were fairly low, win 10 games and make the 8 team conference tournament. I set my standards much higher, hoping to clear .500 on the season and maybe sneak into the top half of the conference. We returned 2 time all NEC second team pick Elton Duncan, a versatile 6'10" Senior Center and Bobby Werner, a Junior Power Forward. Combined, they averaged 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds per game and I figured if we could get 20/10 out of them we'd be in good shape.
Our opening game was at home against a fairly weak Marist program and my hopes were high. Freshman SF Maurice Daniels, Junior SG Randy Walton and Werner each scored double figures and Werner grabbed 7 boards in a 66-55 win. As impressive as our balanced scoring was, I was equally pleased with our defensive effort. We played a much better Furman team in game two. Randy Walton continued to dominate with 21 points and 7 rebounds while Bobby Werner contributed 11 points 3 rebounds and 3 blocks in a massive 76-68 win. Game three was on the road as we traveled west to play Cal Poly. The Mustangs dominated us 28-12 inside and we went just 6-28 from deep to succumb to an ugly 67-55 loss. Back home against Louisiana-Monroe, Junior Forward Steve Skipworth scored 11 big ones off the bench and powered us to a 64-57 win. We followed that with a win against George Mason and a tough 2 point loss at Quinnipiac when we blew a 9 point lead in the final 1:30. We won at Oral Roberts by 10 and against NCAA tournament team Hampton by 4 to push our record to 6-2 going into our final non-conference matchup at Northeastern. Again we blew a big lead, giving them the last 8 of the game including a buzzer beating three to force OT. In OT we built a 5 point lead only to watch them hit back to back threes and hold on for the wild 82-81 win. Going into our 18 game conference slate at 6-3 I was pleased. If we went .500 which I knew we could, we would finish an impressive 15-12 which I would gladly take.
We opened conference play against Wagner. The Seahawks were picked 10th and came in with a record of 2-7. We shot the ball terribly and were laughed out of our own gym, 68-61. Despite 14 and 7 from Elton Duncan, we couldn't overcome the 28 team fouls we committed and they took advantage of 37 free throws, making 33. We traveled to LIU next, the team picked 6th in the conference with a 5-5 record. 8 points and 9 rebounds from Elton plus 11 points 5 rebounds and 5 assists from Junior PG Wil Long led us to a massive 10 point win. We followed that with a big win over struggling St. Francis (PA) before playing our worst game of the season, an 80-55 loss to a less than spectacular Bryant team. We rebounded to win 3 straight before losing at conference powerhouse Sacred Heart 57-36. We played so poorly that I didn't even look at the stats after that one. Fortunately, we caught fire and won 5 straight including the rematch with Bryant 77-66. We were 16-6 and rolling through conference play with a record of 10-3. Then our offense went AWOL again and we lost to St. Francis (NY) by 19, 71-52. A massive 9 point win at Robert Morris followed before we dropped our last three against the three teams picked to finish in the top 3 in the conference, Mt. St. Mary, Sacred Heart and Fairleigh Dickinson. FDU was the tough loss, they were fighting at the bottom of the league for the last playoff spot and crushed us 68-47. We finished the regular season 17-10 (11-7) but managed to steal second place in the conference tournament thanks to the large number of teams who went .500 in conference play.
We opened the tournament at home against FDU and I was nervous. Fortunately, Randy Walton gave us 20 points and we shot 57% from deep to win 69-60 and advance to the conference semifinals. In the semis we met St Francis (NY), a team we had beaten by 21 and lost to by 19. The Terriers were the 3 seed and I was nervous. They denied Randy all game and he didn't score on 4 field goal attempts which is bad news. The good news was Elton and Bobby combined to give us 29 points 9 rebounds and 8 assists to power us to a 58-47 win and the conference final. LIU upset #1 Sacred Heart in overtime to earn their ticket and the Blackbirds were on fire. Fortunately, we won the rebound battle 31-18, including 14 offensive boards, and forced 20 turnovers. 11 players scored for us and 6 of them scored 6 or more points. Maurice Daniels led the way with 14 while Elton Duncan gave us 8 points and 9 rebounds. I was thrilled to be heading to the NCAA tournament in my first year even though I knew we'd get a tough matchup.
Our NCAA game was against #5 Oregon, a 2 seed and we traveled to Austin to get murdered. They walked all over us, shooting 36 free throws and making 32. Although guards Luke Harris and DJ Brey gave us 9 points each off the bench, no one reached double digits for us. We lost the rebounding battle 32-15 and committed 16 turnovers and 26 fouls while shooting just 35% from the floor in a brutal 84-49 loss that ended our season at 20-11.
Team Honors:
All NEC First Team: Elton Duncan
NEC Freshman of the Year: Maurice Daniels
All NEC Second Team: Maurice Daniels
NEC Coach of the Year: Hank Schrader
Team Leaders:
PPG: Maurice Daniels 11.2
RPG: Elton Duncan 4.3
APG; Wil Long 2.4
SPG: Randy Walton 2.0
BPG: Elton Duncan 0.5
FG%: Steve Skipworth 53% (Min 100 Attempts)
FT%: Elton Duncan 89% (Min 60 Attempts)
3PT%: Steve Skipworth 46% (Min 40 Attempts)
Team Awards:
Coaches Award: Steve Skipworth JR F
MVP: Elton Duncan SR C
Defensive POTY: Randy Walton JR G
Most Improved: Steve Skipworth JR F