Last year, Lehigh showed signs of contending when they made a great non-league run, but they didn’t get it done in league play. This year, the Mountain Hawks were the best team for much of the season, and they carried that into the league tournament with three wins for the title. A big reason for that was, oddly enough, a freshman. C.J. McCollum wasted no time becoming a star, as he won Player of the Year and Rookie of the Year honors, the first player in league history to do so. He was second in the league in scoring overall, but it was in league play where he shined the most as he led in scoring, was sixth in rebounding and field goal percentage, third in three-point percentage and seventh in assists and assist/turnover ratio.

McCollum is symbolic of something else that is different about the league, which is the young talent. Oftentimes, young players in a league like this take a back seat to the veterans, but the Patriot League had a lot of young talent this year. Five of the top ten scorers, four of the top nine rebounders and five of the top seven three-point marksmen were underclassmen. McCollum wasn’t the only freshman on his team to be a key player, as Gabe Knutson was also a starter and key player for the Mountain Hawks. Bucknell placed three players on the All-Rookie team, the first team in league history to do that, and all played significant roles for the Bison this season along with sophomore Bryan Cohen, an All-Rookie selection a year ago. Lafayette got to the final in no small part due to the work of sophomores Jim Mower and Ryan Willen. Holy Cross was at times carried by sophomores R.J. Evans and Devin Brown. Jordan Sugars was the main complement to senior Chris Harris at Navy. Stephen Lumpkins teamed with George Mason transfer Vlad Moldoveanu for a solid 1-2 punch inside for American.

While the league is looking different, the young talent is evidence that there is good basketball ahead for the league in the immediate future. The difference in the standings shows that teams have done their best to rise to the level that Holy Cross and Bucknell were at just a few years ago, and some have succeeded.

Final Standings

League Tournament

The story of the Patriot League Tournament was the dominance of eventual champion Lehigh, as the Mountain Hawks won all three games by at least 15 points. They took care of Army in the quarterfinals by pulling away late, while Lafayette and American won at home and Holy Cross was the lone road team to pull out a win as they knocked off Bucknell 67-64 in Lewisburg. The Mountain Hawks weren’t seriously challenged by American in a 79-57 semifinal win, while Lafayette won a back-and-forth battle with Holy Cross 66-63. That set up a championship game between two arch-rivals.

Lehigh led from start to finish, but was challenged in the second half by Lafayette. The Leopards made several runs at the lead, but could never tie the game. The final ten minutes were dominated by Lehigh senior Zahir Carrington, who took home the tournament MVP honors as he helped the Mountain Hawks pull away for a 74-59 win. Lehigh finished the game on a 12-1 run.

Postseason Awards

Player of the Year: C.J. McCollum, Lehigh

Rookie of the Year: C.J. McCollum, Lehigh

Defensive Player of the Year: Bryan Cohen, Bucknell

Coach of the Year: Fran O’Hanlon, Lafayette

All-Conference Team

Chris Harris, Sr. G, Navy

C.J. McCollum, Fr. G, Lehigh

Jared Mintz, Jr. F, Lafayette

Vlad Moldoveanu, Jr. F, American

Kyle Roemer, Sr. F, Colgate

Season Highlights

• Marquis Hall, who had a fine freshman season of his own three years ago, finished his career most importantly with a Patriot League title, but also with a great accomplishment. The two-time Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year graduates as the only player in league history to surpass 1,500 points and 500 assists.
• Army got a lot of buzz in non-league play, as new head coach Zach Spiker was getting results right away. The Black Knights haven’t lacked talent in recent years, so their record before league play wasn’t a big surprise. They rode winning streaks of five and four games to a 10-4 mark.
• Vlad Moldoveanu made an instant impact for American once he was eligible in December after transferring from George Mason. He was third in scoring and rebounding in league games, as he didn’t play in enough games to qualify for the overall lead in any categories.
• Lehigh was eighth in the nation in three-point field goal percentage at just under 40 percent from behind the arc.

What we expected, and it happened: Bucknell was more like the Bucknell of a few years ago. The Bison were hit hard by injuries in 2008-09 and also had a coaching change to adjust to. With a year under Dave Paulson and a good freshman class, the Bison had some growing pains in non-league play but finished second in the league behind Lehigh.

What we expected, and it didn’t happen: Holy Cross was the pick of many as the favorite before the season, but they didn’t come close to that, finishing 9-22 and seventh in the standings, a game out of last place. The Crusaders struggled at the defensive end for much of the season, and it showed in the win-loss column. Sean Kearney lasted just one season as the head coach, replaced by former Mount St. Mary’s head coach Milan Brown.

What we didn’t expect, and it happened: Lafayette was in contention for the top spot and made it to the championship game. The Leopards won eight games a year ago and didn’t look the part of a contender coming in, but they were right in the mix for the top spot and gave Lehigh a good game in the final of the tournament before a late run put the game away.

Team(s) on the rise: Bucknell. The Bison are back and the likely preseason favorite next year after a good showing in league play. Four of their top five were freshmen or sophomores this past season.

Team(s) on the decline: Colgate. A couple of years ago, the Raiders were in the title game. Now Kyle Roemer and Ben Jonson are gone from a team that finished sixth in the league.

2010-11 Patriot League Outlook

With the younger talent in the league, the future is bright. Just about every team projects to be better next season, so the league should improve on its non-league mark in addition to having a hotly contested race for the top starting in January. Six of the ten all-league players return, and all of the All-Rookie selections should contend for spots on that team before long.

Lehigh will have a chance to repeat, but the early favorite has to be Bucknell as the Bison bring back a lot of young talent that will only get better. Lafayette should be in the mix as they also bring back a lot, while American had growing pains with a less experienced roster this year. Holy Cross and Army each have the personnel to potentially make a jump into the top half as well.

If the league has the kind of year it could next year, ultimately it would be safe to say that the rest of the league succeeded in getting better to catch up to Holy Cross and Bucknell. They had little choice but to do so, and having done so the Crusaders and Bison are certainly not dominating the league any longer and not because they have fallen apart.

McCollum was the story early, as he was active and aggressive and set the tone.  Then he went quiet in the middle of the first half and a lot of the second half after a couple of strong early minutes.  In the meantime, the senior trio of Marquis Hall, Zahir Carrington and Dave Buchberger did plenty of work to lift the Mountain Hawks to the win for their second Patriot League title.

“I thought our senior leadership throughout the course of the season was tremendous,” said head coach Brett Reed, who also cited reserve Matt Shamis.  “The four of those individuals spent so much of their own personal energy to make this team what it was: a team that was pulled together, a team that could face adversity, and a team that would not crumble and would not back down.”

Down the stretch, no one wanted it more than tournament MVP Carrington, who posted his second double-double of the tournament with 18 points and 10 rebounds to go with four blocks.  All four blocks came in the second half, along with 12 points and seven rebounds.  It seemed like he made every big play, whether it was to keep Lehigh out in front or for a momentum swing back in their favor.

Carrington, who mentors middle to high school-aged boys in Allentown’s “Boys to Manhood” program, remembered how his first three years went and had an idea how that could change.

“We’ve been eliminated the first three years in this league, and had been a sub-par, mediocre kind of team,” said Carrington.  “The only way to make up for that was to go out like this.”

He gave the Mountain Hawks their biggest lead at the time when a dunk put them up 42-33 early in the second half.  But that was just the beginning.  When the Leopards pulled within two with less than ten minutes to play, he hit a jumper to put the Mountain Hawks back up by four.  It would be the last time the Leopards were within a possession, as Carrington blocked two shots on the next possession and another one a minute later.  During a decisive 8-0 run that put Lehigh up by 12 to put the game out of reach, Carrington had three rebounds, an assist and two dunks.

“Zahir really carried us in the second half, he willed us to victory late down the stretch,” said Hall.

Speaking of Hall, he is closing a college career that has had plenty of accomplishments, but no NCAA Tournament trip until now.  He was the league’s Rookie of the Year three seasons ago, is the first player in Patriot League history with over 1,500 points and 500 assists, and was the Patriot League Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2009.  Given the chance, he would have gladly traded it all in for a chance to play in the NCAA Tournament.  Now he will get to play later in March, and he had no small part in it as he was named to the all-tournament team.

“It’s indescribable, really,” said Hall.  “Just to be out there and share a moment with my teammates, my group of seniors, it was the cap that I thought it would be.”

Playing the second half with a heavily-bandaged left leg, Hall scored just three points but had seven assists and ran the offense like he has for four years.  His numbers don’t convey his value, as he transitioned from a scorer to a floor leader as more scoring talent developed around him.  In the Patriot League Tournament, he had 17 assists against six turnovers, continuing a season-long trend as he is 15^th in the nation in assist/turnover ratio.

There’s one senior starter who doesn’t get much acclaim, and in keeping with the theme, he came up big on Friday.  Dave Buchberger had 13 points, going 3-5 from long range, and handed out three assists.  More importantly, he hit a couple at key junctures of the game, and perhaps none bigger than the one he hit near the halfway point of the second half to put Lehigh up 54-50 after the Leopards had come within one.  That came after he put them up 51-42 a couple of minutes earlier, and later he leaked out for a breakaway dunk during the decisive 8-0 run.

This followed a semifinal outing where he shot 6-8 from the field, including 4-5 from long range, en route to a season-high 16 points to help the Mountain Hawks knock off American.  As that came after a game where he went scoreless, he clearly bounced back well.

McCollum wound up with a game-high 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds, averaging over 20 points per game for the tournament.  A case could be made for him as the tournament MVP.  But make no mistake about it, as often happens Lehigh won the game and the championship led by the seniors.  They came through during the tournament the way coaches and teammates would expect, and the desired result followed from it.

The Mountain Hawks’ 78-60 win at Holy Cross accomplished several things.  It snapped a 13-game losing streak to the Crusaders at the Hart Center going back to 1998.  It gave them a 5-2 mark in the Patriot League, which matched their league win total of last season.  They also close the month with a 7-2 record, their most successful month since they went 8-1 four years earlier.  Most of all, they close the month on a high note and playing well.

In contrast, last season the Mountain Hawks started fast before fading.  They had the best non-league record in school history, but a 5-9 mark in league play wasn’t what anyone could have expected when league play began.  Head coach Brett Reed felt they peaked in non-league play and basically ran out of gas, and watching this season’s team can see a positive difference.

“I think it’s really important that we’re playing better basketball at this time of the year,” said Reed, now in his third year as head coach.  “This year, we were starting to play better basketball as we headed into January.  Now, hopefully in February that continues and we continue to have some momentum, which is important for our program, and it’s nice to get the balance that we have with senior leadership and the energy of young guys to boost us forward.”

As Reed mentioned, Lehigh has a good balance of personnel leading them to this point.  Marquis Hall has seemingly been there forever, as the four-year starting point guard has been among the league’s best players since he entered the league.  Along with classmates Zahir Carrington and Dave Buchberger, the three senior starters for the Mountain Hawks have played like senior leaders in league play, combining to average over 32 points and 14 rebounds per game after averaging 24.3 points and 12.1 rebounds in non-league play.

“We came here with the intentions of winning a Patriot League championship, and we know every game is important,” said Hall, who has continued to put his name all over the school’s and league’s record books.  “We come out here trying to give our best every night so we can get homecourt.”

Hall ran away with the league’s Rookie of the Year award three seasons ago and has continued his ascent since then.  Recently, he surpassed 1,300 career points and 500 career assists, making him the first player in Patriot League history to do that.  The current league leader in assists this season, he is fourth all-time in the Patriot League in that category, and while topping all-time leader Jave Meade will be almost impossible, it wouldn’t be a surprise if he comes in second.

Helping him in that quest, as well as the larger quest for a league title, are two players at the opposite stage of their careers.  The Mountain Hawks balance out the three senior starters with freshmen C.J. McCollum and Gabe Knutson, and both have wasted little time making an impact.  McCollum looks to be well on his way to doing what Hall did three years ago, while Knutson has been a solid inside player even before he busted out on Sunday with a career-high 31 points on 11-15 shooting from the field.

“They’ve helped a lot,” Hall said of the freshman duo.  “They take pressure off myself and (Zahir), because they can score on any given night.  It adds a whole new dynamic to our team because everybody needs to be accounted for offensively.”

McCollum is third in the league in scoring and has the kind of length and athleticism rarely seen in the Patriot League.  He’s not only scoring, but shooting over 41 percent from long range as well.  Reed saw his potential in recruiting him, but even he has been a little pleasantly surprised at how quickly he has adapted to the college game.  It didn’t take long for Hall to see his potential, either.

“As soon as he came in, he shot it right away offensively,” Hall said of McCollum.  “He gets his shot at will.  He’s long and athletic, and some people underestimate him, but he can get his shot off and it goes in.”

This year’s non-league slate had a marked contrast to last season.  The Mountain Hawks started with two straight losses and had to endure a three-game losing streak later on.  Only one of the losses came at home, a 71-52 setback to America East contender Stony Brook.  By late December, things seemed to be coming together, as a 66-55 win over Marist started a six-game winning streak.  Included were two wins on the road, and they have undoubtedly helped lead to the Mountain Hawks being .500 on the road in the first half of Patriot League play.

Around that time, the players were on campus during the break with a chance to focus on basketball.  Hall added that the team bonded a lot during that time, and once they got a couple of wins things took on a life of their own.  Clearly, this team benefited from having a stretch where they could just focus on basketball.

While a good month is now behind the Mountain Hawks, they are ready to keep this going.  The veterans learned from peaking too early last season, and with the senior starters it shows as they have picked up their play in the last month.  The young players have apparently already caught on and are only getting better.  The momentum Reed spoke of is evident as the Mountain Hawks head into February looking like their best is still yet to come.

When I talked to Steve Pikiell one lazy August day last summer, Stony Brook’s head coach radiated with boundless energy and enthusiasm, raved about his incoming freshman class, and glowed when talking about the competition at every position and depth across the board. Pikiell talked himself into a frenzy when describing just how hard his “kids” were going at it every practice, and how they were coming together as a team.

It was impossible not to get caught up in Pikiell’s excitement.

It was also impossible not to think that all the losing on Long Island might have finally gotten to Pikiell, maybe he’d finally cracked: How could the coach of such a bad team for the past three years, a coach whose head has been repeatedly called for over the past two seasons, be so upbeat, so optimistic?

In his three previous years at the helm of the Seawolves, Stony Brook spent three straight years in the basement, three straight appearances in the America East Tournament play-in game, and had amassed winning percentage worse than the batting average of a utility infielder.

The Seawolves had been a walking disaster: they lacked any team identity, along with any semblance of an offensive game plan. On the floor, Stony Brook looked like five individuals with plenty of athleticism, but no basketball training, and no interest in sharing the rock. Last season Stony Brook ranked last in the America East conference in scoring, assists, field goal percentage, three-point field goal percentages, and three-pointers made.

Fans were quick to call for Pikiell’s head. He was signed to the most lucrative contract in the league, yet he had produced the worst winning percentage among all active coaches.

What many didn’t realize was the during Pikiell’s first season as coach, Stony Brook was under NCAA sanctions dating back to the previous coaching staff, and only had six eligible scholarship players on its roster. In fact, the Seawolves did not field a team with a full 13 scholarship players until this season.

Fans are fickle. Once you fall into their doghouse, it’s hard to find your way back into good graces. Fans yawned when Stony Brook opened the season with a win over University of Maryland-Eastern Shore, and later at back-to-back wins over Columbia and New Jersey Institute of Technology. Those games, you’re supposed to win. Three straight losses to Lafayette, Wagner, and American, and it’s the same old Stony Brook, right?

Wrong.

Sure, the Seawolves’ first three wins of the season were against teams at the bottom of the Division I totem pole, but they are games that Stony Brook could, and would, have lost in previous years. In fact, last season Stony Brook lost to UMES and was destroyed by Columbia, losing by 20. Stony Brook showed more collective heart through their first five games than they had in the past three years, fighting down to the wire in valiant comebacks against Wagner and a very good American team, something that was unheard of last season when the Seawolves would roll over and die once they fell behind.

Stony Brook also proved they could win the close game, beating Columbia at the wire 62-60. They were 0-4 last year in games decided by 3 or fewer points.

The Seawolves also have gotten a huge boost from an exciting quartet of freshmen in 6’5″ high-energy, high-flying, do-everything forward Tommy Brenton, point guard Brian Dougher, 6’8″ 260 pound bruiser Dallis Joyner, and 6’9″ sharpshooting Brit-import Danny Carter.

Each of the four freshmen has had at least one game as Stony Brook’s high scorer, with Brenton taking center stage in the early going by ripping down 16 rebounds in his first collegiate game. He ranks 4th in the conference in boards per game.

Fans still dismissed Stony Brook as another bottom feeder and train wreck in waiting. But they can’t ignore the signs anymore. The Seawolves are finally heading in the right direction.

Last Thursday night, when Stony Brook tipped off against Lehigh, it was the kind of opponent that would have ended in the Seawolves getting run out of the gym a year ago: Lehigh was an experienced, veteran-heavy team coming in off of a win over Rutgers of the Big East.

In the early going, it looked like it would be a long night for Stony Brook. Lehigh pushed the lead to eleven, and Stony Brook sputtered badly out of the gate. Yet Pikiell’s young squad never buckled, never backed down, and played with heart and desire never before seen in their neck of Long Island. They came together as a team behind the terrific play of veterans Chris Martin, Marqus Cox, and transfer Desmond Adedeji.

The Seawolves clamped down in the second half on the defensive end, and after going into the intermission down 27-22, blew the Mountain Hawks out of the water, outscoring them 49-23 in the second half. The Seawolves won by working the ball into the post, locking down on defense, running like a finely tuned machine on offense, and most importantly playing with a tremendous collective heart. And they came back from a halftime deficit, something that proved next to impossible last season.

“We won this game with a great defensive effort in the second half, I couldn’t be prouder of the effort and intensity our team played with tonight after falling behind early,” Pikiell reflected after the game.

Throughout the season, Martin has shown glimpses of the potential he oozed when he was signed as part of Pikiell’s 2006 freshman class. But Martin never qualified academically, and sat out getting his grades in order. Unable to practice with the team his first year in school, much of last year was a wash for Martin, who had to re-adjust to the college game.

But this year looks different, as the 6’1″, 230-pound tank of a guard has done everything while coming off the bench for the Seawolves. Martin has stepped up in the place of Eddie Castellanos, who was lost for the season during the first game of the year, to handle the back-up point guard duties. He has served as instant offense, and the best sixth man in the America East.

“Chris has all the potential to be a very special player when all is said and done. He has done a terrific job of handling the point, he can really get to the hoop, and he has just gotten into terrific shape, he went from being over 20 percent body fat to down under 10,” said Pikiell.

Martin showed flashes in the early going, including the game winning tip in against Colgate, and a terrific second half against American in which he almost single-handedly led a comeback. Against Lehigh, Martin was nails, going for a season-high 19 points, and 13 in the second half. Martin scored from inside and out, showing of a refined shooting touch, and proved to be the X-factor that Stony Brook was lacking last season: someone who can create his own shot, and get to the basket and the free-throw line (he went 11 for 11 from the charity stripe). Martin attacked the rim with abandon, finishing with acrobatic lay-ups or hard earned trips to the line.

No player better embodied the new-look Seawolves than Adedeji, a transfer from Dayton who conducted a clinic in his first meaningful minutes of the season. He gave the Seawolves an instant low post presence, something that was non-existent for the past three seasons. The 6’10″, 315-pound center shook the floorboards when he entered the game for the first time, and shook the gym when he almost brought the backboard, and roof, down with a monster two-handed slam with 12:46 left in the second half.

“‘Big Des’ brings a new dimension to our team, and when he gets into game shape, he could be a game-changer,” said Pikiell.

Adedeji only played 17 minutes, but he lived up to Pikiell’s description. He truly changed the lane, scoring 11 points on 5-9 shooting to go with nine rebounds and three blocks, and drew constant double and triple teams, freeing up the rest of Stony Brook’s offense.

He also brought the crowd back into the game.

Before Adedeji’s support-shaking dunk, Stony Brook trailed 38-30, but it energized the crowd of more than a thousand, and began a 41-12 Seawolves run to close out the game.

The unsung hero was Cox, a four-year walk-on whom has gone from practice player to defensive stopper. Cox emerged early in the season as a new player, a lock-down one-on-one defender that the Seawolves have never seen before. Cox has been put in man-to-man coverage against opponents’ best offensive guards and thrived, shutting down American’s Garrison Carr. Carr at the time was averaging over 20 points per game, but had just 10 points on 3-9 shooting. Against Lehigh he continued to shine, holding star guard Marquis Hall to 13 points, frustrating him into 4-12 shooting, and 3-8 behind the arc.

“There just isn’t a better story than Marques. He’s our leader, and he has worked as hard as humanly possible from day one in the program, and he has become a huge weapon for us on the defensive end” said Pikiell.

The Seawolves aren’t ready to contend for a conference title, but they are headed in the right direction. With talent, depth, and a newfound team identity, Stony Brook is going to be able to put a scare into a lot of America East teams.