Seahawks Keep Winning in 2005
KINGSTON, R.I. – Not many teams have outdone Wagner in the last year, at least in terms of their record. We’re not talking about the season, though: it’s the calendar that is our basis.
Actually, we need to go back a little less than a year – about 11 months. On January 10 this year, a 59-55 loss at Long Island put the Seahawks at 1-12 on the season. They weren’t exactly looking like a team that was going to have much of a say in the Northeast Conference. After a win, then a three-game losing streak, the Seahawks were tough to beat as they lost just two more times the rest of the way, the second coming in the Northeast championship game – a 12-5 finish to the season.
With Saturday’s 63-61 win at Rhode Island, Wagner is now 6-1 on the season, making the Seahawks 18-6 in the last 11 months of play. The Seahawks project as one of the top contenders in the Northeast Conference, and they’ve done nothing in non-conference play to change that. Saturday’s win, their fourth straight makes them 3-1 on the road, and though Rhode Island is clearly the best team they have played thus far, the Seahawks have the look of a contender at the mid-major level.
“I think we’re a pretty good basketball team right now,” said head coach Mike Deane. “We don’t have the same individual talent that a team like Rhode Island has, but collectively I think we play pretty good. We’ve got a variety of weapons; if we can settle down and really understand our strengths and weaknesses, we’ll be good before the end of the year.”
The Seahawks are, like many good mid-majors, led by a solid perimeter unit. DeEarnest McLemore, the only senior on the team, runs the show capably. He won’t put up the biggest numbers, but he controls the game and allows scorers like sophomore Mark Porter (23 on Saturday) and redshirt freshman Jamal Smith (nine points on Saturday after erupting for 25 against Brown on November 30) to do the damage. Redshirt freshman Joey Mundweiler and junior Jamal Webb are key reserves that keep it going.
The frontcourt isn’t bad, either, and on Saturday it played a key role in the victory against a bigger Rhode Island team. Sophomore Durell Vinson is the team’s second-leading scorer and top rebounder, but his biggest play was a late steal of a cross-court pass as the Rams were trying to mount a comeback. James Ulrich is the other frontcourt starter, but junior Matt Vitale plays more minutes and can shoot from long range. They don’t have much size, but they know how to win with the unit they have.
“Our motto has been ‘We, not me’, and collectively, I think we’re pretty good,” Deane said. “When we start to go and make individual plays, we’re not very good.”
Not surprisingly, defense has been a key to the resurgence late last season and thus far this season. On Saturday, it was fully on display, as they slowed down a Rhode Island team that had averaged 72.7 points in its last three games after a slow start offensively. The Rams’ improvement in offense coincided with the return to form of point guard Dawan Robinson, and it was not a coincidence that he didn’t have a big game on Saturday (12 points on 3-11 shooting, although he did have six assists with two turnovers) and the Rams shot just 33 percent from the field.
Deane said they changed up their defense last season for pragmatic reasons. It’s one that worked, and they have stuck with it.
“Back then, we thought we were going to be a very deep team, then we ended up going through a rash of injuries, and we changed our defensive philosophy,” Deane said. “We went to a contain, like we did today: force everything to the middle, don’t let them get beat, don’t get beat baseline. We had been playing the exact opposite: we were overplaying, we were in the passing lanes.”
On Wednesday, the Seahawks will play at UCLA, their toughest non-conference game. After that, winless Stony Brook is the only non-conference game left. They have made it through their longest road stretch of the season (three games), and January’s slate includes a four-game home stand that could give them a big boost if they keep playing as they have thus far. They are playing like a confident team and believing in each other, and that along with their excellent perimeter play could go a long way later in the season.
