Under-hyped Hawks have the look of a contender
by Sam Perkins
The University of Hartford Hawks have suffered from an absolute dearth of publicity during the 2007-2008 season, as despite putting together a solid showing during their non-conference season, and playing some of the best ball in the conference as of late. But don’t think that Hawks head coach Dan Leibovitz minds.
“We don’t mind it, we prefer it that way,” he joked, adding, “we’d be happy to not get any recognition and sneak up on people all season.”
Unfortunately for Leibovitz, after Hartford’s recent three-game winning streak, and their last second loss on the road to conference top dog UMBC, they probably won’t be sneaking up on anyone anymore.
Prior to the season tip-off, Hartford was picked 6th in the America East coaches polls, and was rated almost unanimously as a middle-of-the-pack team. Hartford was coming off a season in which they participated in the league tournament’s play-in game, struggled through an injury-plagued, bench-depleted season, and lost their leading scorer and 1st team All-conference performer to graduation. The Hawks would be suiting up a very inexperienced team, and while there was no denying they had some talent, the common view was that they were a year away.
Hartford got off to a sluggish start, dropping their first two games despite holding big leads in the second half, and for most of the non-conference season, the Hawks couldn’t find any consistency on the court. The staple of Hartford’s undermanned squad from last season, was tremendous physical toughness, and the Hawks’ inconsistency certainly had nothing to do with lack of effort or determination. “It’s not something where we’ve lacked effort,” said Leibovitz. But the Hawks had trouble showing up and playing as a complete team consistently, and had difficulty carrying over the success from one game to the next, something that all young teams struggle with.
However, things began to click for the Hawks during their last game of 2007, when they took on Virginia. The Hawks fell by eight points (78-70) to a big, strong, and athletic team from a power conference, and the game was even closer than the score would indicate.
“When we lost to Virginia, I really thought that we competed, for forty minutes, we were right there. We had our best defensive half in the 2nd half. When I went into the locker room after the game, I said that, going through everything that we have gone through, but as far as I’m concerned, when we start the New Year we’re zero and zero,” recalled Leibovitz.
And the young Hawks have followed Leibovitz’s lead, as since the start of 2008 Hartford has played better basketball, aside from UMBC, than any other team in the conference. Hartford has displayed the ability to win several different types of ball games since their loss for Virginia, and has really showed off their team depth, something they simply did not have last season. Even more importantly, the Hawks have showcased their ability to win close games and to come back, something that will prove invaluable in the dogfight that should be the America East Conference.
In their first game of 2008, Hartford led Yale throughout, only to watch the Bulldogs pull ahead by three with less than a minute left. Losing a lead at that point, after coasting for much of the game, would have been back-breaking for most teams, but Hartford dug down deep, and after Michael Turner nailed a three to tie it, Joe Zeglinski banked in a jumper to take the lead, and Jaret Von Rosenberg hit four free-throws to ice the game.
In their next game, their conference opener versus Binghamton, the Hawks were blown out of the water in the first half, only to have center Warren McClendon put the team on his back in the second and carry the Hawks back into the lead. But the Hawks blew a ten-point advantage with five minutes to play, and a three-pointer with 11 seconds left gave Binghamton a one point lead and seemingly the game. Then McClendon once again carried the Hawks, getting fouled and hitting both of his free-throws with 2.4 seconds left, and the Hawks once again came away with a last-second, come-from-behind victory.
While it would be nice for the Hawks to be able to put teams away completely, their ability to never get down on themselves and seemingly rally one time after the next has been huge, but its also nice to have some games that are never in doubt. That was the case when Hartford took out Boston University at home, improving to 2-0 in the conference and 3-0 in the new year. In their third win of 2008, Hartford was led by yet another Hawk, as freshman Morgan Sabia scored a team-high 14 points, and after Hartford took the lead halfway through the first half, they never trailed. That game was a high point for the Hawks’ ever-improving defense, something their head coach was extremely proud of, as he noted, “We played out best defensive game against Boston U.”
Following their win over the Terriers, the Hawks stood as the only undefeated team in the conference, but questions remained about their team, as they had yet to play a game on the road. While Hartford would have much rather come away with a victory from their first road game, in Baltimore against conference favorite UMBC, there were plenty of positives to be taken away from their 86-85 loss, as the Hawks traded leads with the most talented, and by far the best offensive, team in the conference, and if not for a deep three at the buzzer, would have walked away with a victory.
The Hawks grew tremendously during the non-conference schedule, but their coach feels that their struggles have really helped his team grow, and their early defeats have played a large role in transforming a young team learning the Division I game and searching for an identity, into a conference favorite. Said Leibovitz: “Throughout our non-conference play, we played a difficult schedule to really toughen those guys up.”
Hartford truly seems like a different team from the beginning of the season, as they are now as deep and complete a team as any in the conference (with the exception of UMBC) and they have a real inside-outside scoring presence.
Hartford, of course, begins and ends with sophomore sensation Joe Zeglinski, a tough-as-nails guard who brings a gridiron mentality to the hardwood. Zeglinski, heavily recruited as a running back out of high school, earned a spot on the all-rookie team last year, but he has truly transformed his game this season. While he still slashes to the hoop, and can muscle up against almost anyone in the conference, he has become a true threat from behind the arc, shooting a little over 36 percent from downtown. Leibovitz attributes his continued improvement to focusing solely on basketball for the first time in his life.
“Joe was always a football player first, so he never really spent a whole summer working on basketball, even last summer he spent more on rehab coming off of his knee,” Leibovitz said. “He spent this whole summer working on his game.”
While Zeglinski’s scoring (he leads the team, averaging 15 points per game) can never be overstated, Leibovitz is most impressed with his ability to help run the offense, and get other people the ball in a position to score.
“Where I really see the most growth in Joe’s game is that, and he’s always taken care of the ball well, his assists are way up,” he added. “He’s won some games with his passing.”
While Zeglinski has helped greatly in his passing, Leibovitz has kept him off of the ball to utilize his scoring ability. At the beginning of the year the Hawks looked strong at the point guard position, as senior captain Rich Baker was easily the best ball-handler, and one of the most unselfish distributors in the league. But Baker went down with an injury, something that happened last season and proved disastrous. Yet, despite playing without Baker (who will not be back anytime soon), the Hawks are still winning, something unimaginable to Leibovitz last season.
“We really, really struggled without Rich last year, I believe we were 3-12 and already we’ve won games in conference without Rich,” he reflected.
The Hawks ability to function and win without Baker has been the result of two players sharing the responsibilities at the point guard position in Von Rosenberg, normally a shooting guard, and Turner, the team’s small forward. Each brings something different to the position.
“Jaret obviously starts for us at the point guard,” said Leibovitz. “He’s really more of a combo guard, but he brings a dimension that Rich doesn’t, with a little more scoring, a little more aggressive, he really gets to the rim. Jared looks for opportunities to push and run and get out.”
As good as Von Roseberg has been, no one has handled Baker’s duties running the offense, positioning players to where they can score, and leading the team, as Turner has. He’s been the teams most versatile and unsung player.
“Mike is a guy who isn’t our best scorer, but he can score, he’s our best rebounder,” said Leibovitz. “He really has the mentality of a point guard, he’s a great kid, great communicator on both ends of the floor.”
Turner’s ability to run the offense and lead the team has never been more on display than against Binghamton, when he continued to run the offense from the bench after fouling out, and in the Hawks’ dogfight against UMBC, where he dished out and amazing ten assists to only one turnover. Turner has also become a threat on offense, and a big-time outside shooter, but his biggest contributions to the team have come on the defensive end, where he has proven not only to be the team’s best defender, but maybe the best perimeter defender in the league. Against Boston University, Turner was put in one-on-one coverage with BU’s Corey Lowe for the entire game, and forced Lowe into the worst shooting night of his career, 1-11 from behind the three point arc. While Lowe finished with 20 points, it took him 17 shots to do it, and many of his points came during garbage minutes at the end of the game when the outcome was already decided.
The Hawks also have a terrific rotation of complimentary players in senior Brian Glowiak, who provides instant offense and big-time shooting as a gunner off of the bench. Freshman Kevin Estes has come a tremendous way from the start of the season, and now not only provides a big body in the paint, but has become a scoring threat from the low post. Fellow Freshmen Anthony Minor has also found himself in the starting rotation, and after struggling for a long time, has found a niche as a high energy athlete, who provides some shot blocking and high-flying dunks.
The real gem of the freshmen class, however, has been Morgan Sabia, a 6’8″ forward who is as good an outside shooter as anyone in the conference, and also has the ability to put the ball on the floor and really attack the basket. While he is rail thin, and will need to get stronger to become a true inside threat, Sabia has already established himself as a scorer, averaging over 8 points a game. Although he disappeared for a stretch after some big scoring games early, he has matured greatly during the non-conference season, and once again has become a go-to scorer for the Hawks. Leibovitz is proud of his young freshman, especially the toughness he has developed.
“You come in as a freshman, you have a couple of good games, rookie of the week, 19 against BYU, and suddenly now you check into the games and the mind-set is don’t let Sabia catch it,” said Leibovitz. “Joe (Zeglinski) came in here and didn’t shoot the ball well, but he had that toughness and mindset, and Morgan is developing that.”
As talented and deep as the Hawks are, the one thing they had been missing for most of the season was a true inside presence, as while Estes and Minor are full of potential, they are still a long ways away from being true threats in the post. Ironically, the inside is where the Hawks were supposed to dominate the conference, as McClendon was expected to come in and take over the conference in the low blocks. McClendon was billed as unmatched in the conference in his physical skills, as he bench presses well over 330 pounds, can jump out of the gym, has tremendous hands and the ability to finish with either of them. But McClendon struggled tremendously in the early going, yet his early struggles may prove even more beneficial than early success would, as McClendon has grown tremendously as a player.
McClendon’s physical abilities are everything that they were billed as, but his early season was viewed as a large disappointment, which speaks volumes about his talent as most post players in the conference would kill to average fourteen points and six rebounds a game, numbers that are even more impressive when you consider he is only averaging twenty-five minutes per game. However, McClendon’s minutes tell the true story, as he has struggled tremendously to simply stay out of foul trouble and on the court, as he seemed too strong for his own good and forced far too many shots, as he would try to score over double and triple teams. At times McClendon’s frustration has gotten the best of him, with emotional outbursts against Long Island and Brown.
But following Leibovitz’s lead, with the new year McClendon has turned a new page, and has shown tremendous growth in his game. Against Yale McClendon’s numbers offensively seemed modest, but he began to open the floor up for his team, passing out of double teams to open men on the perimeter, instead of simply trying to knock people over and score.
“He’s been good passing out of the post, finding people, and that’s where I’ve seen the most growth in his game,” said Leibovitz.
Against Binghamton, after being in foul trouble during the first half, McClendon took over the second half, scoring at will while throwing down some backboard-shaking dunks. And against UMBC, McClendon played the best game of his career against the best frontcourt in the conference, scoring 29 points and grabbing 10 boards on 11 of 16 shooting. McClendon seems to have finally grasped what he can and can not do to score on the court, and his new willingness to get the rest of the offense involved spells huge trouble for the rest of the conference. As Leibovitz put it, “I’m actually the least worried about Warren. Once he puts it all together, he can be a truly great player in this conference.”
I’m this article won’t do much to help Leibovitz and his team stay off the radar (although that probably went out the window with the UMBC game), but I think he’ll forgive me. One thing is for sure: teams in the America East better take notice of Hartford, as the Hawks have joined UMBC in separating themselves a bit from the rest of the pack in the early going. With McClendon’s resurgence and the team’s growth, they have as deep and complete a team as any in the conference. And yet, the idea that the Hawks were a team that was building towards next year might still not be truly off base, as the Hawks are bringing in a trio of talented guards next season, and with everyone except for Glowiak and Baker returning, the Hawks could be scary good a season from now. As Leibovitz put it bluntly, “We’re really excited about our future.”
