Marist on upswing

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Red Foxes playing best ball of season right now




Every basketball team looks to peak in early March, heading into the playoffs.

That?s exactly the position the members of the Marist College men?s basketball feel they are in entering the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament in Springfield, Mass.

?I feel, as a team, we?re real confident,? freshman swingman Chavaughn Lewis said. ?We play together. We?re maturing quickly. I feel confident we?re peaking at the right time.?

Eighth-seeded Marist (13-17, 7-11) certainly brings more momentum into this MAAC tournament than it did in any of the previous three under head coach Chuck Martin.

Having won their regular-season finale, 89-77 over visiting Niagara on Sunday, the Red Foxes have won six of their last eight games, going 5-3 in February.

?They?re playing real good right now,? Niagara head coach Joe Mihalich said. ?I tell you what: They could make some noise in the playoffs.?

The first step toward that ?noise? comes tonight at 7:30 when Marist faces ninth-seeded Saint Peter?s (5-25, 4-14) in an opening-round game at the MassMutual Center. The Red Foxes swept the regular-season series with the defending MAAC tournament champs.

Martin said he?s happy with the way his team shook off an eight-game losing skid that spanned early January to early February to win three of its last four outings and earn the highest MAAC tournament seed during his tenure.

?It feels good,? the coach said. ?We?ve been talking about it, playing good basketball, being the best Marist team we could be all year long, but certainly trying to do that at the end of the season would be great.?

His colleagues around the league have taken notice.

Though his top-seeded Iona Gaels (24-6, 15-3) have earned an opening-round bye, Tim Cluess has his eye on the Red Foxes, calling them ?a very dangerous team.? The winner of tonight?s Marist-Saint Peter?s matchup will face Iona in a quarterfinal on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

?I think they?re playing great right now,? the Gaels? head coach said. ?They?re one of the hottest teams in the league right now.?

Still, that?s all talk. The Red Foxes said they must prove themselves worthy of praise starting tonight, when they face the Peacocks.

?It?s going to be a hard stretch, starting with Saint Peter?s, who?s always tough,? sophomore forward Jay Bowie said, ?and then hopefully we win that game.?

To do so, Marist will look to mostly a youthful roster to bolster its own offense while stifling Saint Peter?s.

Devin Price, a junior, and Lewis lead the team in scoring, each averaging 13.9 points per game. Marist?s next four leading scorers ? Adam Kemp (8.6), Isaiah Morton (7.7), Bowie (7.1) and Manny Thomas (5.5) ?are either freshmen or sophomores.

Building on the improvement the young Red Foxes, in particular, have displayed on both sides of the ball this season will be the key to a successful weekend in New England, Martin said.

?We?re more efficient, offensively,? he said. ?Our shot selection has become better. Defensively, we?re a better team.?

Mihalik agreed, saying he can see Marist has become ?a more confident team? in recent weeks since his Purple Eagles beat the Red Foxes in January, and he said Martin deserves much of the credit.

?I think Chucky has done a terrific job with these guys,? Mihalich said. ?He?s got them playing as good as anyone in the league right now, for goodness? sake.?

Siena head coach Mitch Buonaguro said the Red Foxes are playing their best basketball at just the right time.

?They?re a good team right now,? he said. ?I wouldn?t want to play them in the tournament.?

 

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Sideline Talk: Marist's Martin answers doubters




Getting ready to travel to Springfield, Mass., this morning for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference men?s and women?s basketball tournaments, I already know this year will be different.

No, it has nothing to do with the new venue for the tournament, although I do fear how often I?ll have to see the word ?MAACachusetts.?

The difference this year is that I already know there?s a question I don?t need to worry about asking:

?Tim Murray, will Chuck Martin still be your men?s basketball coach for next season??

I already know that the answer from Marist?s director of athletics would be yes.

Maybe not a resounding, ?We?ll be negotiating a contract extension immediately? yes, but a yes nonetheless, regardless of how the Red Foxes fare against Saint Peter?s in their first-round game tonight. Martin?s team has shown too much growth, in too many areas, to think otherwise.

Look beyond Marist?s 13 wins and 17 losses for a moment:

While Marist has suffered an eight-game losing streak in each of Martin?s four seasons, this year?s group was the first to stay unified enough to rebound from the skid, boasting six wins in its last eight games entering tonight, including two road victories.

Look beyond Marist?s 13 wins and 17 losses for a moment:

While Martin?s teams have been perennially inexperienced, with freshmen expected to learn on the fly, this year?s youngsters found a way to flourish, and grow their roles as the season progressed.

While Martin?s teams have crumbled in the past when facing adversity, due to injuries, transfers or academic suspensions, this group carried on and adapted after starting power forward Dorvell Carter suffered a season-ending injury in November. Plus, academic suspensions were not a problem for any of the Foxes this year, either.

The Marist defense hasn?t looked this good since 2007, and the team is starting to show an ability to win the opening minutes of second halves, the mark of a focused team, able to make the necessary adjustments in the locker room.

Martin has shown it this season. He can coach. So, what?s he finally doing differently?

?The one thing I love about Coach Martin is that even when times are bad, and even when times are good now, he hasn?t changed his coaching style,? Devin Price told me on Wednesday. ?He?s the reason why we?re playing the way we?re playing right now.?

Sophomore forward Jay Bowie agreed, the instruction hasn?t changed. The tone at practice is a slightly different story.

?We play around a little bit more in practice this year because we?re winning now,? Bowie said. ?It?s a lot more fun. We?re a lot closer as a team this year.?

To a man, the Red Foxes speak of a chemistry that helped steady the team through its eight-game losing streak, and helped the four freshmen Foxes mature through the season. Martin is quick to credit that camaraderie to veteran leadership provided by Price, senior R.J. Hall and others. But, the coach must be given his due for shepherding that process.

Over the summer, Martin said he spoke with Price nearly every day, and spent time with the junior guard at his home in California. He also flew to Florida to visit with Bowie, and traveled upstate to Sherrill, sophomore center Adam Kemp?s hometown.

?We had a good bond at the end of the year. You could sense that the guys and myself were jelling, coming together, and that?s a good feeling,? Martin said. ?I?m a people person. I?ve always been a people person. My success in this profession has always been based on relationships.

?I could see it developing with Adam and Jay and Devin, and it was important to try to keep that thing going. And, it was fun. It was fun to see them away from Marist, in their setting.?

Relationships appeared to be Martin?s biggest problem less than a year ago, when he lost four transfers in one season, seemingly resetting the progress made toward reviving the program.

However, this time around, Martin had a better handle on the rebuilding process, and was able to be more patient with his freshmen.

?I learned a lot from those previous seasons,? Martin said, admitting how difficult he found the transition from his old assistant coaching job at Memphis. ?It was a huge gap between where I was at and where the (Marist) program was at. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around it. So, it took me two years to figure out how to do it.

?We learned from our mistakes. The old saying is, ?You know better, you do better.? So, that?s what we?ve done.?

Armed with Marist?s most talented recruiting class since 2003, as well as veteran leadership that he credits as an invaluable luxury he didn?t have in the past, Martin is proving he can grow a program from scratch, after all.

?The kids are the ones who are really the story,? he told me Tuesday.

That may be, but the man who received the blame for all those losses in the past deserves credit for Marist?s success, too.

Figuring out if Martin can turn a good team into a great team, or a great team into a champion, is still a question, but one for another day. For now, it?s simply evident that this year is different:

Martin is Marist?s men?s basketball coach. There?s no question about it.