[Marmel]

Offseason

Since the demo ends at the end of the NCAA Tournament, this is new ground for me.

I get a message saying I had the 128th Recruiting Class in the Nation. Oklahoma had the top class.

Henry Holsinger left to take a coaching position with Georgia Tech, so we must find a new Lead Scout.

We hire Damion Almeida, who left Pepperdine (don not say why but he was unemployed). Pepperdine made the NIT last year. Damion is rated 34 in scouting.



Next, we head into the scheduling phase. We have 13 openings, 6 of which can be home dates.


As June rolls around, we have 4 games scheduled, with VMI, Albany, Elon and Long Island. Really building up that strength of schedule.

As July arrives we have added games with BU, Brown, Syracuse and St. Peter’s and Fairfield.

Recruiting also begins in July, but we only have 1 scholarship to fill.




In August, we schedule Idaho and Farleigh Dickenson. That leaves 2 games left to schedule.


We schedule Jackson State and Villanova to round out our OOC schedule for the 2004-2005 season.



November finally rolls around and we get bad news. The one recruit we were after hard, PF Jose Worthington from Verona, NY has committed to Xavier.

November also is time for training camps. I let the computer recommend the best setup for me.



As the season is about to start up, it is time to review our roster


CENTERS

11 Michael Hicks C Sr 6'11" 273 Pittsgrove, NJ

Mike was 2nd Team All Conference Last year and was named POTG twice. He average 5.7 ppg and 7.0 rpg last year and will remain the starter for us.

50 Garrett Welch C So 6'10" 252 Keyser, WV

Garrett was on the Conference Freshman team last year and will see more PT this year in order to groom him for the starting spot next season.

34 Sammy Hynes C So 6'10" 229 Malverne, NY

He scored 4 points in a game last year.


POWER FORWARDS

52 Richard Nichols PF Jr 6'10" 259 Poughkeepsie, NY

Rich averaged 8 ppg last year and will keep his starting spot.

35 James Hale PF So 6' 7" 238 Walpole, MA

He can pull down some boards, but doesn’t do much else.



SMALL FORWARDS

40 Rusty Delapaz SF Jr 6' 6" 227 Uxbridge, MA

He is a better scorer from the inside which does not help us at the SF spot.

20 Tony Brown SF So 6' 7" 241 Fairport, NY

The potential is there, but he is coming along very slowly.




SHOOTING GUARDS

2 Warren Pond SG So 6' 5" 227 New York, NY

Warren started the season last year, but was demoted to the bench. He will stay there, but be one of the first guys off the bench. A pretty decent utility player.

51 Dennis Aultman SG So 6' 8" 224 New York, NY

This non-scholarship player is a practice squad player.

Hans Brewton SG Fr 6' 5" 213 Oriskany, NY

Hans is our prized recruit and will start at the SF spot due to his 6’5 height and excellent skills already, with some room to grow as well.



POINT GUARDS

Jeramy Perez PG So 6' 2" 196 Willimantic, CT

Jeramy is being moved to the starting shooting guard spot this season. He is an excellent shooter, maybe our best, and with our depth at PG, we will use somebody else there. We need Perez to play well in order to win.

14 Joseph Tiller PG So 6' 3" 206 Corbin, KY

Joe has one of the best shots on our team, but he is so bad everywhere else, I cannot give him a lot of PT.


5 Sydney Greenwood PG So 6' 2" 202 Allentown, PA

Greenwood is demoted back to the bench, and somewhat deep on it. He is in a tough situation as we have some quality at the PG spot.

Thomas Hogan PG Fr 6' 1" 181 Vienna, MO

Tommy is another freshman, and I struggled with the decision, but finally decided to start the season with him as the starter. His nice passing rating and shooting rating gave him the nod.

24 Jack Hatch PG Fr 6' 3" 185 Collinsville, CT

Jack is a fine player and may end up starting by the end of the season. He plays terrific defense and is a good shot. He will be the first guy of the bench normally.




We are going to end up with a solid 10 man rotation, but we do have a lack of depth at C, PF and SF. We will play small a lot. We will run a man to man defense.