Photo By Logan Moyer, Sports Editor
By Matt Guear
With a fully stocked roster and the experience necessary to win, the men’s basketball team is primed for a run at the Landmark Conference championship.
Following last year’s loss to Catholic in the title game, the River Hawks come into this season ranked No. 1 in the conference’s pre-season coaches’ poll.
Although they didn’t reach their ultimate goal of winning the Landmark Conference championship, last year’s season was still nothing to scoff at.
The River Hawks were 17-11 overall and 12-6 in conference play. They boasted impressive wins over Catholic and Scranton as well as Drew in the first round of the Landmark playoffs.
Catholic will most likely prove to be the biggest challenge for the River Hawks’ pursuit for a championship. However, head coach Frank Marcinek isn’t necessarily circling their first meeting on Dec. 4.
“It’ll be a tough game, it’s on the road. Catholic’s good and while they graduated a lot, I still think they have a lot of really good players in their program,” said Marcinek. “We’re all about consistency and consistency means doing it day after day after day after day as opposed to maybe circling one game. I like to kind of keep more of an even keel and have a great approach to every game instead of kind of getting sky high for just one game.”
Fueled by a large junior class, the River Hawks have had time to learn under Marcinek, and now he feels that they are ready to win.
“To be quite honest with you, we had growing pains the last two years. You know, there are days in practice where it was a challenge,” said Marcinek. “This year I feel like our practices have moved much more quickly. We’re more mature physically. We’re more mature mentally. We know how to play the way I want them to play.”
The River Hawks only graduated one player from last year’s team, Noah Klinewski. So, with a significant portion of the roster returning, the team has had time to learn and grow together, which could prove to be pivotal down the stretch.
“It’s a big advantage starting with, you know, basically returning your whole team. It’s not like so many years past where we’ve been starting almost from scratch,” said Marcinek. “We have a great new place to build on.”
Those returning players, such as senior guard Marcus Mitchell and redshirt junior guard Steven Ressler, were very important to the success of last year’s team. Mitchell averaged a team-high 11.2 points per game last season and was top five in assists. Ressler shot 44% from beyond the arc and will once again be the River Hawks’ biggest threat from deep.
“They both had great years for us last year. And to be honest with you, without their play, we had a tough time winning,” said Marcinek. Marcus is probably our most athletic guy as far as his vertical. Steve is just very fast and very strong. So, I think athletically they’re better than a lot of the guards we play against. They’ve had a great deal of experience. They both have played a lot of minutes, and I’m hoping that the experience they have, along with their physical maturity, leads them to more success this year than they had a year ago.”
However, because of their depth, Marcinek doesn’t think that relying on Mitchell and Ressler will be as necessary.
“I think this year’s team is a little bit deeper than last year’s team. And we may not be quite as dependent upon Marcus and Steve. I still expect those two to have big years,” said Marcinek.
An example of that depth can be found in the front court. Billy Anderson, Audric Washington, and Emezie Egeonu will all split time at the center position as Marcinek believes they will all contribute in different ways this upcoming season.
“They’re all different. Audric is probably more of a defensive specialist, passer, talker, rebounder. Billy is probably the most offensive of the guys. Emezie is probably the strongest, best screener and probably a little more physical than those two. So, they’re all a little bit different, and they’ll all play,” said Marcinek.
In Marcinek’s eyes, Washington is also a key contributor to the overall team communication, along with junior forward Brandon Lavitt.
“Audric is a great talker and to have a five man as a great talker is important because ball screen defense is where a lot of the communication needs to happen and the five man is the one that’s directly responsible for a lot of that,” said Marcinek. “Brandon and Audric are both high IQ kids. Being high IQ kids, and being great communicators goes hand in hand. I’m trying to get those guys to be an extension of the coaching staff on the floor. So that, you know, in an ideal world, I’d love our guys to be intelligent enough to be able to make a lot of decisions on the floor themselves.”
While his communication on the floor is a great contribution the cause, Lavitt was also able to contribute greatly on offense last season by averaging 11 points per game, which was second on the team behind Mitchell. In fact, Lavitt scored the game-winning layup against Drew in the first round of the Conference playoffs last season.
However, just like Mitchell, just because Lavitt was a big-time scorer for the team last year, doesn’t mean the River Hawks will have to solely rely on him.
The River Hawks will host their annual tip-off tournament this weekend at O.W. Houts Gymnasium.