Fordham Rams
Last 3 Years
16-12 7-9
6-22 3-13
3-24 2-14
Coach: chapelhillne
Offense: Motion
Defense: Zone
Starting Five:
PG - Willie Cummins (Jr.) - 6'4" - Newtown Square, PA
SG - Joe Harmon (Sr.) - 6'2" - Port Jefferson, NY
SF - Matthew Berry (Sr) - 6'9" - Framingham, MA
PF - Jeremy Baker (Sr.) - 6'10" - Cooperstown, NY
C - William Jones (Sr.) - 6'11" - Lansdale, PA
Reserves:
PG - Stephen Davis (Jr) - 6'3" - Reading, PA
SG - Michael Hamel (Jr) - 6'6" - Worcester, MA
SF - Willie Sommers (Jr.) - 6'4" - Bronx, NY
C - Anthony Fries - (Sr) - 6'11" - Wilmington, DE
C - Chad Reagan - (So) - 6'10" - Brooklyn, NY
New Additions:
PF - Edmond Busby - (Fr) - 6'11" - New Rochelle, NY
PF - Salvatore Esposito - (Fr) - 6'7" - Benedetto, Italy
Team Outlook:
After 10 straight losing seasons, the Fordham Rams finally emerged as a competitive team in the Ivy league last year with a 16-12 record. Because the team returns all of its starters this year expectations are high, and the campus is buzzing about a possible conference championship, which has not happened in 28 years, and post season play for the first time in over 15 years. The high expectations are also rooted in the fact that the team has 5 seniors and 4 juniors, so the team has a lot of experience in playing as a unit. The seniors are the first class that will have played all 4 years under coach chapelhillne. They have bitter memories of their first two years, when they were battling to avoid the cellar. Now they want to battle for the championship.
Junior Point Guard Willie Cummins is expected to be a scoring machine, and to improve upon his 17.5 points a game as a sophomore. He is expected to leave next year as the team's all-time leading scorer. The team is expected to lead the Ivy League, and once again be one of the top teams in the country in rebounding as well, with 6 players listed at 6'9" and above. In fact, at the start of the season, the team had an average rebounding rating of 60, which was tied for 2nd best in all of Division 1, just behind NCAA leading Michigan State which had a rating of 61.
Not much is expected of the two Freshmen this year, but they are needed to replace the low post players that are leaving this year. This year coach Chapelhillne discovered Salvatore Esposito from the Benedetto Amateur Basketball Club in Italy, and after a few scouting trips he has become very high on him. He should be one of the anchors of the team beginning next year. After some discussions with the new player, through a translator, he decided to take a redshirt year to develop his basketball and english skills further.
The schedule will be more difficult this year than in past years, including two "Big 6" opponents Iowa State and Oregon. Coach chapelhillne wanted a tougher schedule because he felt that the team could have made a post season appearance last year had they been able to demonstrate that they could beat solid teams in the non-conference.
Season Goals:
The goals for the season are very lofty - to win 20 games, win the regular season Conference Championship, win the Conference Tournament championship and make the National Tournament.
Season Recap:
The season ended as a success, though it did not result in a National Tournament appearance. The Rams did however advance to the Elite 8 in the PIT, where they were eliminated by a tough Winthrop team. Willie Cummins led the team with a 15.8 ppg scoring average, and moved up to 5th on the all-time sccoring list, with one year to go, in addition to earning First Team all conference as PG. The team finished at 22-9, and finished behind Princeton in the conference standings, with an 11-5 record. Fordham was 2nd in the nation in Blocks, with 6.5 per game, and 9th in rebounding with 38.3. The coaching staff is seriously discussing going with an aggressive, swarming full court press defense beginning this year, since the team loses 5 players this year.
6/17/2013 6:32 PM (edited)