St. Lawrence

NYU

5

After finally getting their first-ever WCAA tournament win, the team returns 8 players (4 of them starters). Since this is a very senior-laden year (5 seniors), I wanted to fill all four schollies if possible with quality players, so there would be less need to push kids into starting roles next season. The addition of so much recruiting money from Chicago's title run also helped in that regard. The team has been characterized by speed and athleticism, running an uptempo offense. When the steals are coming the team rolls, but I felt that opponents who can take care of the ball and rebound their misses (preventing Brandeis from pushing up the tempo) caused Brandeis problems in the past. So, the decision was made to sacrifice a little speed and athleticism in order to improve general defense and--most importantly--rebounding. I feel the incoming recruits can do that. SG Allie will be groomed to run the point (at least in a back-up capacity) next season but won't see much PT this season. Two SFs were recruited, alike in many ways; Davies is the better defender and slightest of edges to speed, whereas Johnson has the potential to be an offensive force. Finally, McCambridge adds depth to the frontcourt, bringing the trademark speed and athleticism but requiring some work on rebounding & offensive skills which he will work on this season.

The starting lineup will be somewhat variable depending on opponent, but right now it looks like Boller is a lock to start at PG, Venuti will normall start at the SG spot (spelled situationally by Hogan). At SF, Mann is just too good to keep off the floor any more, and he'll be tried out at the SF spot (which should also aid rebounding). Stalling & King will cover the 4 and 5 spots. There is some flexibility and so as of now I'd say Boller is the only lock anywhere on this lineup on a nightly basis.

I don't necessarily expect any all-conference players, as with the uptempo & press I tend to run everyone around 20 mpg which doesn't lend itself to eye-popping numbers. Boller has potential to make all-conference PG, everything else is a crap-shoot.

Out of conference schedule is tough, with four ranked teams (3 of them on the road) and a host of other regulars in the top-25 which will provide plenty of challenge. Overall, I'm expecting to make another run at 20+ wins (although the OOC schedule will dictate much of that), a top-2 divisional finish, and another WCAA bid where I hope to deal some coach fits in the first round or two.