Influx of Youth Provides Bright Future for MAAC Men’s and Women’s Basketball

2/11/2018 9:41:28 PM

By: Sean Brennan
 
Jimmy Patsos had just gotten off the train outside Schenectady, the end of a six-hour odyssey of a return trip to Albany from Buffalo. It wasn’t bad enough that Patsos’ Siena Saints were beaten by Canisius on their trip up to Western New York, but then plane problems led to a train ride and all the delays that went along with it.
 
But if there was a topic that got Patsos back to his usual vibrant self and helped ease his frayed nerves, it was talking about his team’s future, a group of talented freshmen that includes Roman Penn, Jordan Horn, Prince Oduro, and Christian Bentley.   

“These guys, they are all fantastic people,” Patsos said. “We lost four 1,000-point scorers (from last year’s team) and replaced them with these freshmen. But the attitude around the team, even off the court, is good because these guys are good people who do well in school. They love Siena. They really appreciate the locker room, the school, the tradition, even the neighborhood.”

And they are the foundation of future success for the Saints and one Patsos is very high on. But that doesn’t mean there haven’t been some big bumps in the road this year.
 
Like Penn, for instance, who just saw his freshman season cut short by a most unusual injury. “Roman just had a cyst burst in his heel that no one knew he even had, so he’s now done for the year,” Patsos said. “He’s unfortunately going to have major surgery in three weeks. It burst at two in the morning the night after we lost to Manhattan at home (Feb. 2). But this kid is tough.” Penn was second in scoring for the Saints at 9.7 points per game.
 
Another of Patsos’ up-and-comers is Horn, out of St. Paul, MN., who despite battling a high ankle sprain recently, is averaging 7.1 points, and has knocked down a team-best 34 three-balls this season.       
 
“Horn had been out for three weeks with a high ankle sprain but he just came back,” Patsos said. “Just a fantastic kid.”
 
Patsos’ other newbie gems are the Canadian duo of Oduro and Bentley, a pair the coach is high on for the future.
 
“Prince and Christian are two Toronto kids that are very good and very funny also,” but fresh first-year talent is not limited to just Siena. Virtually every team in the conference boasts players who will make up the new wave of talent in the league.
 
The first-place Rider Broncs boast the superlative trio of Dimencio Vaughn, Jordan Allen, and Frederick Scott, who check in as the Broncs’ top three scorers at 15.3, 13.5 and 13.5 points, respectively.
 
“I haven’t seen those Rider kids in person because I don’t see them until next week (Feb. 15),” Patsos said. “But I’ve seen them on tape and they have a tremendous crew.”
 
At Canisius, you’ll find Takal Molson, the hometown kid out of Buffalo, who is third on the Griffs in scoring (12.4) and steals (26), while placing tied for second in three-pointers with 36.
   
“Canisius has a really good freshman in Molson,” Patsos said. “He gets my vote right now for Rookie of the Year.”
 
At Monmouth, the Hawks’ coach King Rice has the tandem of Deion Hammond and Ray Salnave to boast about. Hammond, a 6-4 guard out of Maryland, is second on the Hawks in scoring (12.1) and first in three-balls (59), while Salnave logs 9.4 points a game (fourth on the Hawks) with 30 steals (tied for first on the team).   

At Fairfield, head coach Sydney Johnson has a couple of future building blocks in Jesus Cruz and Wassef Methnani. The 6-5 Cruz, a native of Puerto Rico, is third on the Stags with 9.5 points, third in three-pointers (21) and fourth in rebounds (3.8), while the 6-8 Methnani is seventh in scoring (5.5 ppg) and fifth in rebounding (3.6), despite being an awfully long way from his native Tunisia.
 
Marist coach Mike Maker has a couple of keepers on the rise in 6-3 guard Austin Williams and 6-8 forward Lasse Gummerus. Williams, who starred at Seton Hall Prep in New Jersey, averages 5.8 points a game, good for sixth on the Red Foxes, while his 48.2 percent shooting clip places him third on the team. The 6-8 Gummerus is developing into a nice outside threat with his 26 treys being fifth best for Marist.
 
Quinnipiac has the talented twosome of Rich Kelly and Jacob Rigoni. Kelly, a 6-1 point guard is averaging 9.8 points, good for third on the Bobcats, while placing first in both assists (129), and free-throw shooting percentage (78.6%). The 6-8 Rigoni, who came to Connecticut from The Land Down Under is averaging 9.2 points, good for fourth on the team, while nailing a team-leading 54 threes, and shooting over 46.2 percent from behind the arc.
 
Iona, Manhattan, Niagara, and Saint Peter’s all boast rosters that are top-heavy with upperclassmen so their respective freshmen didn’t have the opportunity to make an impact this season. But with so much new talent blossoming in the league, Patsos knows what he needs to do to keep up with the competition.
 
“We need successful surgery for Roman, that’s the first thing,” Patsos said. “But I’m excited for what’s ahead. Horn is a gym rat who is just going to get better, and Prince has a huge upside. He knows he has to learn and he wants to get better because this year was a big jump for him. The kid didn’t start playing basketball until the 10^th grade.”
 
On the women’s side of things, Iona women’s basketball coach Billi Chambers, too, was eager to chat about her team’s future. This despite seeing her team enter this week toting a 1-24 record in an injury-plagued season. So, what has her as giddy as someone holding a winning lottery ticket? Like Patsos, she is stoked about her freshmen as well.
 
“We got something brewing here,” said Chambers, who led the Gaels to the 2016 MAAC Women’s Basketball Championship, the first in school history. “We’re starting four freshmen, so I definitely think we have a strong future ahead of us. And I think they’re all doing very, very well.”
 
It all starts for Chambers with a recruit she lured from across the pond, as they say, Toyosi Abiola out of London, England.
 
“She’s doing very well, and she’s got some really good freshmen around her,” Chambers said. “Jayden Eggleston is really starting to come into her own and play well as she works through an injury. Adrienne DiGioia is playing point guard for us, so it’s really interesting. It’s just interesting to be so young and starting so many freshmen and seeing so many freshmen on the floor at the same time.”
 
Chambers calls Abiola “a special talent.”

“She’s just a different player, a high-level kid who came in and was really able to understand the game right away and use her athleticism to impact the game,” Chambers said. “She has found herself in a go-to spot for us especially at the end of the shot clock, at the end of the quarter, and at the end of games where a lot of times we’re putting the ball in her hands to make a play. I think by the time her senior year rolls around she is going to be money every time you put the ball in her hands. We have a lot of trust and confidence in her.”

Chambers is equally high on Eggleston, who arrived in New Rochelle from Las Vegas.
 
“She’s going to be a phenomenal player,” Chambers said. “When we brought her in we thought Jayden and Toyosi would be running neck-and-neck to go after the Rookie of the Week awards this year. But she ran into a little injury early on and has been playing through that so her reps in practice have been pretty limited. But she has a lot of confidence about her and she’s coming from the Nevada State championship team that won three championships while she was there. She’s a winning kid, a tough kid.”
 
Two other Iona newcomers who have made their marks this season are 6-5 forward Rebekah Justice and 5-8 point Adrienne DiGioia.
 
“Rebekah’s extremely skilled, but needs to get herself into college basketball shape,” said Chambers, who came into this, her fifth season, with an 82-46 record at Iona. “We thought she’d be a backup this year and really explode in her sophomore year. But that kid has really put her head down and worked her butt off into a starting spot, and really became a defensive presence for us inside.”
 
The Gaels’ show is run by DiGioia, the 5-8 guard, who was both all-league and all-state while at Branford High School in Connecticut.
 
“Kristin Mahoney, our senior, tore her ACL last year so we knew she was going to be sitting out the first six-seven games this year,” Chambers said. “And Adrienne came in and right from the start she was telling everyone where to go and what to do. She picked up our offense immediately and knew how to get people in the right spots. She’s just a tough, gritty kid because she’s the smallest one on the floor. I think she’s going to develop into a very solid point guard in this league. And we also have Olivia Owens, who tore her ACL in her senior year in high school, so she has not been able to go this year. I think she will be someone really special next year.”
But Iona doesn’t have the market cornered on fresh talent.
 
Manhattan coach Heather Vulin has a budding defensive presence in Courtney Warley, whose 4.5 rebounds per game, and 21 blocks are second and third-best on the Jaspers. Manhattan also has rising defensive specialist Lynette Taitt, long-ball threat Sini Makela (16 threes), and Lizahya Morgan and her 14 steals, good for fifth at Manhattan.
 
Rider checks in with Richmond, VA product Jaiden Morris, the 5-8 guard is fourth on the Broncs in both scoring (7.7 points) and three-pointers (23), while placing third in steals with 33. Canisius coach Terry Zeh has to be excited about the future prospects of local product Anndea Zeigler, who is tied for fourth on the Griffs in steals (15), and sixth in scoring (4.1 ppg), while 6-0 forward Danielle Sanderlin of New Jersey is fifth in scoring at 4.5 points per outing.
 
Saint Peter’s may have the best new name in the league in D’Aviyon Magazine, who not only helped lead her Queen of Peace High School to the New Jersey state championship last year, but is already paying dividends in Jersey City as she is averaging 4.8 points per game.
 
And perennial MAAC contender Marist has a trio of talented new players blending into the Red Foxes’ roster in Allie Best, Willow Duffell, and Gabi Redden. Best, a 5-8 guard, is averaging 6.1 points and has logged 15 steals, both numbers placing her fifth best on the team, while her 26 three-balls are second best. The 6-2 Duffell is scoring just under five points a game and pulling down 5.2 rebounds per outing, good for fifth on the team, while the 6-1 Redden, averaging 4.1 points, is an 85.7 percent free-throw shooter, having canned 24-of-28 from the line so far, this season.
 
Like Iona, Manhattan, Niagara, and Saint Peter’s on the men’s side, Fairfield, Monmouth, Niagara, Quinnipiac, and Siena saw their first-year players get little action this season on veteran teams. But the stars of the future are plentiful and it makes for exciting times to come in the MAAC. It’s that hope, that promise, that keeps the smiles coming for Chambers even as she navigates through a one-win season so far. 
 
“We have an incredible group here,” Chambers said. “They are great personalities and they’re really fun to be around. They’re working hard every day even as they’ve seen a ton of adversity and injuries. They understand we’re staying true to the process and they understand that we have to build and they feel very confident going into these last few conference games that we can put something together and potentially make a run as long as they stay positive. That’s what makes it fun for us.”