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LOCATION: Emmitsburg, MD
CONFERENCE: Northeast (NEC)
LAST SEASON: 15-15 (.500)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 10-10 (t-5th)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 1/4
NICKNAME: Mountaineers
COLORS: Blue & White
HOMECOURT: Knott Arena (3,196)
COACH: Jim Phelan (LaSalle '51)
record at school 800-443 (45 years)
career record 800-443 (45 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Milan Brown (Howard '93)
Don Anderson (Franklin & Marshall '82)
Jack McLatchy (Cheyney '60)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 17-21-14-13-15
RPI (last 5 years) 143-71-171-200-158
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in NCAA first round.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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Old "Bowtie" just keeps on winning and winning. Last season's 72-56 victory over Central Connecticut State in the NEC title game did more than punch Mount St. Mary's ticket to the 1999 Big Dance. It was also the 800th victory of Jim Phelan's amazing 45-year coaching ride at the Mount. Phelan is one of only four coaches in NCAA history to reach the 800 Club the others being some pretty decent sideline tacticians named Dean Smith (879 wins), Adolph Rupp (876) and Clarence "Big House" Gaines. The bow-tie wearing Phelan, 70, is the least known of the bunch because he's spent his entire adult life coaching at a small school in a very small town in Northern Maryland. The town of Emmitsburg named a road "Jim Phelan Way" this summer in honor of all that he has accomplished at the tiny college. The sad part? Despite the fact that he has notched 800 wins, Phelan is not in the Naismith Basketball of Fame yet. He was nominated for a fourth time this summer but wasn't voted in. What does a guy have to do, win 900 or 1,000 games to get elected? If not for the fact that Phelan has Parkinson's disease, Deano's place as the college hoops all-time winner might be in jeopardy. Ole Bowtie's team is favored to win the NEC title in 1999-2000. And as long as 6-10 center Melvin Whitaker, who will be just a sophomore this season, is on campus, the Mount is a threat to win 15-20 games per year. Word has it that Phelan might hang up his whistle after this season to spend more time with his wife Dottie, but rumors like that have been circulating for years. If this is his last hurrah (and we hope it isn't), he's picked a pretty good club to make his last. Four starters are back from last year's NCAA Tournament qualifier, which of course was bounced in the first round by No. 1-seeded Michigan State, 76-53. Included in that group of returnees is the NEC's most feared inside-outside combo of Whitaker and 6-3 senior guard Gregory Harris.
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT B BENCH/DEPTH C+
FRONTCOURT B INTANGIBLES B+
The Mountaineers are the preseason co-favorites in the NEC, along with UMBC, and why not? The Mount returns four starters from last year's up-and-down team which picked the right time to be up (namely the 1999 NEC Tournament). Mount St. Mary's is our pick to win the NEC Tournament again and represent the conference in the NCAAs in 2000. Here's why. They have two of the league's five best players in Melvin Whitaker (the NEC's only legit NBA prospect who looks ready to become an absolute inside force this year) and Gregory Harris (the NEC's most compete guard). Throw in 6-8 Terrence Wilson, who should become a double-digit scorer (like Whitaker and Harris), as well as solid role players like Robert Balgac, A.J. Herbert and Konata Springer and the Mountaineers look tough to beat. Plus, there is talk that the 70-year-old Phelan might be ready to retire after the 1999-2000 season, so the team will have added incentive to send the 800-game winner out on to Jim Phelan Way on a high note. |
Phelan took some heat for allowing Whitaker to come to Mount St. Mary's in the first place. Cynics compared the aging coach to Father Flanagan, the founder of Boy's Town who was himself a Mount grad. Whitaker, of course, was a former high school All-American at Oak Hill Academy (where he played alongside current Denver Nugget Ron Mercer and former Nebraska star Venson Hamilton, a second round pick in last spring's NBA draft). Whitaker initially signed with the University of Virginia a few years back after being recruited by virtually every ACC school. But Whitaker never played a single game at Virginia. The reason? He was charged with assault after slashing the face of a Virginia football player with a box cutter after a dispute that began during a pickup game. The football player needed 73 stitches to close the wound and Whitaker was found guilty of malicious wounding and was sent to prison. After serving two years in jail, Whitaker was released and committed to the Mount. He joined the team in mid-season last year and was understandably rusty at first. As a result, the Mount struggled to fit their new Big Man on Campus into Phelan's flex-style offense. Whitaker started to show signs of being his old dominant self late last season, particularly in the 1999 NEC Tournament. He blocked a tournament-record 16 shots, including eight against Central Connecticut State in the NEC title game. Whitaker (11.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 63 blocked shots) followed that up with a team-high 13 points in the first round of the NCAAs. "Melvin has a chance to be the best player ever to play in this conference," said Phelan. "And he's been a total gentlemen as well. I consider myself lucky just to have a chance to coach him." Phelan is right. The Mountaineers are fortunate to have an ACC-caliber talent like Whitaker on their roster. Sure, he sometimes gets into foul trouble because he wants to block every shot, but Whitaker is an NBA talent if he keeps working and keeps his nose clean. The other half of Mount St. Mary's lethal one-two punch is Harris (17.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 132 assists, 60 steals) arguably the most complete guard in the guard-infested NEC. Harris is just a well-schooled player who keeps getting better each year. The fact that Harris is fundamentally sound shouldn't come as any surprise, considering he has learned his hoops at the knees of two of the most successful coaches ever to wear a whistle: DeMatha High legend Morgan Wooten (where Harris played his prep ball alongside current University of Delaware scoring whiz Mike Pegues) and Phelan. Harris, who sports an Air Jordan tattoo on his left arm, is the man who makes the Mountaineers go. He was the team's top scorer, best assist man and plays solid on-the-ball defense. Plus, because the Mount plays a sagging man-to-man defense and some 2-3 zone, Harris is often in the lane when the shot goes up and, as a result, he was the team's third-leading rebounder last year. "Gregory has all of the tools to be a top-of-the-line college player," said Phelan. "He's worked hard to develop his consistency. He's really quite a player." Rejoining Harris and Whitaker are a pair of 1998-99 starters in 5-10 junior point guard Aaron Herbert and 6-8 junior Rob Balgac, as well as 1999 sixth man Terrence Wilson. Herbert (4.4 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 57 assists, 23 steals) isn't the second coming of Stephon Marbury, but he is a solid ballhandler which allows Harris to move to the two-guard spot where he can run through countless screens in Phelan's flex offense. Balgac (5.1 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 21 assists, 20 steals), a Yugoslavian import, is good old-fashioned pound cake. In other words, Balgac's a guy whose game doesn't include any special sauce or whipped cream in it. Instead, he's just a guy who enjoys being a role player. In Phelan's motion offense, Balgac often sets high screens to open up dribble penetration for Harris or Herbert. He'll do the dirty work and will also give you five- to seven points per night and a handful of rebounds. Rounding out the starting frontcourt, along with Whitaker and Balgac, will be the 6-8, 180-pound Wilson. Though he's as skinny as a supermodel, Wilson (6.9 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 30 assists, 27 steals), a sophomore, is an aggressive offensive player who can score off the dribble and from behind the three-point line (.325 percent last season). Wilson, who will replace hard-working Tony Hayden in the starting lineup (Hayden graduated), has a tremendous upside. He can jump out of the joint and should blossom into a low double-figure scorer at least this season. "Terrence is one of the really best prospects that we've had here in recent years," said Phelan. "At 6-8, he has exceptional speed and quickness, a nice shooting touch as well as an intensity at the defensive end of the floor." Frontcourt depth will be provided by 6-10, 245-pound senior strongman Konata Springer (4.5 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 21 blocked shots). Springer is a George Foreman lookalike who throws his weight around on the backboards and also frees up Harris, Wilson and the other perimeter guys for open looks with his frequent bicuspid-jarring screens. The other three frontcourt options for Phelan are all newcomers. The best equipped to handle the Division I hand-to-hand combat under the basket is 6-7, 230-pound freshman Marvin Gibson (Friendly HS/Largo, Md.). Gibson averaged 15 points, 10 rebounds and four blocks during his two years at Friendly. The other two new frontcourt additions share the same position and roughly the same build as the slender starter Wilson. The two freshman small forwards are Angel Rivera and Derek Barnes, both 6-8, 190-pounders. Rivera averaged 10 points per game for a Newport (Md.) Prep team which finished 35-5, while Barnes was an all-district player who averaged 15 points and 14 boards at Woodrow Wilson (Va.) High School. Backcourt depth will be provided by three old faces and one new one. Jerry Lloyd, a 5-11 sophomore, returns to back up Herbert. Lloyd (2.8 ppg, 0.9 rpg, 30 assists, 10 steals) looks to set up his teammates first when he comes into the game for his 10-12 minutes per night. He's solid ballhandler and an above-average free-throw shooter (.846 percent in 1998-99). The other two backcourt types who are back in the fold are a pair of seldom-used juniors in 6-3 Jason Grace (1.2 ppg in 28 minutes last year) and 6-0 Stephen Moore (1.1 ppg in 17 minutes). The other backcourt possibility is 6-4 freshman Michael Bajornes (Central Catholic/Canton, Ohio).
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