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LOCATION: Baltimore, MD
CONFERENCE: Northeast (NEC)
LAST SEASON: 19-9 (.679)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 17-3 (1st)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 1/4
NICKNAME: Retrievers
COLORS: Black & Gold with Red
HOMECOURT: UMBC Fieldhouse (4,024)
COACH: Tom Sullivan (Fordham'72)
record at school 43-67 (4 years)
career record 198-198 (14 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Randy Monroe (Cheyney '85)
Doug Nicholas (Gettysburg '89)
Bill Zotti (Seton Hall '95)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 13-5-5-14-19
RPI (last 5 years) 196-292-297-254-113
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in conference semifinals.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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As Temple University's basketball coach/street philosopher John Chaney is fond of saying, the key to being a successful college coach is to get kids to "buy what you're selling." UMBC coach Tom Sullivan was selling the virtues of teamwork, and his players bought into his philosophy last season. Big-time. The result? The Retrievers won a school-record 19 games and were the NEC's top dog during the regular season with a mind-bending 17-3 league mark. Not bad for a team that had been mired in the mid-to-high 200s in the RPI rankings the three years prior. The Retrievers turned things around with only one player recognized on the three All-NEC teams and with zero players selected as the NEC Player of the Week. In other words, they won as a team pure and simple. So why is Sullivan smiling an ear-to-ear grin? Four starters and 12 lettermen return from that 19-9 team. And Sullivan has landed four newcomers that he believes will be ready to contribute sooner rather than later. If there is one standout player in Sullivan's "no-I-in team" approach, it is 6-1 junior guard Terence Ward (14.8 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 79 assists, 50 steals). Despite his slight frame (he is 165 pounds with coins and keys in his pockets), Ward became UMBC's first Division I all-conference player last year after he averaged 15.3 points versus NEC competition and came within one three-point field goal (79) of tying the school's single-season record. Foul him at your own risk too, because Ward's .873 free-throw percentage was the third-best figure in school history. Ward, UMBC's best player, fully embodied Sullivan teamwork theory by leading the Retrievers in assists for a second consecutive season. Ward doesn't always bring the ball upcourt in the UMBC offense, but he always gets his fair share of touches at the offensive end.
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT B+ BENCH/DEPTH B
FRONTCOURT C+ INTANGIBLES B+
UMBC was the best team in the NEC during the regular season, but stubbed its toe in the conference semifinal versus Central Connecticut State. This year, with four starters back (led by leading scorer and 1999-2000 NEC Player of the Year candidate Terence Ward), the Retrievers will be one of the NEC's top two dogs again along with 1999 conference tournament champion Mt. St. Mary's. The main questions entering this year are whether junior point guard Tim Hyland can continue to improve, whether potential inside force Kennedy Okafor can become more consistent and whether the Retrievers can weather a tough early schedule. The schedule is designed to help UMBC not only be the best regular-season team in the NEC, but the best postseason team, too. Will it work? We'll have to wait and see. |
"He's such a good scorer and he has more instincts for the two-guard than he does the point," Sullivan said. "I'd like to see him each year convert more and more to the point. Talent-wise, Terence is as good as anyone in the league at the two-guard spot. He can shoot the ball, he can get open and we run stuff for him." Joining Ward in the starting backcourt once again will be 6-foot junior combo guard Chris Hyland, who made significant improvements as a sophomore. Hyland (8.2 ppg, 1.4 rpg, 53 assists, 20 steals) can knife into the teeth of the defense and is fearless when it comes to hoisting up three-point shots (89 of his 185 shots were from behind the arc last season). Hyland seemed to come into his own late last season, averaging 10.3 points over the course of his final eight games. Sullivan has more options than a diner menu behind Ward and Hyland. Justin Wilson, a 5-11 freshman from perennial prep power Archbishop Molloy (N.Y.) High School, will see time as a backup to Hyland at the point. Wilson led Molloy to a 21-5 record last season and a berth in the city semifinals. Six-foot-3 freshman off-guard Kareem Washington (White Plains HS/White Plains, N.Y.) was selected West Chester County's Mr. Basketball last year after averaging 15.5 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists for the state Class 1A champion. He is the heir apparent to Ward. "Kareem has a great upside," White Plains coach Spencer Mayfield said. "His physical style will be much better suited to the college game. He's very coachable and dependable. He never missed a day of practice in four years of high school." Returnees Jason Womble, a 6-2 senior, and Neil Streeter, a 6-2 sophomore, round out the guard rotation. Womble (1.1 ppg, 0.5 rpg), a powerfully built lefty, joined the team after the first semester and saw action in 20 games. His forte is defense, because he is strong enough to put the shackles on a small forward, but quick enough to defend shooting guards. Streeter (1.3 ppg, 0.3 rpg) saw limited action as freshman (seven games). In practice, he displayed a soft touch, the ability to create his own shots and the athleticism to play in Sullivan's demanding defensive system. Two seniors and three juniors highlight what figures to be a deep, varied Retriever frontcourt. Six-foot-six senior forward Isaac Green (4.2 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 48 assists, 23 steals) is UMBC's unsung hero. Green has started 82 of 83 games over his three seasons. During that span, he has taken more charges than a Wal-Mart cashier, has passed the ball willingly, has sets screens galore and has hit the glass with verve. In addition to Green, Sullivan welcomes back four prime contributors in senior Kerry Martin and juniors Kennedy Okafor, Nick Grella and Brad Martin. The six-foot-seven Kerry Martin (4.9 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 39 blocks, 16 steals) is the team's sixth man. He can spark the team with his in-your-face defense or his above-the-rim offense. Martin has shot better than .540 the last two seasons and has 76 career blocked shots. The 6-6, 257-pound Okafor is built more like an NFL center than an NBA pivot, but he is hard for NEC foes to handle on the low blocks. Okafor (10.3 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 33 assists, 20 steals) can dominate a game, like his 18-point, 14-board effort versus St. Francis (N.Y.) in the regular-season finale would attest. That was the 20th double-double of his still-young career. If Okafor can be more consistent and stay out of foul trouble (he fouled out five times in 1998-99), then he will make a run at all-conference honors of some sort this winter. Grella (7.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 21 assists, 8 blocks, 11 steals), a 6-8, 255-pound center, was voted UMBC's most improved player last year. The voting wasn't rigged. Grella went from playing a grand total of 77 minutes as a freshman to starting 22 games and logging 578 minutes as a sophomore. Another widebody, Grella displayed a deft shooting touch (.568 field-goal percentage) and is a better-than-you'd-think rebounder in traffic. Brad Martin, a 6-5 small forward, uses his 210-pound frame to overpower small forwards and has worked like crazy to improve his mid-range game this summer. Martin (7.2 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 31 assists, 21 steals) hopes that off-season diligence will help him solidify his hold on the starting small-forward slot. He was inserted as the starting three-man as of the fifth game last year and averaged 8.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in NEC play. Sophomore Brett Kindelmann and newcomers Sam Grannum and Andre Williams will try to force their way into the crowded frontcourt picture. The 6-10 Kindelmann (0.7 ppg, 0.8 rpg) is the tallest player on the team, but he must show a lot more aggressiveness at the both ends of court in order to warrant playing time. Grannum, a 6-8 freshman, reminds Sullivan of a younger Kerry Martin thanks to his high-flying game at both ends of the court. Grannum (Cheltenham HS/Wyncote, Pa.) averaged a double-double (13.4 ppg, 10.6 rpg) as a high school senior. The 6-5, 240-pound Williams is a pocket-sized version of Okafor. A product of St. Mary's High School in Queens, N.Y., Williams averaged 14 points and made 75 percent of his shots as a high school senior. Walk-ons Varian Harvey and Gbemiga Adekunle round out the roster. Their main role will be to push the starters in practice and only occasionally will they enter the real action. Harvey (0.0 ppg, 0.2 rpg), a 6-4 senior, played only nine minutes in 1998-99, while Adekunle (0.0 ppg, 0.7 rpg), a 6-5 sophomore, got just four minutes.
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