Rider built on star power

LAWRENCE -- The only two 2,000-point scorers in Rider basketball history may have to make room for a third player this season.

If senior center Jason Thomp son joins the exclusive club of former Broncs guards Darrick Suber and Jerry Johnson, the 2,000-point mark is not all the trio will share.

Ironically, each blossomed after arriving on campus. None came in with the unmistakable label of future great.

Having played under an um brella of similar coaches changed that, however. In the nearly 20 years since Kevin Bannon took over as head coach and later passed on the reins to assistant coach Don Harnum, who subse quently turned the program over to one of his assistants, Tommy Dempsey, the Rider program has centered around both finding hid den gems on the recruiting trail and providing player development once they arrive on campus.

"I think there's been a consistency in philosophy, from Kevin to me and now Tommy," said Har num, who left the coaching ranks in 2005 to become Rider's athletics director. "It's kind of been in the family. It's been a very consistent philosophy of the way the program has been built: we're going to recruit the very best players that we can, but we really believe that we have a responsibility to make them better."

It has happened often since Bannon took over the program in 1989.

Suber, the school's all-time leading scorer with 2,219 points, was considered behind fellow freshman William Kinsel in some people's eyes during their rookie campaign of 1989-90, and they shared the team's top rookie award. Johnson, second to Suber with 2,047 career points, wasn't considered the jewel of his recruiting class, JUCO transfer Richie Baker was. Thomp son, the school's all-time leading rebounder and about 10 games from becoming No. 3 on the all- time scoring list, was a freshman starter in 2004-05, but nobody realized he had NBA potential when he was a skinny 6-foot-8, 200 pounds.

Not even Thompson, who has grown to 6-11 3/4, 253 pounds while at Rider.

"It's the work ethic that the coaches make me have," Thomp son said. "I'm definitely sure coming in the coaches didn't know what to expect out of me; I was more of an energy type of guy. I give a lot of credit to the coaches, working me hard, establishing a low post game and also trying to establish the jump shot, getting stronger and just helping me out."

A common thread between Bannon, Harnum and Dempsey is their coaching background. They're basketball grinders who each coached on the Division III level, and in Dempsey's case, also on the junior-college level. That's not where top players are handed over from high school and AAU coaches.

"When you work the Division III level, and junior college, you have to turn over every rock," said Dempsey, whose squad visits Rutgers tonight. "And if you look at some of the kids that we've gotten, they were kids that weren't real high-prized recruits. It's not like we beat a lot of higher levels for them, but, at the same point, we're willing to get in the car and go to some high school gyms in Lancaster (Pa.) to get Jerry Johnson, where there's not a lot of people recruiting."

Harnum thought when he recruited forward Charles Smith in high school that he was a sure-fire lock to become an All-Northeast Conference forward, which he did during a career that ended in 1996. To a lesser extent, he foresaw that in all-time assists leader Deon Hames, who played at the same time as Smith. But he wouldn't have said that about forward Mario Porter, who is the Broncs' only Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player of the Year, an award Thompson is well on his way to winning this season. Nor would he have said that about 1999 graduate Greg Burston, who earlier this year joined Suber and Hames in the Rider Athletics Hall of Fame.

"I think the reputation of Rider University is they're a very well- coached program and a players' program," said Matthew Pauls, who coaches Team NJABC, an AAU squad based in Central Jersey, that has two guards, Trenton Catholic Academy sophomores Frantz Massenat and Dondre Whit more, whom Rider already has extended scholarship offers to for the fall of 2010. "What I mean by players' program is the kids that go to Rider really enjoy the experience, both academically and athletically. I think Tommy Dempsey, in his short time there, has proven to be a players' coach."

A players' coach not only in spires them, but he also helps them fulfill their potential. In Thompson, the Rider coaches have helped him learn, among other techniques, the proper arc of a jump shot and a hook shot that he never wanted to do or thought he could do. In short, the Mid-Major All-American has developed an all-around style.

"I think the player development is the part in recruiting that people lose sight of the most," Dempsey said. "Jason wasn't a great freshman. If you have a kid who comes in as a freshman and all of a sud den he's first-team all-league, that's a great recruit. Our guys have kind of gathered steam as they've been in the program and turned into great players."

The next great Rider player might already be in the program. In fact, he might be Jason's younger brother Ryan, a 6-6 guard who this season is making the type of improvement from freshman to sophomore year that Jason made two years ago. Ryan is the team's assist leader and is second to Jason in scoring and rebounding.

Also waiting in the wings is prized recruit Jermaine Jackson, a 6-7, 190-pound small forward at Reading (Pa.) High School. A left- hander who is an athletic dunker, he won't wow people with averages of 13 points and 7.5 rebounds this season, but they would be impressed by his style --unselfish, versatile and winning. His team is 8-0.

"Jermaine could be easily a 20-point scorer for us. What he has is a commitment to the team goals," Reading coach Richard Reyes said.

"I think with his commitment on the next level, his upside is going to be very high."

It's still up in the air as to who will succeed Jason Thompson as the team's next star, but the reality is someone will do just that. It might be the top recruit, it might be the one who develops his game under the coaching staff's tutelage. It might be the player holding both distinctions.

And when that player is ready to rule Alumni Gym, everybody will know it.

"How are we able to do it?" Harnum said. "I think it's a result of probably good evaluation. I've al ways been a believer that if you have a star, or you have someone that's a go-to guy, it automatically gives your team an identity, and it's a lot easier to fill the pieces in around that player than it is to try to do it with five role players, so to speak. But I don't know if it's al ways been like, OK, every time we're going to make one guy this guy because I think that has to happen naturally. But I certainly recognize that if you look at the last 20 years, that is the way this program has been built."

Contact assistant sports editor Craig Haley at chaley@njtimes.com.