2007-08 Outlook
2007-08 Men's Basketball Outlook
Back in the saddle again.
After doubling their win total from the previous year to compile the sixth winning season in eight years, the Rider Broncs now look to return to the form that saw the program advance to five conference championship games in a 13-year period.
“We’ve set the bar high this year,” said head coach Tommy Dempsey, who at the age of 32 collected his 100th college coaching victory last season. “The expectation as a group is to go to the NCAA tournament. That is certainly our number one goal and I don’t think it is a crazy goal. If we come together as a team, work hard and stay healthy, this should be a team that can contend in the MAAC.”
The Broncs return four starters from the only Division I team in New Jersey to finish above .500 last season, led by All-American candidate Jason Thompson. As a junior, Thompson earned First Team All-Met, Second Team NABC All-District 3, was the MAAC Defensive Player of the Year and was a member of the CollegeInsider.com 2007 Mid-Major All-American team.
Thompson, who enters his senior year with 1,346 career points, 11th highest ever at Rider, and 759 rebounds, sixth highest ever at Rider, is a 6’11” forward who is the only player in Division I who is coming off a 20 point, 10 rebound per game season. “The most important thing is that he has prepared himself for this year,” Dempsey said. “He’s worked. He’s had his best off-season of preparation since he’s been in the program. He’s a little bit hungrier this year.”
The other three returning starters include juniors Harris Mansell and Lamar Johnson and sophomore Ryan Thompson. “We have a marquee player but we also have a great supporting cast around him that goes eight, nine deep,” said Dempsey. “We are not a one-man team. Jason certainly gets a lot of attention because he is having such a storied career, but this is a team with many quality players.”
Harris Mansell started 30 games last season and led the MAAC in three-point field goal percentage and was sixth in the conference in three-pointers made. “Harris’ development has really pleased me,” said Dempsey. “After struggling at times as a freshman he really got it in gear between his freshman and sophomore years and last year he took a big step forward. His next step now is to become an All-MAAC player. For us to be where we want to be at the end of the year, we need Harris to play like an all-league guard and I think he is ready to do that.” Mansell was third on the team in scoring, third in rebounding and third in assists last year.
Johnson started the final 13 games of last season and now has 25 college starts under his belt. “Lamar has gotten a lot stronger,” Dempsey said. “He’s made as significant a gain physically as anyone else. We’re trying to expand Lamar’s game. He’s a jump shooter but with the added strength he’ll be able to become a better defender, be able to finish better around the basket and become a little more versatile for his last two seasons.” Johnson averaged 10.8 points per 40 minutes played last season.
Ryan Thompson started 23 games as a Rider rookie, including the final five of the season and ranked in the top 15 in the MAAC in assists, rebounds and steals. “I expect Ryan to make the biggest leap from one year to the next this year,” said Dempsey. “He has gotten a lot stronger and he’s a hard worker. I think he was disappointed in the way his freshman year ended and I expect him to respond to that. He’s a driven kid.” Among MAAC rookies Thompson was second in rebounding, second in free throw percentage, fourth in assists, sixth in steals and ninth in scoring last year.
Other key returnees include seniors Joel Green, Kam Warner and Kevin Hickman, junior Kevin Vosilla, and sophomore Robbie Myers.
Green made 12 starts in his first season as a Bronc last year and was a member of the MAAC All-Academic team. “Joel went through a transition from the junior college level to the Division I level last year and it was hard on him at times,” Dempsey said. “He saw some areas of his game that needed to be improved, and he has worked hard to do that for his senior year. He’s going to have a much better season this year.” Last season Green ranked 12th in the MAAC in blocked shots and made two foul shots with 1.9 seconds remaining in a 64-63 MAAC win at Fairfield.
Warner was a starter for the first game of the 2006-07 season and scored a career-high 24 points in the 28th game of last season. “Kam really came on for us at the end of last season,” Dempsey said. “He started to play with a lot more confidence. I expect Kam to have his best season in a Rider uniform as a senior.”
Hickman is a team captain for the second year in a row and was also a member of the MAAC All-Academic team last year. “From a distance it is hard to see how important Kevin is to the success of our basketball team,” Dempsey said. “He’s a senior captain who is a true leader.” Hickman, who made the 2004-05 team as a walk-on, has not missed a foul shot in the last two seasons and over that time has averaged 8.8 points per 40 minutes played.
Vosilla played in 22 games last season and led the Broncs in field goal percentage for the second year in a row. “Kevin is a guy I can count on,” Dempsey said. “One thing a coach appreciates is consistency in their players. The one thing that I get from Kevin is a consistent effort.” Vosilla began last season by making three of four shots from the field and grabbed six rebounds in the season opener. “He also has the ability to score a little bit from the inside, when we need someone other than Jason to score inside,” Dempsey added. “He brings it every day.”
Myers started 10 games as a Rider rookie and averaged 8.5 points and 7.0 rebounds per 40 minutes played and was tied for third on the team in blocked shots. “No one ever said being a freshman is easy, and Robbie was a young freshman last year,” Dempsey said. “He will be more confident this year, now that he has some game minutes under his belt.”
The newcomers include red-shirt freshman Patrick Mansell and rookies Justin Robinson, Mike Ringgold and Matt Griffin. “In recruiting you are constantly in search of players with not only great potential on the basketball court, but also student-athletes of great character that fit the academic profile of Rider University,” Dempsey said. “We have accomplished that in this recruiting class.”
Patrick Mansell twice earned First Team All-Suburban One League honors at Cheltenham (PA) High School before sitting out last season at Rider, and graduated as the all-time career leader in three-point field goals made and finished second in career scoring to his brother Harris. “Pat is maybe as good of a shooter as I’ve coached,” Dempsey said. “His challenge is to expand his game, become more than a shooter, and to develop a sense of pride on the defensive end.”
Robinson hails from Great Britain and led Blair Academy (NJ) to the MAPL Title as a junior and a runner-up finish last season, leading his team in assists for the second straight season. “We’re going to throw a lot at Justin,” Dempsey said. “One of the reasons Justin chose Rider was because he knew he had a chance to play right away. He really has embraced that. He knows we’re going to put a lot on his plate as a freshman and he’s excited about that.” As a junior, Robinson was named First Team All-MAPL and Second Team All-State by the Newark Star Ledger.
Robinson will fight for the point guard role with Griffin, the son of former Siena and Saint Joseph University coach John Griffin. “Matt is the ultimate coaches’ son,” Dempsey said. “His dad was a terrific Division I coach and Matt played for a great coach in Speedy Morris, so he’s been so well prepped. His basketball IQ is extremely high.” As a senior at St. Joseph’s Preparatory School (PA) Griffin led his team to a 22-8 record and was named First Team All-Catholic League and Third Team All-City (Philadelphia) as his team’s MVP. “Matt is as smart of a player as we have in the program,” Dempsey said. “He’ll see significant minutes out there as a freshman.”
Ringgold is from Philadelphia’s Roman Catholic High School and spent last year at Winchendon Preparatory School in Winchendon, MA, where he was named team MVP after averaging 15.0 points and 9.0 rebounds on a team that posted 22 wins. As a senior at Roman, Ringgold averaged 18.0 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, earning First Team All-Catholic League and First Team All-City honors. “Mike adds an element of toughness and defense that I felt was lacking from last year’s team,” Dempsey said. “We targeted Mike in the recruiting process because we knew that he was one of the better defenders that we saw on the recruiting trails. He’s a tough kid.”
The schedule is highlighted by the nationally televised Old Spice Classic in Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex, beginning with a Thanksgiving Day game against North Carolina State. ESPN Regional Television, Inc. announced the rest of the tournament field as Central Florida, George Mason, Kansas State, Penn State, South Carolina and Villanova. “We’re going to have more national television exposure than we’ve ever had and that can go one of two ways,” Dempsey said. “We’re going to leave an impression on that television audience as to what our program is all about. Our goal is to make sure that the impression that we leave people with is ‘Rider is one heck of a program’.”
In addition to the three nationally televised games at Disney, the non-conference opponents include Murray State, Drexel, Delaware, Binghamton and New Jersey rivals Rutgers, Fairleigh Dickinson, Monmouth and NJIT.
“The schedule is challenging and there is no way around that,” Dempsey said. “It is the most challenging schedule since I’ve been in the program. We’ve scheduled up because if you are going to put your program on the map, you not only have to play some big time teams, you have to beat somebody. You are never going to beat those teams if you don’t put them on your schedule. I think we can handle this or I wouldn’t have put them on the schedule.”
After improving more than any other MAAC team last year with just one senior on the roster, Rider is expected by many to make another big jump this year.
“This team is going to have to learn to play with some expectations on it for the first time since this group has been together,” Dempsey said. “Not that I think anyone will pick us to win the league this year, but I do feel we’ll be mentioned among the top teams in the league. We can’t hide from that, we have to be excited about that and embrace it. We have to work harder than anyone else so that we can deliver on some of these expectations.”
Great expectations. The Broncs hope to turn these beliefs into realizations. “Now we have to stand and deliver,” Dempsey said. “We need some signature wins. We need to get back to the NCAA tournament. We need to show people that this is one of the better mid-major programs on the East Coast.”
Rider needs, and expects to be, back in the saddle again.
