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MARIST MOVES ON AFTER JORDAN’S GONE
By Dan Barrack
POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y. --- The Marist Red Foxes men’s basketball season is underway with high expectations to meet. Coming off of last season winning the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), Marist looks to repeat its success without its team leader, Jared Jordan.
The 2006-2007 basketball season for Marist College was one of the most successful seasons in school history. The club finished with 25 wins, including 14 wins and only four losses during in-conference play. A large contributor to the team’s success was point guard Jared Jordan who led the nation in assists for the second consecutive season. With the departure of the team’s most valuable player, it is hard to predict how the defending MAAC champions will respond.
Along with Jordan, the Red Foxes lost center James Smith and guard Will Whittington, all major parts of last year’s championship team. A key addition to this season’s team is six-foot five-inch guard Louie McCroskey, who transferred to Marist from Syracuse University. While playing for Syracuse, McCroskey played three seasons, averaging 4.5 points per game. The move to Marist promises McCroskey more playing time and opportunities for him to showcase his high potential.
Students at Marist College have high hopes for the 2007-2008 season, but feel that the loss of Jordan is going to be a big burden to overcome.
“It’s going to be difficult to recover from the loss of Jared Jordan, but I think with our young talent that we have at least a chance to contend for the MAAC,” said junior Dean Ratajczak.
The biggest thing that Marist will have to do to contend and successfully defend its conference championship is to replace those who have left.
Along with the addition of McCroskey, the Red Foxes added junior forward Ryan Schneider, a transfer from the University of Vermont. Schneider recorded ten double-doubles while playing at Vermont and was a member of the American East Conference championship team that went on to play in the NCAA Tournament.
The youngest new addition to the team is sophomore guard David Devezin. Devezin started his career playing for Texas A&M and finished last season at San Jacinto Community College.
Last seasons team had many proven players, but the new look Red Foxes are full of potential. Being full of potential is promising for the future, but it does not win basketball games.
“Jared was such a team leader, and it’s hard to replace that,” said Marist College junior Michael Lavin. “There is a lot of weight on McCroskey to replace Jordan and learn a new system. They have the ability to be a very good team, but I don’t think that the success will show up until the middle of the season or until the MAAC tournament.”
Not only does McCroskey and the other new players need to learn a new system, they need to learn how to play together. Jordan, Smith, and Whittington were team members for multiple seasons and formed a relationship on and off of the court. It is very difficult to throw three players from three different schools and expect them to gel into a winning team right away.
“I think that this season is going to be more of a learning curve for the new guys,” said sports commentator Tom Hill of WMAR radio for Marist College. “They have a lot of pressure to fill Jared’s shoes, but I think we are going to do good. We are not going to dominate, but it’s too early to tell how the season is going to pan out,” said Hill.
Repeating as MAAC champions would be quite a task with the loss of Jordan, but winning the conference is not the most important thing. A decent seed in the MAAC tournament will give the new look Red Foxes a second opportunity to do something that last years team failed to do, make the NCAA tournament.