Together We Transform Thursday – November 29, 2018
Basketball Booming
History is happening on the hardwood at Stony Brook.
Men's basketball is off to its best start in over 25 years while the women have won five straight, including their first-ever victory over a Big Ten opponent.
The last time that the Seawolves were 6-1 in men's basketball, they weren't even the Seawolves. You have to go all the way back to the 1992-93 season, when the Division III Stony Brook Patriots raced out to a 7-1 start propelled by wins over programs such as McGill, Skidmore and Oneonta.
It is a great achievement to be 6-1, but even more so considering that we have played only one home game to date. The last time that the Stony Brook men's basketball team played six of its first seven games away from Long Island was 2001-02, which was our third season at the Division I level.
Our women's team is led by senior point guard Shorty Johnson, who is is second in the nation with 8.8 assists per game, including an America East record 15 in last night's win over New Paltz. She and fellow senior Jerell Matthews are averaging a combined 33.5 points per game while leading the women to a 5-1 start.
It is so much fun to watch our women's team in action, and I strongly encourage you to experience the excitement for yourself. Shorty is a dynamic talent who alone is worth the price of admission.
You can catch both of our teams in action on Saturday at Island Federal Arena as the women take on Cornell at 5 followed by the men's game against Quinnipiac at 7. Get your
tickets and come for both games. I promise that you will be glad that you did.
Volleyball Set to Face BYU in the NCAA Tournament
Speaking of history, our volleyball team is riding a school-record 17-match winning streak into tomorrow night's NCAA Tournament contest against No. 4 BYU in Provo.
It has been a magical season for
Kristin Belzung and her team. They became the first America East team since 2009 to go undefeated throughout the conference season and successfully defended their conference title at home by defeating Albany on Nov. 17. Now comes our second straight appearance in the NCAA Tournament.
When the team gathered on Sunday night at Island Federal Arena for the selection show, there was a great deal of surprise when it was revealed that we would travel to BYU. Unlike men's basketball, which uses a true seeding system for its tournament, sports such as volleyball take geography into account when creating the bracket.
The tournament committee (I have experience with this during my time on the Division I Baseball Committee) is tasked with creating matchups where teams can potentially drive rather than fly. An example of this is Iona, a team with an RPI of 153, drawing a matchup against No. 12 Pittsburgh. Driving distance from New Rochelle to Pittsburgh is 387 miles, which is significant because the NCAA uses a 400-mile radius to determine "drivability" between sites.
Although Stony Brook's RPI is 99 and we beat Iona during the regular season, the committee made the determination that we would have to fly regardless of where we went – even if that meant playing a top seed. (The exception was Penn State, which is a host site, but there are other schools within driving distance of State College.)
Our team relishes the challenge of playing BYU, a team that enters the NCAA Tournament with a record of 27-1. Not only has the America East never won a match in the NCAA Tournament, it has never won a set.
As senior Emily Costello said at the team sendoff yesterday: "Let's make history!"
Football Focused on 2019
The 2019 football season officially began on Saturday night somewhere over the heartland of America.
Saturday's loss to Southeast Missouri State in the first round of the FCS playoffs was tough, especially given the fact that it was the last game for an outstanding group of seniors. (As a quick aside, perhaps the best news was that we learned late Saturday night that the injury sustained by Donnie Liotine was not nearly as serious as initially feared.) On the flight home, there was a great deal of conversation among the coaches about what needed to happen – immediately – in order to take the next step as a program. Chuck shared some of his thoughts with me prior to our touching down at MacArthur Airport. We plan to meet again tomorrow to continue the discussion.
Although everyone on that plane was disappointed with how the season ended, we all share a determination and excitement about where our program is headed. Consider that of the 24 teams that qualified for the 2018 FCS football playoffs, only 12 were making back-to-back appearances. It is significant that we were one of those teams returning to the playoffs. Believe me, we all want to win. Our aspiration is not to be 7-5; however, we have unquestionably established ourselves as a team on the rise.
Now we must rise higher.
I believe in our coaches and our student-athletes. The reality is that we are 17-6 against FCS opponents over the past two seasons; our record was 10-10 in the two seasons before that. I'm extremely proud of how far our program has come in a relatively short period of time. We have a plan and it is working.
Next season we have seven home games and a roster loaded with talent. It will be a new year but the objective remains the same – win the CAA and compete for a national championship.
We had an incredibly successful fall and the energy is building with basketball. Keep believing!
Warm regards,
Shawn
