STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Frankie Policelli was required to sit out regular-season games last season with the Stony Brook men's basketball team after transferring from Dayton. Still, the 6-foot-7 forward out of Long Island Lutheran quickly demonstrated his promise behind the scenes.

Policelli participated in the Seawolves' 10 practices and then their three European games during the summer of 2019. And in a competition the coaches employ known as "The Gold Standard" — a scoring system in which players get plusses for positives such as made shots, assists, steals and rebounds and lose points for stats such as turnovers and missed shots — Policelli ranked No. 1 on the team.

"Now we all know that we all need you to play well in December, not July," head coach Geno Ford said. "But I can assure everybody that in July (2019), Frankie was playing better than anyone on our roster."

Said Policelli: "The coaches told me to attack every practice like a game. That's what I tried to do every time we went live. I took pride in it, because I knew I was making the rest of the players better. I tried to make it as game-like as possible."

Now, despite having not yet appeared in an official game with Stony Brook, Policelli is considered a veteran on the 2020-21 Seawolves, whose roster significantly turned over during the offseason.

Policelli appears even more equipped to be a standout player in America East competition than a year ago, when he arrived with 20 games of experience in the Atlantic 10 on his résumé.

Policelli arrived at Stony Brook with a 20- to 21-inch vertical leap. In the past year-plus, he has increased it by another 10 inches. That partly resulted from shedding roughly 15 pounds. He now is listed at 215.

Add the extra hops to an innate ability to locate the ball and Ford feels confident in Policelli's ability to be an elite rebounder, even more so than he was in the three games in Spain and France last summer.

"He was our leading rebounder, and I don't think we could have slid a phone book under his feet," Ford quipped. "I don't know if they still make phone books. But he wasn't in the air very long. You would have had to be real quick. And it wasn't going to be the Yellow Pages. I can guarantee you that.

"He just worked hard at his athleticism throughout the year. I was watching a guy who was probably a little bit overweight from where he should be athletically to be the best version of himself, and not jumping very high. And he was outrebounding everybody we had a year ago. That really got my attention. You have to have a nose for the ball to do that. And to be able to do that without premium athleticism is shocking.

"I knew Frankie could shoot. You could wake Frankie up at 3 in the morning and spin him in a circle four times and put him at the top of the key and he could probably knock down a jumper. I didn't expect him to rebound like he did. And he's a good passer. He's a way better passer than what people have given him credit for being."

As for that passing ability, Ford notes that 6-9 Mouhamadou Gueye has a similar knack for locating teammates.

"They're two of the best passing guys taller than 6-6 in our league," Ford said. "It really gives you a chance to be a good team when you have bigger guys who can pass the ball."

As for sitting out last season, Policelli made the best of the situation by improving his physical shape as well as by observing.

"I just learned by watching how the pace of the game can change," Policelli said. "For myself, I need to stay under control. Watching the team last year, it really helped me to see how coach wants us to play. Going into this year, I feel like I'll be able to take what I watched and implement it in the games."

Said Ford: "We need him to have a nice year, because it's not a team that has a ton of experience. He played in the Atlantic 10 for a year. He was in the rotation. And he got to sit and watch and see what he needed to do to get better. Sometimes you learn a lot by sitting out."