Previewing mid-majors: Why Rider can make noise in the MAAC
Previewing mid-majors: Why Rider can make noise in the MAAC
Between returning starters and some big additions, Rider is poised to return to the upper echelon of the MAAC – and even start the conversation for the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since '94.
LAWRENCEVILLE – Practice at Rider’s Jason Thompson Court is loud when I arrive Oct. 17. The Broncs are running a defensive drill – no shots are going up as the coaches ensure everyone on defense is getting in the offensive players’ grills, calling out where the ball is, communicating with each other.
It’s the same energy (and the same volume) several minutes later when they transition to a box-out drill with the ball at center court.
“I’ve seen (new) guys trying to figure it out still,” coach Kevin Baggett said later. “We scrimmaged Saturday and they thought it was good, until I go back and watch the film and we go in the locker room and watch it, and it wasn’t good. So just understanding that their sense of urgency’s not ours.”
Senior guard and captain Dwight Murray Jr. echoed that evaluation.
“(Baggett) was in film, just on us about rebounding and having defense and talking,” Murray said. “We came back in here and we could’ve just put our head down and not gone hard today, but that’s the thing about this team. We don’t give up. We’re gonna go hard for our coach or whatever it is, whether it’s a bad day or a good day. That’s what I like about us.”
Baggett’s teams at Rider have had their ups and downs, but there’s no arguing he’s become a fixture at the school who easily earns the respect of his players. He arrived in 2006 as an assistant coach, was promoted to associate and then head coach and now enters his 11th season in that post.
The Broncs have finished top-three in the MAAC five times under Baggett, including three straight seasons 2017-20. After 11th and T-7th finishes the past two years, there’s reason to believe they will return to that upper echelon of the MAAC – and even start the conversation for the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 1994.
Of all eight D1 men’s teams in New Jersey, it’s Rider that will return the most minutes (71.54%) and points (73.76%) from last year’s squad. Murray, guard Allen Powell, forward Mervin James and big man Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson make for four returning starters; only Dimencio Vaughn must be replaced in the lineup. Regular contributors Nehemiah Benson and Corey McKeithan also return.
“Experience always trumps everything,” Baggett said. “I think these guys understand, having been in our program, what the expectations are. Guys understand just the language that we speak on the basketball court, our expectations.”
But look past last year’s numbers and factor in Rider’s other additions, and it becomes an even more well-rounded squad.
Tyrel Bladen returns after missing 2021-22 with a torn ACL. The roster’s tallest player at 6-foot-10, Bladen will see important minutes at the five after flashing tons of potential before his injury. Wake Forest transfer Tariq Ingraham (6-foot-9) also helps make this a much bigger team in the post than a year ago, when James and Benson were asked to play at the five.
The other name to know is Zahrion Blue. A former Princeton High School star, he starred at Division II Lincoln and was his conference’s player of the year and leading scorer (18.9 ppg, along with 2.7 assists per game) last year before grad-transferring to Rider.
“I’ve asked him to be the sixth man for me,” Baggett said. “With all his experience and everything he got at Lincoln, and being the Player of the Year, he didn’t have to come here and say ‘Coach, I’m OK with doing that.’ He could’ve argued me, and I don’t know if he would’ve won the battle. But just the fact that he was like, ‘Coach, I’m willing to do whatever it takes for us to win.’
“So I’d like to put him at the sixth man and get him to be the Sixth Man of the Year, bringing someone off the bench who’s capable of scoring.”
All that said, the biggest addition for Rider may have been a subtraction elsewhere in the conference.
The Lindy’s preseason magazine predicted the top of the MAAC to go Iona No. 1, followed by Quinnipiac, Rider and Manhattan. Just last week, the MAAC preseason coaches’ poll voted Iona first (119 points), then Manhattan (104), Rider (101) and Quinnipiac a distant fourth (80).
But earlier this week, coach Steve Masiello went to see Manhattan’s president to ask about a contract extension as he entered the final season of his deal, the conversation apparently went sour and the Jaspers canned him – an absolutely stunning decision two weeks away from tip-off, and one that likely torpedoed the season. MAAC Preseason Player of the Year Jose Perez (18.9 ppg, 4.5 apg) entered the transfer portal, followed by Omar Silverio (10.9 ppg, 3.3 rebounds last year at Hofstra).
From where I’m sitting, this opens a door for Rider in a major way, though the MAAC is notoriously difficult to prognosticate. Certain people may see Rick Pitino’s name next to Iona and figure he’s capable of boat-racing the league. But this Rider team was playing its best basketball of the season last March and took down top-seeded Iona in the MAAC quarterfinals.
Everyone around Lawrenceville insisted that last year was last year and this is a clean slate. But, Baggett added, the returning Broncs understand what it takes to forge a path in this league.
“I feel like this is the best team I’ve been on for the last three years I been here,” Murray told me. “Everybody knows their role ... They’re not mad about who’s getting the ball because everybody on this team can score, from the walk-ons to the scholarship players. So everybody knows their role, everybody’s a dog. I can’t name one player that’s not gonna fight for nobody.”
………
Thanks for sticking around on this fine Thursday. I’m grateful to have made it out to Rider last week in the middle of my preseason mini-tour that also took me to Rutgers, Madison Square Garden and Monmouth. The season tips off in 11 days – a glorious thought – so instead of my traditional Cleaning the Glass section here, let’s wrap up with some quick-hit previews of the rest of New Jersey’s mid-majors: Saint Peter’s, NJIT and Fairleigh Dickinson. (I covered Monmouth here on Monday and I will hit Princeton next week, along with a women’s hoops preview.)
Saint Peter’s is entering a season that, for better or worse, will be defined by what it no longer has rather than what it does. It’s not just Shaheen Holloway – the top six scorers and minute-getters have all moved on (Daryl Banks III, KC Ndefo, Doug Edert, Matthew Lee and the Drame brothers). Guards Jaylen Murray and Isiah Dasher and forward Oumar Diahame (18 starts last season) are the main holdovers from the team that made history. Bashir Mason is a fine coach who had success at Wagner, and both he and assistant coach Pete Cipriano are Jersey City natives, so they can continue to build the Peacocks’ program in the local, nitty-gritty image Holloway initiated if they desire. (MAAC preseason poll: T8 of 11; KenPom.com preseason ranking: 208)
NJIT should benefit from some steadiness in the ranks, as leading scorer and rebounder Miles Coleman (15.6, 5.7) headlines a group that returns more than half its minutes and 53.4% of its points from last year. Paul McMillan IV was a three-star recruit in the 247Sports composite; per Lindy’s, he’s the highest-rated signing in NJIT program history. Coach Brian Kennedy has guided the Highlanders to four double-digit winning seasons in six years, including a 22-13 campaign in 2018-19. Now it’s about making their way up the America East standings. (America East preseason poll: 8 of 9; KenPom.com preseason ranking: 338)
Fairleigh Dickinson, like NJIT, finished among the bottom 20 teams in the country last season by KenPom’s ratings; NJIT was 342nd and FDU was 345th. First-year coach Tobin Anderson gets a chance to turn things around and start to rebuild the program. After the Knights went 4-22 last year, there’s nowhere to go but up. “We are going to do all we can to generate excitement and enthusiasm in the community,” Anderson told FDU Magazine. “We want to pack the Rothman Center and create a great game day environment. We will have camps, clinics, a tip-off dinner and everything we can do to make an FDU basketball game a must-see event.” (NEC preseason poll: T6 of 9; KenPom.com preseason ranking: 355)