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LOCATION: Stony Brook, NY
CONFERENCE: Independent
LAST SEASON: 11-16 (.407)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 10-8 (NECC)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 2/3
NICKNAME: Seawolves
COLORS: Scarlet & Gray
HOMECOURT: USB Sports Complex (5,226)
COACH: Nick Macarchuk (Fairfield '63)
record at school (First year)
career record 310-320 (22 years)
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ASSISTANTS: Nick Macarchuk III (Canisius '88)
Edgar De La Rosa (St. Francis-NY '83)
Brian Blaney (Roanoke '94)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 13-9-10-13-11
RPI (last 5 years) N/A
1998-99 FINISH: Lost regular-season finale.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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Nick Macarchuk has been a Division I coach for 22 years. He spent the last four coaching in one of the country's best leagues in the Atlantic 10 with Fordham. He has 310 victories and was the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year last season. So why is Nick Macarchuk starting over at new Division I Stony Brook? "I just felt I had more security here as far as being able to work. The situation at Stony Brook afforded me more of an opportunity to do that than it did at Fordham," said Macarchuk, who was 161-192 during his stay in the Bronx. "I'd been there for 12 years and that's a long time for a coach to be at a school. I just thought it was a good time for me to leave." He may be the perfect man for the job, because Macarchuk knows about starting over. In 1977, he took over a floundering program at Canisius and within two seasons made the Griffs competitive. They made the NAC playoffs by his third season. When he moved to Fordham, the Rams were coming off back-to-back losing seasons. In his first year, Macarchuk won 18 games and coached Fordham to the NIT. Then five years ago, Macarchuk had to deal with the Rams moving from the non-scholarship Patriot League to the A-10. Deja vu all over again. "There were so many tough days when we went from playing Lehigh, Lafayette and Bucknell to playing UMass with Marcus Camby and No. 1 in the country. We were playing with guys recruited to play a low-level Division I program. Then they were playing the fifth-best conference in the country," Macarchuk said. "That was a very difficult jump and this process is going to be very similar." It may be even more difficult. At Fordham, Macarchuk at least had Division I players. At Stony Brook he may only have a few, certainly not enough to even fill out a starting lineup. The Seawolves had just been a mediocre Division II program since moving up from Division III in 1995-96. Most of the holdovers are likely to get swallowed up by a very ambitious schedule that opens with St. John's, Hofstra, and Utah and also includes Seton Hall, Wichita State, Southern Methodist, Auburn and College of Charleston.
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT D BENCH/DEPTH F
FRONTCOURT F INTANGIBLES C
Stony Brook is going to lose and lose a lot for a while. First-year head coach Nick Macarchuk knows that. The Seawolves were already short the necessary talent to make the move to Division I then Macarchuk wasn't hired until June, putting the program further behind. "Year one and year two are going to be organizational years and years where we try to get all the things done to be move forward and have a successful program," Macarchuk said. "Then it's going to depend on how many players we can recruit. If we can get a mid-major player to come to our school, then that will speed up the process." As of now the Seawolves has no such player. Until Stony Brook reaches the second semester, there are very few breaks for a team that needs plenty of help. St. John's is the opener and Seton Hall comes right before Christmas. In between there might be two winnable games. "If we can somehow get off the mat and stand up again in January and shake the cobwebs, maybe we can win some games," Macarchuk said. Even the softer second half schedule won't save much. Winning five games is probably the most the Seawolves can ask for. Some of Macarchuk's new players lay a foundation, but he'll need better talent and eventually will get it. He did it at Fordham. The Rams won just 16 games in Macarchuk's first three seasons. Then they went 12-15 in his final season. The road to respectability may be even longer and bumpier at Stony Brook and Macarchuk knows it won't be easy. "This is a tough business. It takes time. The other people don't let you catch up and feel sorry for you," Macarchuk said. "They are trying to kill you. It requires some hard work, it requires making good, solid decisions and it requires a lot of luck." |
"We have a schedule where some of the games are going to have big differences in talent," Macarchuk said. "Ultimately, we will need to be in a conference and we need to get players." Not getting hired until June prevented Macarchuk from a full-scale recruiting effort. He was, however, able to sign four players during the summer, three of whom he hopes will help give the program a degree of respectability in Stony Brook's debut season in Division I. The best of the bunch could be freshman forward David McQuaid, who was also recruited by Duquesne, Kent, San Jose State and Pittsburgh. McQuaid played at St. Michael's High in Toronto, the same school that produced former Syracuse star and first-round NBA pick Leo Rautins. The 6-7 McQuaid scored 22.6 points, grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked 3.2 shot per game for 13-1 St. Michael's. "He's a good player. We were lucky to get him," Macarchuk said. Terrill Ware, a 5-7 junior point guard, was a second-team NJCAA All-American last season at Erie Community College in Buffalo. He averaged 12.0 points, eight assists and 3.5 steals per game at Erie and should play right away. Freshman Joakim Eriksson originally signed at Wagner, but left after the coaching change from Tim Capstraw to Derek Whittenburg. The 6-8, 220-pound Eriksson arrives from Sweden with some size. "He's a big, strong kid and is pretty good. He will help us," Macarchuk said. Leon Brisport was the fourth member of the 11th-hour recruiting class, but won't be eligible until next season. Brisport averaged more than 25 points in his second year at Los Angeles Valley Community College and then transferred to Providence. Academic problems that led to a summer school holdup prevented Brisport from becoming a Friar until last December. He played sparingly in the second half of the season and decided to leave, eventually landing at Stony Brook, where he will have just one year of eligibility. Of the Seawolves' returnees only two senior guard Steve Pratta and senior forward Michael Sales are likely to have much success on this level. The 6-0 Pratta (10.7 ppg, 2.7 rpg, 102 assists, .319 3 PT) was once a Division I player at Houston. When it didn't work out there, he left for Tyler (Texas) Community College, where he played for two seasons. Pratta moved on to Stony Brook last year and was the team's second-leading scorer. Pratta will probably move from point guard to the wing this season and play alongside Ware. Sales has a D-I body at 6-9, 255 pounds. He transferred at mid-semester from Charleston Southern, where he averaged 1.5 points and 2.0 rebounds as a freshman. Sales (7.9 ppg, 5.1 rpg) played 15 games with the Seawolves last season, making 13 starts. "I've tried not to watch too much tape, but from what I've seen and what people have told me, he's a Division I player," Macarchuk said about Sales. Having Sales for a full season will also help offset the loss of last year's top scorer and rebounder, Achilleas Klepkos. The Greece native returned home to play professionally after averaging 11.4 points and 6.4 rebounds as a freshman. Macarchuk will also have some size and a few players with experience within the program. Ryan McDermott is a 6-8 senior center who averaged 4.9 points and 3.5 rebounds and 6-7 junior Chris Balliro was third on the team with 9.5 points and 5.0 rebounds per game and made a team-best 38 three-pointers. Pablo Porras (0.5 ppg, 1.1 rpg), a 6-6 senior and a native of Columbia, and 6-7 sophomore Dan Graham, who redshirted a year ago, could also see some time up front. Senior center Boris Reznik (0.7 ppg, 1.7 rpg, 5.0 mpg) played in just 12 games last season despite being a 6-10 player at the Division II level. Not much can be expected this year either. "We've got some size. I don't know if we can shoot and until they change the rules of the game, that's very important," Macarchuk said about a team that shot .301 from three-point range. "I also don't know if we have enough speed and quickness to run even a little bit." Rob Hartman, a 6-0 senior, was the sparkplug off the bench. He played just 19 minutes a game, but averaged 7.5 points. A couple of Stony Brook's other reserve guards have had experience against quality competition. Josh Little (5.1 ppg, 1.4 rpg), a 6-3 junior, and 6-3 senior Francois Oloa (2.3 ppg, 1.6 rpg) each played at St. Thomas More in Connecticut during their prep days. Little played in all 27 games last year and was second on the team with 36 three-pointers, while Oloa appeared in just 12 games. "I'm very impressed with their attitudes. They are excited about all of this and sometimes feeling good about what you are doing has a lot to do with how you play," Macarchuk said. "I'm almost positive that we aren't real skilled or talented, but because they'll play with some high energy, that will make up for some of those things. There was excitement when we moved into the Atlantic 10 at Fordham, but we just got whacked so many times that went away."
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