Coach hopes third season's the charm

MANHATTAN Senior Devon Austin attempts a jumpshort in the MAAC tournament quarterfinal game against Siena on March 8.

By Jason Eisenberg

When he was a teenager, back in the 1970s, Barry Rohrssen remembers going to Madison Square Garden and buying student tickets to watch the Manhattan Jaspers basketball team.

Although his seats were located in the upper tier, the New York native would often walk all the way down to court level just to catch an up-close glimpse of the players and coaches. Little did Rohrssen know at the time, but about 30 years later he would no longer need tickets or have to sneak past ushers, to see the team in action.

Now, with pre-season practice getting underway this week, Rohrssen is all set to begin his third year as head coach of the Jaspers.

“I have enjoyed the past two seasons tremendously and I feel extremely blessed to be in this position, working at a fine school, with a great sports program,” Rohrssen said, shortly before gathering with his players to take a team photo. “The first game is less than a month away so the excitement and optimism is definitely building.”

For Rohrssen, the season actually began in July — the NCAA’s designated month for recruiting — when he and his basketball staff spent three weeks observing and evaluating thousands of potential players at tournaments in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Florida. While top ability and talent are certainly factors in choosing recruits, the coach says he considers it just as important to look for quality students with good character.

“Recruiting is a challenge no matter what school or level you are at, but it is an aspect of the game I truly enjoy,” Rohrssen said. “It gives me the opportunity to personally select players who I think are the right fit for this college, both as a student and as an athlete.”

As recruiting is generally done a year in advance, Rohrssen’s work from this summer will not immediately be known or pay any dividends on the court until at least next season.

So now, as opening day quickly approaches, Rohrssen’s focus has switched back to the current members of his team. With most of their roster intact and four starters returning from last year, the Jaspers enter the 2008-09 season with key players that are a year older and have more experience, something that the coach believes will lead to more wins in the standings.

Manhattan will once again rely on standout junior guard Antoine Pearson and senior forward Devon Austin to do most of the scoring. Pearson, a Bronx native, has been with the team since Rohrssen’s first season and is the coach’s most successful recruit since joining the program. Last season, Pearson started 27 games for the Jaspers and led the team in minutes played, points-per-game and assists.

The 6-foot-6 Austin, who is the only senior on the roster to have been with the team for four years, was second on the team in minutes and in points-per-game, while leading the Jaspers in blocked shots. However, the area where the Jaspers will really need Austin to step up is on the boards, in order to help make up for the loss of Rashad Green. Green, who led the team in rebounds and steals as a freshman, decided to transfer to the University of San Francisco at the end of the season and is the only significant departure from last year’s squad.

“It was apparently just a feeling on his part, he wanted a change of atmosphere and location and we mutually agreed that he should explore other possibilities, so there were no surprises,” Rohrssen explained. “With that said, the rebounds are definitely concerning because it is a critical element of the game on both ends of the court. But this is a team sport, so the responsibility does not fall on just one person. Everybody here will be counted upon to chip in and improve their performance.”

In addition to Pearson and Austin, the Jaspers will hope that sophomore guard Chris Smith can build on a very impressive freshmen season, while also getting consistent contributions from guards Patrick Bouli and Darryl Crawford, forward Andrew Gabriel, threepoint shooting whiz Nick Walsh and others.

Coach Rohrssen also trusts that he has at least partially addressed concerns about the team’s lack of size, by adding 6-foot-9 freshman center Djibril Coulibaly, who was recruited in the summer of 2007.

All things considered, Rohrssen has high hopes for his team, but says there are several keys to making this a successful season. Most importantly in his mind is that the Jaspers must do a better job defensively as a group and give a greater effort in rebounding the basketball. If the team does this, he believes they will limit their opponents’ possessions and, as a result, be able to control the ball more themselves.

On offense, he just hopes to see better overall decision-making, as well as more quality passing among teammates.

Also, the team must try to avoid any prolonged slumps similar to the one last year that saw them lose eight in a row and 11 out of 12 during a devastating stretch in January.

“That was definitely rough and it killed our season, because in the time before and after that stretch we won 11 of the other 19 games,” Rohrssen stated. “We had a young team and just could not get out of the quicksand fast enough to recover, but like anything in life, you learn more from failure than success. Hopefully, experience will help us avoid any repeat of that disaster again this season.”

It will not get any easier this time around, as the Jaspers will once again play a competitive schedule against top MAAC conference rivals like Rider and Siena — fresh off their huge upset of Vanderbilt in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in March — as well as challenging games against several non-conference opponents, including Hofstra, American, Binghamton, LaSalle, Fordham, Morgan State and coach Rohrssen’s alma mater, St. Francis (N.Y.)

So, while the ultimate priority is to get the Jaspers back into contention for postseason play on a regular basis, coach Rohrssen views this goal as just part of a bigger plan.

“I want to see each and every one of my guys through to their graduation because at this school we put the word student before athlete,” Rohrssen explained. “Of course I want to have some big wins and great memories here at Draddy Gymnasium along the way, but the biggest victory will be seeing our players on graduation day with that diploma in hand.”

This is part of the October 16, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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