For the Roanoke College Maroons, the 2009-2010 basketball season is a new chapter, of sorts. The previous chapter ended with a 70-65 loss to Hampden-Sydney in the ODAC Quarterfinals last February. That loss meant the end of the careers of seniors Curtis Peery (the school’s 6th all-time leading scorer), Aaron Tyson, Zach Milton and Drew Gaeng.
That group spearheaded a terrific run at Roanoke, which went 68-39 during their four years at the school, including a 41-29 mark in the ODAC. In 2008-09, the Maroons got off to a 14-1 start, climbing all the way to #18 in the D3Hoops.com Top-25 poll before faltering late in the season.
This season, Roanoke is in a rebuilding phase, seeking to find the players to replace last year’s stars. With much less experience on the roster, the Maroons have predictably struggled a bit, and with Monday’s 96-62 loss to Guilford College (the team’s third defeat it its past four games), Roanoke sits at 6-10 overall, 3-4 in the ODAC – good enough for a tie for 5th place with Bridgewater College.
The ODAC is an unforgiving league, however, and it makes the Maroons 5th place standing look better when the top three teams in the conference (#2 Guilford, #3 Randolph Macon, #7 Eastern Mennonite) are each ranked in the top-10 nationally, and the fourth place team, Virginia Wesleyan, is ranked #12.
No wonder then that head coach Page Moir has been encouraged by what his young players have accomplished so far.
“We’re young, no question, and we’ve had a lot of growing pains so far,” Moir said. “But I like what we have, and I like where we’re going.”
The Maroons only have one senior playing significant minutes: forward Kendrick Chittock, “a real leader by example,” Moir said, while the rest of the key minutes are held by underclassmen. The youngsters do have talent, however. Junior guards Melvin Felix (12.4ppg) and Matt Crizer (11.1) lead the team in scoring, and another junior guard, Parrish Walker, is also averaging double-digits in points with 10.8 per game. Moir also raves about the potential of freshman guard Kwasi Amponsah, a highly-touted recruit from Garfield High School.
What those players don’t have yet, according to Moir, is consistency. “They’ve been learning how demanding this level is and the different intensity level you have to play with. It’s different from the high school game, even at the Division III level.”
With nine games remaining in the regular season, Moir and his coaching staff will be trying to get that point across to their players. “We’ve played some good 15 and 20-minute stretches, but we’ve yet to put a full 40 minutes together. I keep telling them that we can’t be like a faucet; we can’t turn it on and off.”
The Maroons hosted Randolph College on Wednesday night, and will travel to Virginia Beach to take on the Marlins Saturday afternoon.
By Matt Reeve [email protected]