Bryant Men's Basketball 2005-06 Season Preview

Bryant Men's Basketball Looks To Challenge For Return Trip To Postseason in 2005-06
Bulldogs Will Look to Leadership of Williams, Burns and Hammond

    It will be hard to repeat the accomplishments of the memorable and historic season that was 2004-05 for the Bryant University men’s basketball team. But with that experience behind them, they are ready to do just that as the Bulldogs start the road back to the postseason in 2006.

  Last year, the Bulldogs earned a second-straight NCAA tournament berth, captured its first-ever regional championship by defeating the conference champions from all three regional conferences, and rode the momentum  straight to the NCAA Division II Championship game. Watched by 3 million viewers on CBS, Bryant  came up just short in the final, falling to Virginia Union 63-58.
 
   Fifth-year coach Max Good will return three starters and six letterwinners in addition to a group of six newcomers  to help fill the void left by the graduation of several key veterans - including two of the team's top three scorers. Good will have the benefit of returning the team's leading scorer and one of the top guards in the conference in senior John Williams (Springfield, Mass./ Longmeadow).

   The First Team All-Northeast-10 selection and MVP of the NCAA Regional Championship, Williams will look to run and provide much of the offense in his final season. 

   One of the country's best shooters, Williams averaged 20.7 points per game as a junior last season, setting Bryant's single season three-point record with 119 three's along the way. In the postseason, Williams took it to another level, leading the team deep into the NCAA tournament with a 23.3 ppg average and draining 23 three's in six postseason games.  He had 27 points including five three's in the national quarterfinal game against Mount Olive and followed with a 25-point effort in the national semifinals against Tarleton State.

  The success of the Bryant offense will certainly revolve around the prolific game of Williams and his ability to find ways for his teammates to score.

    Joining Williams in the backcourt will be juniors Nathaniel Sudlow (Brooklyn, NY / Tilden) and Chris Burns (Merrimack, NH / Merrimack). Sudlow, one of the team's quickest and most athletic players, developed a solid game off the bench as a player who could come in and provide some offense, or help shutdown opposing scorers.  Sudlow reached double figures in nine games and finishing with an average of 7.1 ppg average.

    Burns, now entering his third season since transferring from Providence in 2003, gives the Bulldogs another outside scoring threat as well as excellent ball-handling ability. Burns suffered a broken cheek bone in the season opener, but returned and played a key role in Bryant¹s run to the national championship game.  Burns had 12 points against Mount Olive in the quarterfinals and had a team-best 24 points in the championship game, earning Chevrolet Player of the Game honors in the final.  For the season, Burns averaged 8.8 ppg and made 47 three's.

    Sophomores Jon Ezeokoli (South Orange, NJ / St. Benedict's) and Kiley Lynch (Narragansett, RI / St. Thomas More) will look to find more time this season.  The pair saw valuable game time a year ago with Ezeokoli scoring 3.1 points per game and grabbing 83 rebounds.  He¹ll prove a key backup with the ability to give the team quality minutes off the bench as a scorer and defender.  Lynch, a walk-on from a year ago will look to challenge for more time on the floor this season.

    Newcomers Orlando Baeza (Palmdale, Calif. /Notre Dame) and Peter Lambert (Cumberland, RI / Cumberland) will give Good¹s Bulldogs excellent quickness and scoring ability off the bench. Baeza averaged 26.5 points per game as a senior for Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles which was ranked fourth nationally. Lambert joins the Bulldogs from nearby Cumberland High School where he concluded his career as the Clippers¹ all-time career scoring leader with 1,477 points.

    On the wing, Dan Hammond (Brunswick, Maine / Brunswick) will look to lead a youthful, but talented, group into the new season.  While Williams is often looked up as the leader for the Bulldogs offensively in controlling the tempo, Hammond is the vocal leader defensive leader who won't hold back with his hard-style of play.  It's this defensive intensity that helped lift the Bulldogs during the latter part of the season and on into the playoffs.

  Hammond averaged 5.7 points per game last season with a strong 5.2 rebounds per game average, adding 82 steals including a school-record nine in a win at Merrimack to his highlight sheet. Redshirt freshman A.J. Mahar (Bennington, Vt.) joins newcomers Andrew Lyell (Portsmouth, RI / Northfield Mount Herman) and Ryan McLean (Plymouth, Mass./ Plymouth North) on the wings.

   Mahar saw action in four games last season prior to suffering an injury that sidelined him for the remainder of the season.  Lyell earned all-star honors and player of the year recognition at Northfield Mount Herman while McLean was three time all-league selection at Plymouth North High School.   The three are expected to battle it out for a
starting position this season.

   With the graduation of 6-foot-11 center Mike Williams, the Bulldogs will look to shuffle several different players in the paint this year.  Sophomore John Fogarty (Smithfield, RI / Smithfield) played very well in his first year as a backup to Williams.  With excellent skills and scoring touch in the paint, Fogarty was a regular off the bench last season, playing in a total of 31 games, finishing the year with a  scoring average of 3.1 ppg on 50.0 percent shooting from the floor (30 for 60).

   Newcomer Nick Pontes (New Bedford, Mass./ New Bedford) begins his first year after a standout career at New Bedford High School.  The 6-foot-6, 240-pound post has an excellent scoring ability, shooting better than 70 percent from the floor in leading New Bedford to the state title as a senior last season. Pontes was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Massachusetts last season and was an All-Southern Massachusetts selection as a junior and senior.

    Jerrann Wright (Cincinatti, Ohio / Dater) is another newcomer the coaching staff is excited about.  A 6-foot-5 power forward, Wright moves well for his size and looks to help out defensively in the paint.

  Junior Mike Rocco (Tewksbury, Mass./ Tewksbury) joined the team last December following the injury to Mahar and played well enough to earn a spot on this year¹s team. A 6-foot-5 forward, Rocco is an all-conference member of the Bryant baseball team in the spring, but adds tremendous strength inside.  In eleven games last season, Rocco had 17 rebounds and scored 19 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor (57.1 percent).

    For the second-straight year, Bryant will benefit from an NCAA rule prohibiting Division I schools to play traveling club teams during the preseason as the Bulldogs will travel to Hartford, Conn. to face the Huskies of UConn on Nov. 3 for an exhibition game and visit Las Vegas the following week to take on UNLV in an exhibition game at the Thomas & Mack Center. Last year's matchups with Maryland (which saw the Bulldogs lead at the half) and UConn proved tremendously valuable for the Bulldogs as they made their push towards the Division II Elite Eight.

    In addition to the grueling Northeast-10 Conference regular season, the Bulldogs will travel Bridgeport in November to take part in the University of Bridgeport Tournament. Bryant will face regional foes and recent NCAA regional participants, Bridgeport and NYIT in the tournament. The Bulldogs will also host the annual Comfort Suites Holiday Classic at the Chace Athletic Center.  Bryant will go against Bloomfield in a rematch of last year's regional semifinal game won by the Bulldogs and Holy Family out of Philadelphia and the CACC Conference.