DeChellis plots new course for Naval Academy hoops
NAVY
LAST SEASON : 11-20 (.355)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 6-6 (tie for 4th, 5th seed after tiebreaker)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 3/2
RPI: 299
2010-11 FINISH: Lost in Patriot first round.
COACH : Ed DeChellis (Penn State ‘82)
RECORD AT SCHOOL : 0-0 (first year)
CAREER RECORD: 219-231 (13 years)
AUDIO: Navy senior Jordan Sugars talks about adjusting to new coach Ed DeChellis’ style of play
STRENGTHS
They say there is strength in numbers, and the Midshipmen have 20 guys on their roster.
If only it were that easy.
Truth be told, 10 of those players are freshmen, six are sophomores, one is a junior who wasn’t even on the roster as a freshman or sophomore and two of the three seniors have played a combined 191 minutes – less than four full games – between them in three prior seasons in Annapolis.
One person who does have a ton of experience, though, is new Navy head coach Ed DeChellis, who surprised, or perhaps we should say shocked, the college hoops world last spring when he announced he was leaving Penn State and the Big Ten for Navy and the Patriot League.
DeChellis exited Happy Valley after taking the Nittany Lions to the NCAA Tournament tournament for the first time in 10 years. He also led the Nits to the NIT twice, winning the consolation tournament title in 2009.
Prior to his eight-season run at Penn State, his alma mater, DeChellis spent seven seasons as coach at East Tennessee State, where he capped off a rebuild of the program with an NCAA appearance in 2003.
Expect DeChellis to bring a different style of basketball to Navy, where Billy Lange’s chuck-and-duck approach never got the Mids past the first round of the Patriot League Tournament.
“There is more structure,” says Navy senior Jordan Sugars, who led the team in scoring the past two seasons. “We won’t be out there running with our heads chopped off.”
Another big difference in the two coaches’ approaches is DeChellis’ plan to resurrect Navy’s junior varsity and Navy prep school programs.
Where Lange always felt the talent deficit he inherited forced him to get his best young athletes on the floor as soon as possible, DeChellis will take a more patient approach. Borrowing some of the tactics his friend Don DeVoe had success with at Navy DeChellis will use the prep school and jayvee programs to build a pool of talent that can contend in the Patriot.
DeVoe used that strategy very effectively. The post-graduate military commitment is a big handicap in recruiting. On the other hand, since the Academy technically does not give out athletic scholarships, they are not subject to the same numbers limits other teams are.
The numbers in the program will get actually grow next year when the basketball program at NAPS is reinstated.
DeVoe used to send recruits there for a year of maturing and becoming accustomed to military life. It is an idea with several benefits.
DeChellis will be instrumental in selecting the new NAPS coach. Whoever gets the job will be an extension of DeChellis’ staff. Players will spend a year running Navy’s system while boosting their academics and making the adjustment to a military lifestyle.
A year at NAPS is also a de facto redshirt year in a league where rules prohibit redshirts. The result is Navy plebes who are more physically mature and ready to contribute when they get to Annapolis.
There is a certain element of “throw enough some will stick” to the approach, too. Without limits on the numbers of kids they can bring in, Navy can take chances on late bloomers and projects – the kinds of kids who used to star in the Patriot League before scholarships.
DeChellis will be able to bring in enough kids to fill the prep school roster each year. Some will transition straight to Navy’s varsity. Others will get more seasoning in Navy’s throwback jayvee program, which will 12 to 14 games.
In DeVoe’s hey day, Navy seemed to have an almost endless supply of mature upper classmen who came out of nowhere to make an impact with the varsity as a junior or senior. DeChellis hopes to replicate that kind of talent pool.
Sugars will also be a strength for the Mids. A first-team preseason all-league pick after earning second team all-league honors last season, the 6-3 guard will give Navy a proven scorer and much-needed senior leadership.
A two-year starter, Sugars has ranked in the top four in the Patriot in scoring and the top seven in rebounding the last two seasons. Already a 1,000 point scorer, Sugars is a three-point threat with the ability to take the ball to the rim.
WEAKNESSES
It goes without saying this is a very inexperienced team. The 20-player roster has a combined total of 14 seasons of college experience, and even that is overstating the case. The two seniors and one junior, aside from Sugars, have scored a total of 27 points combined in their careers.
The Midshipmen are also woefully undersized, with more guys (5) measuring under six feet than there are over 6-7 (2).
Freshman Jared Smoot is the only true post type on the roster. Smoot, who is 6-10, would be considered a project most places. At Navy, his size means he will at least get a shot at making the rotation.
Sophomore forward J.J. Avila was the league’s rookie of the year last season, when his 11.5 points and 5.3 rebounds per game ranked among the league’s leaders.
But Avila played like a big wing much of the time in Lange’s no-post offense. DeChellis needs him to become a bit more of a back to the basket threat. To that end, Avila came back having added 10-15 pounds in the off season.
“J.J. is bigger, stronger,” DeChellis says.
Whether that means he will be able to match up physically with other post guys in the league remains to be seen.
Navy also enters the season without a proven point guard, and as late as the league’s media day, two weeks before the Mids tip off the season at Longwood, DeChellis still had no idea who will be running his offense.
OPPORTUNITIES
Obviously opportunities to win playing time abound in Annapolis.
Isaiah Roberts, a 6-1 sophomore started 14 games at the off guard as a freshman. That’s not a lot of experience, but on this roster it makes Roberts the Mids’ third-most seasoned vet. Entering preseason drills, he seemed the most likely guy to run the point, but he has missed most of the team’s practices due to a knee injury.
Sophomore Brennan Wyatt (3.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg) played in 31 games, starting five last season. The 5-8 Wyatt reached double figures three times as a freshman. He will be in the mix at the point, along with 5-7 freshman Kevin Alter, 5-11 freshman John Ward-Adams, and 5-10 freshman Earl McLaurin, who started at the point last season at NAPS.
“We’ve got some guys who can play the point, none of them have played a lot of minutes, though,” DeChellis says.
If Roberts starts at the point, there will be an opening at one of the wing spots. The top candidate for that job would likely be 6-3 sophomore Thurgood Wynn. Wynn appeared in 25 games last season. Brandon Venturini, a 6-0 freshman shooter who spent last year at NAPS was a 26 ppg scorer in high school. He’ll get a chance to break into the rotation. Donya Jackson, a 6-3 freshman who prepped last season at Mercersburg Academy and averaged over 22 points and almost 7 rebounds there, will also get a shot. Ditto for Jackson’s prep school teammate Chall Montgomery, a 6-2 freshman who averaged 21.6 ppg at Mercersburg.
“We’ve got some kids we think are talented. But we will have to develop,” says DeChellis.
Up front, 6-5 freshman Worth Smith will get a chance to see if he can handle some minutes inside. Smith actually played small forward last year at Charlotte Christian High School, but Navy’s lack of size means he will likely see time up front.
“Worth Smith has good size. His body is mature for a freshman. He can be physical down low,” said Sugars.
THREATS
In the league’s preseason poll, the Mids were picked to finish seventh in the eight team league.
It’s hard to imagine them being a threat to finish higher, not so hard to imagine them finishing behind Army in the league’s cellar.
This team, this year, is simply too young, too inexperienced, too thin, and too small to be expected to contend even for a spot in the league’s first division.
DeChellis knows that, and understands. He is not expecting a quick turnaround.
DeChellis is looking long term. His friend DeVoe has convinced him of the wisdom of reinvigorating the NAPS program, but as he points out, the Mids “won’t see a benefit from the NAPS program until (his) third year.”
While he waits for the talent to catch up, DeChellis will set out to build a new culture around his program.
“There are three things you have to do to win: play good defense, rebound at both ends of the floor and not turn it over,” DeChellis says.
That seems like good areas to focus on. Last year’s Navy team was the worst in the league in defense and rebounding and turned it over more often than any other Patriot League team.
Like his friend DeVoe, DeChellis arrives having already taken two other schools to the NCAA Tournament.
DeVoe made it three by leading Navy to the PL crown his second season. Expect it to take DeChellis a little longer.
NAPTOWN NOTES: Four of the Midshipmen’s 10 freshmen played at NAPS last season … that program was disbanded at the end of last season, but will be reinstated next year under DeChellis’ guidance … Last season’s Navy roster had no players who came through the NAPS program … The Mids enter the season with the least average experience per player of any team in the nation … Only Air Force, with 11 freshmen, has more first-year guys on its roster than Navy … The Mids non-conference schedule includes 10 road games and just five home games against Division I opponents … Navy and American are the only PL teams to finish in the top four of the league standings each of the last four seasons … But the Midshipmen are also the only league team that did not win a first-round PL Tournament game in that span.
Navy Roster | Navy Schedule | Navy Stats (2010-11)
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