On Campus

The Hearst CT Local College Sports Blog
with William S. Paxton

Archive for the ‘Sacred Heart University’ Category

William & Mary looking at SHU’s Swanson

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

Ed Swanson, who built the Sacred Heart women’s basketball program into a power in the Northeast Conference and has led the Pioneers to three NCAA Tournaments since 2006, is one of five coaches in the running for the William & Mary job.
Swanson’s name was mentioned in a tweet Tuesday afternoon from Bret McCormick, who runs the website All-Star Girls Report about women’s basketball (www.asgrevents.com)
Swanson could not be reached for comment on the report Tuesday night. Ironically, much of the off-season speculation at SHU has centered around men’s basketball coach Dave Bike leaving. Bike is expected to retire sometime this off-season and turn the program over to assistant Anthony Latina, but nothing official has been announced.

McCormick reports the other candidates for the job are four assistant coaches: Ginny Doyle (Richmond), Mark Kost (Coastal Carolina), Andi Gross (Appalachian State) and Chris Day (Indiana).

William & Mary plays in the Colonial Athletic Association and finished 8-21 last season, losing in the tournament quarterfinals.

Swanson, 46, has been with the Pioneers since 1990 and has compiled a 406-264 record in 23 seasons. He also transitioned the program from the NCAA Division II to I level in 1999, turning the Pioneers into one of the NEC’s elite teams for much of the past decade.

 

SHU men likely to play Fla. Gulf Coast next season

Monday, April 1, 2013 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

The Sacred Heart men’s basketball team and Sweet 16 participant Florida Gulf Coast University are expected to tip off at the Las Vegas Classic in December.
SHU assistant coach Anthony Latina said Monday the Pioneers and FGCU likely will meet in the first round of the Classic. SHU will first play at UNLV and Santa Clara before its two-game stop in the holiday tournament right before Christmas.
Also on the Pioneers’ non-league slate are a Connecticut 6 opener with Fairfield at Webster Bank Arena and early season home games with Brown and Hartford.
On the road, SHU travels to Boston College again after Christmas and also has games at Fordham, Holy Cross, Yale and Lehigh.
SHU went 9-20 last season, 7-11 in the Northeast Conference, under coach Dave Bike. Late-season rumblings surfaced that Bike might retire, but the head coach has continued to say “nothing is official.”
When Bike does retire, Latina has an agreement in place with the school to become the head coach.

SHU hoops eyes Waterford’s Long

Thursday, March 21, 2013 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

A 6-foot-9 southpaw, who clocks in at 91 mph with his fastball, stopped by the Sacred Heart University campus Thursday, but Nolan Long was not there to see baseball coach Nick Giaquinto about a scholarship.
Long, who was taken by the San Francisco Giants as a pitcher in the 38th round of the MLB draft last June, also has other aspirations and could end up filling the Pioneers’ final available men’s basketball scholarship. Central Connecticut, Rider, Hofstra, James Madison and North Carolina-Wilmington are also reportedly in the mix, according to ESPN.go.com
Originally, Long planned to attend the University of Rhode Island – he signed a National Letter of Intent – out of Waterford and play both sports after leading the Lancers to a Class M state basketball title his senior season.
However, when the basketball portion of that plan fell through Long decided to spend a year at South Kent to continue life as a two-sport athlete.
Long averaged 14 points and 11 rebounds per game his final year at Waterford.
The Pioneers, who went 14-18 and missed the Northeast Conference postseason, already 6-11 Cole Walton, who red-shirted this season, coming in to help the front court.
Also, Jordan Gleason, a 6-2 shooting guard from Watervliet (N.Y.) High School has committed to SHU along with PG Leo Vincent, from Bensalem, Penn., and F De’Von Barnett, from Maryland.

SHU VP champions NEC over MAAC

Wednesday, February 27, 2013 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

The Northeast Conference has taken a few hits of late with the departure of Monmouth and Quinnipiac to the MAAC. Sacred Heart, even with the addition of high-profile executive athletics director Bobby Valentine, seems content, though.

“I’ll be polite to my MAAC colleagues,” said Jim Barquinero, the senior vice president for intercollegiate athletics and student affairs at Sacred Heart. “I believe the Northeast Conference is in many ways a stronger conference than the MAAC with the possible exception of the current RPI level in men’s basketball.”

The MAAC is currently 14th in the RPI while the NEC is 20th in men’s basketball. In women’s basketball, the NEC is actually ranked higher than the MAAC at 24th and 26th, respectively.

“If you across all the other sports and the athletes who participate, I think Quinnipiac and Monmouth elevate the MAAC because of their commitments to sports in addition to basketball,” he added. “Unfortunately for the Northeast Conference we’re losing good members, and we’ve lost a nice tradition back and forth with Quinnipiac which we may continues as non-conference opponents.”

Barquinero added that no matter who came in as AD, the school always has to be prepared for change due to the constant shifting of schools in college athletics today.

“We need to obviously be prepared as I think all mid-majors do for ‘what it’ scenarios,” said Barquinero, who added he would work with Valentine on SHU’s plan.

Gibson injuries knee in SHU’ loss to Brown

Friday, November 30, 2012 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

Sacred Heart senior guard Shane Gibson, who was the fourth leading scorer in the country last season, suffered a knee injury in Thursday night’s 69-56 loss at Brown.

Gibson exited the game with 7:55 left in the first half and did not return. He finished with just three points in 12 minutes.

“We hope to have him back for Wednesday (against Holy Cross),” said SHU assistant coach Anthony Latina, by text message on Friday morning.

The Pioneers are already without two starters in junior forward Chris Evans (knee) and junior guard Evan Kelley (knee) and backup guard Steve Glowiak sat out against Brown with an ankle sprain.

Evans, a former football player at Stamford, has battled knee problems since arriving at SHU, so his return remains questionable. Kelley injured his knee cap earlier in the season and has appeared in only one game. Latina said after the Lehigh loss last Sunday that Kelley’s injury could be long term, but was still be evaluated.

SHU (2-4) has dropped two straight.

SHU adds player, names Greenbacker captain

Tuesday, September 25, 2012 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

The Sacred Heart men’s basketball team has a received a verbal commitment from 6-5 forward De’von Barnett.

Barnett, from Riverdale Baptist High School in Maryland, will spend this season at a junior college before joining the Pioneers for the 2013-14 campaign.

Also, the Pioneers have voted fifth-year senior Nick Greenbacker as team captain for the second straight season. The 6-foot-10 center graduated in three years at SHU and has been working on his MBA.

NEC Social Media Day: The Northeast Conference will hold its first in-person basketball media day for  men’s and women’s teams in a decade on Oct. 23 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Billed as NEC “Social” Media Day, the festivities will be webcast live
and in HD on NEC Front Row www.necfrontrow.com beginning at
11 a.m.  NEC Media Day will also air on delay in condensed form on Fox
College Sports (FCS) in early November.

Sydney Johnson and Dave Bike’s reaction to Calhoun retiring

Wednesday, September 12, 2012 by:William S. Paxton
Comment
Comments
|
|

Fairfield’s Sydney Johnson went up against Jim Calhoun’s UConn Huskies for the first time as a head coach last season. The Stags rallied late in the second half, but lost 79-71.
“I’m surprised (he’s rtiring) because he’s been a relentless competitor,” said Johnson, who knows about Big East battles with Calhoun since he spent three seasons on John Thompson III’s staff at Georgetown (2004-07). “When you witness someone like that for so long, it’s hard to imagine them not in that role.”

At Sacred Heart University, Dave Bike’s Pioneers played the Huskies a few times over the years and Bike said his team even lead once at the half.

“He had a heck of a run,” Bike said. “To do what he did at that school, I’m not too sure too many coaches could have put them on the map the way he did.”