Monmouth Hawks
MAAC (27-7, 17-3)
Beyond the Monmouth bench that has captured way too much of the media attention, Coach King Rice has a surprisingly good team. Early wins over UCLA, Notre Dame and USC propelled the Hawks into the spot light, or at least the dancing bench. Since then Monmouth has danced their way to a MAAC regular season title and handled all the attention very well. But the lights get brighter in March.
Big Wins: 11/26 vs Notre Dame (70-68), 11/29 vs USC (83-73), 11/13 at UCLA (84-81)
Bad Losses: 12/4 at Canisius (86-96), 12/28 at Army (84-91), 1/21 at Manhattan (71-78)
Coach: King Rice
Why They Can Surprise:
On the floor, Monmouth is led by 5-8 junior point guard Justin Robinson. He leads the team with 19.5 points, 3.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game. One would think Robinson would just be a shooter with the ability to drive and dish, which he is, but he is much more than that. On top of his impressive 39.8 field-goal percentage from beyond the arc, Robinson is not afraid to get to the basket and finish, or at least get a couple shots at the charity stripe. The backcourt also boasts Micah Seaborn, another great outside shooter. Deon Jones is the big guard on the team who spends most of his time in the paint. At 6-6 and 220 pounds, Jones has the size and athletic ability to be a tough matchup when he is at the power forward spot. Josh James, Je’lon Horneak, Collin Stewart and Austin Tilghman round out a big, versatile group of guards.
Why They Can Disappoint:
The problem is this team is very, very guard heavy. Jones and Stewart have some size, but there literally is not a forward in the regular rotation. Coach Rice plays four guards around center Chris Brady or center Zac Tillman, or just puts out five guards. Brady has been productive this season, averaging 6.9 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in under 19 minutes of play per game. The result is a team that is terrible on the glass. Most teams that are good and terrible on the glass make up for it by taking care of the ball. This group does not do that particularly well either, but they do force plenty of turnovers and usually win the turnover battle. But they should be winning the turnover battle by a larger margin and committing fewer turnovers with four or five guards on the floor at all times. This is a Monmouth team that has to be knocking down a lot of shots to live up to their regular season hype in the postseason.
Probable Starters:
Justin Robinson, Junior, Guard, 19.5 ppg, 3.6 apg, 3.7 rpg, 2.2 spg
Josh James, Junior, Guard, 3.5 ppg, 1.4 apg, 3.1 rpg
Micah Seaborn, Freshman, Guard, 13.1 ppg, 1.9 apg, 3.2 rpg
Deon Jones, Senior, Guard, 10.2 ppg, 1.2 apg, 6.3 rpg
Chris Brady, Junior, Center, 6.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 1.3 bpg
Key Roleplayers:
Je’lon Hornbeak, Junior, Guard, 8.7 ppg, 1.7 apg, 3.1 rpg
Collin Stewart, Junior, Guard, 7.1 ppg
Austin Tilghman, Sophomore, Guard, 5.4 ppg, 1.0 apg
Zac Tillman, Junior, Center, 3.3 ppg, 2.3 rpg
By the Numbers:
Scoring Offense: 79.5 (37th in nation, 2nd in conference)
Scoring Defense: 71.5 (167, 4)
Field-Goal Percentage: 43.6 (197, 4)
Field-Goal Defense: 39.0 (12, 1)
Three-Point Field Goals Per Game: 7.8 (94, 5)
Three-Point Field-Goal Percentage: 36.5 (84, 2)
Free-Throw Percentage: 76.8 (7, 1)
Rebound Margin: -0.5 (217, 7)
Assists Per Game: 12.3 (244, 8)
Turnovers Per Game: 12.4 (142, 3)
Recent Postseason Appearances:
No Current Tournament History
*all team stats through 3/6
