Monmouth hoops team off to a rough start
Hawks are winless in first three games
BY DOUG McKENZIE Correspondent
The Monmouth University men's basketball team may not have gotten off to the kind of start that head coach Dave Calloway was hoping for, but the coach remains optimistic that this year's Hawks will become a good basketball team by year's end.

Coming off a 7-24 season a year ago, MU certainly does not face the challenge of high expectations — at least outside of its own program. The Hawks were recently selected ninth, out of 11 teams, in the 2008-09 Northeast Conference Preseason Coaches Poll, with defending NEC Champion Mount St. Mary's being picked to repeat as league champions. However, that does not mean MU couldn't surprise some people this year. After all, the NEC coaches' poll has accurately predicted the eventual conference winner just twice in the past 10 years.

Last season, Monmouth was selected 10th in the preseason NEC Coaches Poll and advanced to the postseason, finishing in a tie for eighth place overall. The Hawks' 10th-place selection a year ago was the lowest since 1999-2000, when the Blue and White were voted 11th in a 12-team league. That year, Monmouth was coming off a 5-21 season (5-15 in the NEC), when the Hawks held the nation's longest losing streak (19 games) at that time.

While last year's young team played like a young team for most of the year, the return of some key players should provide this year's team with some more stability.

It leaves Calloway and his staff concentrated on the ultimate goal: to make this team better one game at a time and let everything else fall into place.

"Our goal is to continually get better," said Calloway.

Monmouth was looking forward to having the services of senior guard Whitney Coleman. Instead, though, the Hawks will have to do without him after he tore his ACL in the team's first game of the season against Florida Atlantic.

Junior Yaniv Simpson will be a key cog in this year's MU team. Simpson, who has played in just 28 games in two seasons, due to injury, averaged 8.5 points per game, mostly as a reserve last year, and connected on 42.2 percent of his three-point attempts.

Also returning for the Hawks, who each saw valuable minutes, are senior Alex Nunner, junior Dutch Gaitley and sophomores James Hett, Nick DelTufo and R.J. Rutledge. Sophomore George Barbour, who only played in nine games before succumbing to a knee

injury, is back for the Blue and White, along with senior Shawn Barlow and sophomore Kevin Shafer.

Nunner (31 games, 6.8 ppg) was Monmouth's fifth leading scorer a season ago, while Gaitley, Hett, DelTufo and Rutledge — all first-year players in 2007-08 — each played in all 31 games for the Hawks.

Joining the Hawks' program in 2008-09 are a trio of freshmen: forwards Mike Myers-Keitt and Travis Taylor and guard Will Campbell. Sophomore transfer Justin Sofman, who is not eligible to play this season due to NCAA regulations, has also joined the roster and has immediately become a proven commodity in practice.

"We have three freshmen who will all play, and who will all help us," said Calloway, who had nearly half of his minutes played last year by freshmen. "The difference this year is that we won't need to have all three freshmen on the floor at the same time."

Thus far, Monmouth has been unable to post that elusive first win, falling to 0-3 early on.

MU fell, 72-69, in its season opener at Florida Atlantic University in FAU Arena. FAU, which connected on 8-for-8 from the free throw line in the final 1:11, sealed the victory, despite it being a one-point contest in the final seconds.

Trailing by as many as 12 points with 14:15 remaining, Monmouth pulled within one point, with 1.3 seconds, 70-69, when Rutledge hit his career-best tying fourth three-pointer of the game. Paul Graham, who finished with a game-high 19 points, connected on two free throws with 0.4 ticks showing to seal the win for the Owls.

"It's frustrating because we had a chance to win our opening game, on the road, and start the season off on the right foot," said Calloway.

In their second game of the year, Monmouth suffered an 80-61 defeat to Florida International University despite having three players score in double figures, paced by the freshman duo of Taylor and Myers-Keitt, who combined for 24 points and nine rebounds.

The Hawks fell behind early in this one, and that trend continued as Monmouth, which managed just five points in the final 4:42 of the first half, trailed 43-24 at the break.

With the lead reaching as much as 26, Monmouth outscored the Panthers 9-2 in the final 3:13 of the contest to make the final score 80-61.

Monmouth, which connected on 41.1 percent from the field in the contest, hit just 4 of 15 from beyond the arc. Rutledge, making his first start of the year, tallied 11 points, while Nunner chipped in with eight points and three assists off the bench. Myers-Keitt dropped in 10 points and four rebounds, while classmate Will Campbell added six points for the Hawks as well.

On Nov. 20, the Hawks fell to 0-3 on the young season with a loss to the University of Rhode Island, 85-62, in the opening game of the 2008 Philly Hoop Group Classic in Boylan Gym on Thursday night. The freshman Taylor played well in defeat, leading the Hawks with 14 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

The Rams, who outscored Monmouth 10-2 in the final 3:52 of the opening stanza, held a 48-30 lead at the intermission and built on that lead in the second half, making it 63-31 with 13:15 left. Monmouth didn't get any closer until they scored the final 11 points of the contest, making the score 85-62 at the final horn.

Along with Taylor's 14 points, Myers- Keitt dropped in 13 points while Simpson ended with 12 points for the Hawks, who hit 43.1 percent from the field.

Monmouth (0-3), which returned to action on Saturday with a nonconference game at the University of Pennsylvania and on Tuesday with a contest at Villanova, will be back in action on Friday, when the Hawks take on Niagara at the Palestra in Philadelphia. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.