City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of CoBL's 2015-16 College Season Preview, which will run from October 2-November 13, the first day of games. For the complete rundown, click here)

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It’s a situation Holy Family coach R.C. Kehoe has never seen. And while it leaves questions about the future, it bodes incredibly well for the present.

Holy Family enters the 2015-16 with nine of the 13 players on its roster being seniors or redshirt seniors. The Tigers also return every key contributor on a squad that won 22 games a season ago. They did fall short, however, from making the D-II NCAA Tournament – something that has never been done under Kehoe at the school, and a feat these nine players desperately want to accomplish in their final opportunity.

“These guys have won 61 games since they’ve been here,” Kehoe said of his senior class. “And to have your season end that Monday after Selection Sunday, it’s an empty feeling. The last two years it’s really been a disappointing feeling because we controlled our own destiny and we beat ourselves.”

Holy Family’s 2014-15 campaign ended in the semifinals of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Tournament to a Wilmington side the Tigers had beaten by 13 and 23 points during the regular season. The season before that, the Tigers made the CACC finals and their defense, which was the best in the country in terms of field goal percentage, held Philadelphia University to 42 points, but their offense mustered just 40.

Holy Family has not made the NCAA Tournament since 2007, and the team has never won a CACC Tournament since joining the league, according to Kehoe. With all the talent and experience returning, it’s clear what the team wants to accomplish this season.

“Our goal always is to win a title,” senior forward Isaiah Gans said. “That’s really the goal is to get to that finish line. We haven’t been quite able to in past years, but we have the ability.”

Gans was tabbed as the CACC Defensive Player of the Year last season as he had 58 blocks and averaged 7.9 rebounds to go along with his 15.1 points per game. Gans was also a second-team all-league selection, and he was joined by senior classmate Reggie Charles, who led the Tigers with 17.5 points and 5.1 assists per contest.

The Tigers also bring back their other three starters in Derrick Stewart (7.4 ppg, 7.7 rpg), Eric Fleming (5.9 ppg, 36.2 3-point percentage) and Marvin Crawford (13.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg). All of them are seniors, as were the team’s top reserves in Turhan Griffin and Xavier Williams.

Though five of the nine seniors started their college careers at other schools, the bond they’ve developed in the last few years is undeniable.

“Never in my life (have I been on a team like this),” said Charles, who transferred to Holy Family from Shippensburg last year. “I redshirted to be with this group. We want to make one final run. It’s fun being able to go out with these guys. We’re always around each other. We trust each other, we have faith in each other.”

With all the seniors, Kehoe said he’s not backing down from a “win now” mentality, and he’s shared those thoughts with his upperclassmen.

“This may be the last organized team that these nine guys play on that can compete for something regionally,” he said. “The pressure is there, we’re going to embrace it. We feel inside our locker room that it is time to cash in.”

Holy Family has come close to doing so in both of the last two seasons. But Kehoe and players pointed to them getting too far ahead of themselves for falling short last season. And that includes the final loss to Wilmington.

So Kehoe does not want to allow that to happen this season. And though he’s losing nine players when it’s over, he said he’s so committed to the present, it doesn’t matter if the future is nerve-wracking.

The present could be one of the best seasons in Holy Family history if everything falls into place.

“For what this group of seniors – they have built something here,” Kehoe said. “People have asked me in recruiting: How are you going to win next year? I’m not concerned about it. When I took this job people asked me: How are you going to win there? You can’t win there.

“But we’ve won here because I got guys who want to be here. I got guys who want to win and play the style we play and it’s going to be the same thing come next year, but it will be different guys in different uniforms.”