City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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Chris Fite knew a complete program overhaul was necessary — talent level, attitude, work ethic, etc. — some two-plus years back when he agreed to take over as Shippensburg University’s head men’s basketball coach.

Yet despite being fully aware there was a great deal of work awaiting him — as well as the gentlemen who sit alongside him on the Shippensburg bench — Fite didn’t need to look all that far to find a blueprint he found suitable.

Geez, he lived through a similar plan during his lengthy stay at Indiana (Pa.).

And after two seasons at Shippensburg, Fite (16-37) is hoping a Red Raiders side with a lot of experienced pieces continues its upward crescendo in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s rugged East Division.

While Shippensburg enjoyed a 10-game increase in victories last season when the Raiders finished 13-14 and advanced to the PSAC tournament — Fite’s first bunch was 3-23 — Fite knows tacking on 10 more Ws will be incredibly difficult.

But he’d be extremely happy if the Raiders wound up somewhere between 13 and 23 — and landed a return trip to the PSAC’s 12-team playoff.

“We just want to keep moving forward,” Fite said Monday afternoon. “We just want to keep adding layers as far as our talent and our recruiting goes. If we keep taking a step forward each year, eventually we’re gonna be right there at the top.

“We’ve just got to stay positive and keep our mindset right and keep taking it one day at a time and hopefully the results take care of themselves.”

“As a competitor, nobody wants to go out and win just three or four games,” said senior wing Jay Hardy, who averaged 9.1 ppg last season and led Ship with 52 treys. “We go out there and try to win as many as possible, so it was great to have all the young guys come in and being another year under Coach Fite [also helped a lot].

“Just that chemistry in one year got a lot better, so the results definitely showed.”

Since four starters return from last year’s club — 6-0 soph guard Justin McCarthur, 5-11 junior lead guard Abe Massaley (Imhotep Charter), senior 6-5 wing Hardy (Swenson) and soph 6-8 big man Dustin Sleva — positive results could follow.

Massaley, McCarthur and Sleva started all 27 games. No one played more minutes than the bullet-bodied McCarthur, who averaged 12.4 ppg and canned 51 treys.

“It’s definitely good that those two [played a lot],” Hardy added, referring to Ship’s incoming freshmen. “Just being a freshman and playing those heavy minutes — it’s not easy for anyone, but especially being a freshman. Starting all those games and just having that experience, they’re ready for anything. They’ve seen it all. So we expect more from them this year.”

Plus, there’s a handful of players that factored into Shippensburg’s regular rotation a year ago — 6-5 forward Tony Ellis (Franklin Learning Center), 6-2 senior guard A.J. Maun, 6-10 soph Trent Bauer, 5-10 soph guard Clay Conner and 6-8 junior Marcus Williams (Perkiomen Valley) — that are available to step in at any time and possess the savvy to thrive in any situation.

“That plays a huge part,” Hardy admitted. “Having 10 guys that can step on the floor and compete at a high level. We know that if one of the guys comes out of the game, we’re not going to lack at any position.

“So we’re very confident with whoever’s out there, that they can get the job done.”

Fite also added three newcomers, freshmen guards Antonio Kellem (6-0) and Chris Nwandu (6-1) and 6-1 junior college transfer Nafis Walker of Cheltenham.

Factor in 6-5 senior Mark Wilmer (Prep Charter) and 6-4 freshman Manny Span, widebodies that redshirted last season, and Fite’s Raiders have plenty of depth. David Craig, a 6-6 senior, is another possibility.

As a junior, Wilmer averaged just under 6.0 points and 4.4 rebounds per game.

Wilmer is being counted on to pick up some of the production that departed when 6-10 all-league selection Dylan Edgar graduated — Edgar has signed with a squad in Canada — while 6-2 guard Sam Pygatt (Plymouth-Whitemarsh) is the other notable departure loss from the Red Raiders’ roster.

Edgar averaged team highs in scoring (15.7 ppg) and rebounding (9.5 rpg), while Pygatt averaged 4.0 ppg in 16 appearances.

“(Wilmer) practiced with us, he banged with big Dylan all of last year and I feel Mark has come a long way,” Fite admitted. “He’s one of those kids that you just love to coach because he’ll run through a wall for you. He comes and he works his tail off every day and that’s absolutely one thing you can’t question about him is his effort and his attitude. We’re happy to have him in the mix.

“It was a mutual decision last year,” Fite continued. “We felt it would help him with his academics and obtaining his degree and also with Dylan using up the majority of the minutes, we thought it would help the program if he was around for another year. I think it worked out for both sides.

“He’s one of a number of talented guys we have in the post. We don’t have a Dylan Edgar, but we have enough young bigs in there that we hope we can get it done by committee in the paint.”

Yet even though Fite’s Raiders only began practice last week [Oct. 15], excitement, enthusiasm and expectations are bubbling at a remarkably high level — especially amongst Hardy and his overly anxious teammates.

They cannot wait for Shippensburg’s opener against Penn State-Lehigh Valley to get here. However, immediately following the Red Raiders’ season-opening tournament, they’ll hit the road for a four-game trek against perennial hammer East Stroudsburg.

Hence, Fite’s cautious optimism.

Especially since he experienced a similar rebuilding project as an assistant coach at IUP, which last season reached the NCAA Division II title game.

By the way, IUP will visit Heiges Field House in early December.

“And that’s part of the challenge for me now, is that we have to stay hungry,” Fite insisted. “Not that we’ve accomplished anything by any means, but we have to keep that same mindset and the same chip on our shoulder that we had last year, that we really had something to prove.

"Our work certainly isn’t finished and we feel that we can show collectively through the course of the season better results overall, as well as hopefully take it a step or two further in the playoffs after the season.”