City of Basketball Love

Michael Bullock (@thebullp_n)
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(Ed. Note: This story is part of our 2016-17 college season preview, six weeks of coverage that will span everything from Division I through Division III, junior college and more. To access our entire college of preseason content, check out our Season Preview Hub.)

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Earlier this offseason, CoBL spoke with each of the Division I coaches in the area for a Q&A session, and now we’re expanding it to include the various Division II programs in the CoBL coverage region.

With the first full-time D-II and D-III practices beginning on Oct. 15, we’ll be using the next few weeks to sit down with the area’s D-II head coaches and see where they’re at as they prepare for the 2016-17 season.

On the eve of beginning his 17th preseason practice at Kutztown University, Bernie Driscoll has enjoyed 12 winning season, piloted the Golden Bears to 13 postseason appearances and piled up 260 victories during his lengthy run in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference’s grueling East Division.

And last season was indeed a special one at KU as the Golden Bears cranked out a 23-7 record, captured the PSAC’s East Division title and advanced to the NCAA Division II Tournament’s Sweet Sixteen for the second time in school history.

So, these days, expectations are high since Driscoll’s program returns its top five scorers and seven of its top nine from last season, including reigning PSAC East Player of the Year Josh Johnson (14.4 points/8.5 rebounds), the 6-8 senior from Norristown.

Also returning are 6-2 redshirt sophomore Anthony Lee (13.0 ppg) of Abington, 6-6 redshirt senior forward Ryan Connolly (12.2 ppg) of Souderton, 5-10 junior guard Ethan Ridgeway (9.2 ppg/126 assists) of West Chester Rustin, 6-3 senior guard Austin Beidelman (8.7 ppg/104 assists) of Parkland, 6-7 sophomore forward Dan Cuevas (5.9 ppg) of Stroudsburg and 6-0 senior guard Howard Sellars (4.2 ppg) of Coatesville.

Only forwards Anthony Selby and Imhotep Charter product Will Adams, both important parts of Kutztown’s regular rotation last season, have moved on.

Plus, Driscoll and his staff were able to entice several other youngsters to join the KU program. And several of these newcomers — 6-4 guard Christian Kelly (Phoenixville), 6-7 forward Josh Townsend (Imhotep Charter), 6-8 forward Max Wagner (Pennridge) and 6-4 guard Roy Green (Norristown), 6-7 Moe Williams (Life Center) and 6-4 Grady Minick (Plymouth-Whitemarsh) — may force their way into the Golden Bears’ rotation before KU opens on Nov. 12 at home against Penn State-Schuylkill.

We’ll see.

Regardless, the expectations are mighty, mighty lofty as Driscoll gets ready for his 17th season on the KU bench. Nonetheless, he took some time to discuss last season and the one that’s rapidly approaching with City of Basketball Love.

Here are the (copy-edited) highlights of our conversation with Driscoll:

City of Basketball Love: Stepping back for a moment, the 2015-16 season had to be special. A 23-7 record, a PSAC East title and you advanced to the Sweet Sixteen. There had to be lots of neat memories generated during that run, right?

Bernie Driscoll: I felt we were playing real good basketball in February. In February, I thought we peaked real well. I thought there were some great memories in there. I think we were as cohesive a unit, playing at that time, that I’ve had in a really long time. The team passed the ball well, we played good team defense and we were playing hard. We were fortunate to put some things together there at the end to make a run in the NCAA Tournament. We had good kids. We had a great leader in Anthony Selby. Things fell in place and the kids took advantage of it, so it was a nice little run.

CoBL: With last season in mind, you guys enjoyed some terrific seasons in the latter portions of the last decade. Do you believe you have your program back where you want it, where you’re competing regularly for championships and more?

BD: We had that little blip about four years ago, which was a wakeup call for us. When you lose three or four kids to injuries, one or two to academics, one or two to discipline,  and you’re down to four or five players, you have to change. So, we took a hard look at how we were recruiting and made a couple of changes on some things and now I think we’re back to where we need to be. It’s nice. The league is good. We’ve got great coaches in the league. We’ve got some great players. For us to be in the conversation each year, to be in contention for the title, is where we want to be. So, we’re very fortunate in that manner.

CoBL: Obviously we’re getting real close to getting things tipped off for real, but you guys are about to be involved in the program’s first ‘Maroon Madness.’ How exciting is it to hold such an event and what’s the anticipation been like leading up to that?

BD: Last year our gym was packed every game and our student body was really a major component for us [being able to succeed] at home. I think we lost one game at home last year. … So, for us, it was a nice way to engage our student body and [get] support from the Kutztown people. You see how it goes with other programs and we’re going to try it for the first time and see how it goes. The kids are excited about it. I know the student body is excited about it. We’ll see how it goes. This is always the longest week of the year, before you get started, but this is a real nice break. We’ll see how it goes on Friday night. The gym should be packed and our kids will have some fun.

CoBL: Hey, it works for Kentucky, why not Kutztown?

BD: We’ll give it a shot and see what happens. As long as nobody gets hurt, that’s the key. When we were at West Chester under Coach [Dick] DeLaney, the head coach, one of our best players was in a freak accident in the layup line and was lost for the season. So I kind of backed away from Midnight Madness for a while. We’ll just see how it goes.

CoBL: With many of your top players still on hand and with expectations remarkably high, how do you build off of last season?

BD: You hit the $9,000 question. How do you build off it? You just don’t get complacent. We knew going into last year that our kids worked extremely hard and there was a nice focus on the season. Our preseason’s been real tough and our expectations are high, we’ve got to make sure we’re Kutztown University and no championships are handed to you. You’ve got East Stroudsburg. You’ve got West Chester. You have Bloomsburg. Shippensburg’s a good team, and then you have all the teams in the West. You have to hit the floor running and we have to do the same. We have a league game one week into the season [at home against California], so build against complacency is you just work hard and you make sure there’s competition at each spot. Last year’s over. This is our new group of guys and we have to start taking care of business real early.

CoBL: You talked about changing your recruiting a few years back in order to revise a few things, but obviously Josh Johnson would have come in about that time and he’s been a key cog in your resurgence. Last year he was the PSAC East’s Player of the Year and he was your school’s Male Athlete of the Year, so can you sum up the impact he’s had and will continue to have?

BD: Josh is a great success story. Josh is our go-to guy now. He’s worked real hard this summer to try to add a 3-point shot to his repertoire and his arsenal. He’s just a quiet, very unassuming young man. He’s a very quiet leader for us, but a lot of weight will be on his shoulders this year for him to take that next step — and each year he’s gotten better. We’ve asked a couple things for him to do and he hit the weight room real hard this summer and he’s put on about 15 pounds. I’m expecting great things from Josh. You put Josh and Austin and Howard Sellars and Ryan Connolly all together — and Anthony Lee — it’s a nice group of young men.

CoBL: Anthony Lee, Ryan Connolly, Ethan Ridgeway, Austin Beidelman — you mentioned Howard Sellars — also put up quality numbers last season. How important is it to have them back surrounding Josh and what are you looking for from those guys?

BD: Our Achilles’ heel last year was our consistency from beyond the [arc]. When we were able to hit the 3-point shot, things opened up for Josh and for Ethan and Austin to drive. But when we struggled from the 3-point line, we really had to work too hard to score. What I’m looking for from Ethan and Austin, Ryan, Howard this year is a little bit more consistency shooting from the 3-point line. We really have to improve our number up to 38-40 percent from the 3-point line — and then the rest of the game opens up for us. Games we struggled you could pinpoint the problem. We can’t have a 2-for-19 or a 4-for-19 3-point shooting game. We’re too good of shooters for that, but it happens. Games we struggled last year was because of the 3-point line, so that’s been our point of emphasis all training. These guys had to get in the gym and get up 500 shots a day from the 3-point arc. Hopefully that’ll pay dividends for us down the road.

CoBL: Do you have any other returning players who have maybe taken a step or two forward and maybe figure into being part of your regular rotation?

BD: Dan Cuevas is a young man, a 6-7 player from the Stroudsburg area, and he’ll take over for Anthony Selby in the paint. Dan’s a little bit more athletic and has a little bit more polished offensive game, but he’s not quite as great a defender or rebounder as Anthony was. He’s there. We have Martin Dietrich, who can shoot real well, from Donegal and we’ve got to get him some minutes this year and see what he can do. We have five seniors and our rotation’s not going to be a whole lot different than it was last year — at this point — unless one of these young kids really opens our eyes.

CoBL: You’ve added a number of other youngsters, what impact, if any, will those guys have?

BD: The one good thing is competition in practice is great. Just look back at Anthony Lee and his success last year. Anthony took the starting two-guard spot away. He competed and won the job. We kind of go on past history, [but we tell them], ‘Guys, if you come in and you compete, last year’s over and we’re in here to put our best six, seven, eight, nine guys on the floor.’ I really like Christian Kelly, the young man from Phoenixville. He’s a 6-4/6-5 slashing guard. He’s going to be a really good player. I like J.T. Townsend from Imhotep, a 6-5 post player and he’s been looking real good. Those two guys are going to be in the mix for things. And then we’ve got a couple of guys that will help us kind of alleviate the pain of losing five seniors. They’re good. Moe Williams, a 6-7 guard from Life Center and Delaware, he’s a good guy and a good player. And Grady Minick, from P-W, has been good. He’s got a very nice game. So we’re very fortunate there and I think we’re going to have some real interesting practices and they’re going to be competitive, which is always near your core of having a good team.

CoBL: With all that in mind and with the expectations that come from having a lot of veteran players, in your opinion how good can this Kutztown club be?

BD: The things you can control, effort and stuff like that, on paper we’re going to be competitive. But you look at our league and I think the PSAC East is as strong as it’s been during my tenure at Kutztown. I like East Stroudsburg. I think they’ve done some great things and they have some good players returning. You can’t beat West Chester’s backcourt; Penecale and Jackson are real special players. Bloomsburg’s got a good team and Shippensburg gave us fits last year. We’ve got to take care of business. And, we’ve got to play Cal and IUP in our crossovers. We’re going to be tested early. Let’s see how good we’re playing in January and February again. Get this going again.

CoBL: You’ve been able to get a lot of players out of southeastern Pennsylvania. Is that one of the keys to being able to thrive in your league? What’s the key to being able to thrive in a league full of hammers?

BD: I think we give a young man a good opportunity to come in and play some quality basketball. Our Kutztown University, you get on our campus and the campus sells itself. The hard work of our coaching staff plus I think we have a real solid reputation with a lot of the high school coaches. We don’t go and overrecruit. I think we can identify the young man who can come into our league and be a good PSAC player. With those things in mind, you kind of get fortunate and you get a Josh Johnson, you get a Ryan Connolly, you get an Austin Beidelman, you get a Christian Kelly. That’s what sustains the program. We’ve been very fortunate and blessed to have those young people and I think this freshman class is going to be special when their time is through at KU. Hopefully, we’ll have some other young people from the area since there’s a lot of good basketball players in southeastern PA. You don’t need to go all over the place to find quality basketball in southeastern Pennsylvania. It is wonderful. The kids are well-coached and I think we’ve got a nice little niche with that. With that being said, we’ve got to get kids to look at Kutztown University as a viable alternative for their college career.

CoBL: You’ve already talked about this being the longest week of the year. Is that code for how excited you are to get this thing going for real?

BD: I believe for the success of the season, you have to get into a certain rhythm. And the rhythm of practice, studying, study halls, the kids have to get into that rhythm quickly. For us, this week is just a long week because you’re already prepared and you want to get started and you want to get into that rhythm. Basketball’s a rhythm game. It’s a rhythm on the court and it certainly is a rhythm with the kids’ time management and how other things are going. That’s my most-pressing issue. It’s just let’s get this going, getting better every day at practice and going from there. I’m always real antsy this week. You don’t want a kid getting hurt and spraining an ankle, pushing back and missing a week or two due to a minor injury. We really take a week off this week. We do our lifting, but conditioning we take some time off, let the kids recover, go through ‘Maroon Madness’ on Friday night and take off on Saturday. Sunday we get going for good, so it’s exciting. It’s an exciting time and this year, with everybody returning, the expectations are very high at Kutztown.

CoBL: Any other final thoughts as you await ‘Maroon Madness’ and begin preparing for the season opener against Penn State-Schuylkill?

BD: We’ll see how it goes. We’ll see how it goes. There’s a lot of kids that are excited about it. I think basketball right now in Southeastern PA, whether it’s the high school level or the college level or even with the Sixers, it’s good. I always tell some people, if you want to see some good games go to a couple high school games around here and you’re just going to be floored by how many quality players and quality coaches there are. We’re very blessed right now in this area.