City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2016-17 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 11. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here)

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For the better part of the last 40 years, Cabrini has been one of the area’s premier small-college programs.

The Cavaliers won 20-or-more games in nine out of 10 years between 1978-1988, making the transition from NAIA to NCAA’s Division III in 1987-1988 and even qualifying for March Madness in that first season.

The program, which also made the NCAA Tournament every year from 1992-93 to 1996-97, really hit its peak during a recent six-year run under head coach Marcus Kahn. Between 2008-09 and 2013-14, Cabrini averaged 25.5 wins per season, topping out with a 31-2 season in 2011-12 that ended with the Cavaliers falling one win shy of a national championship.

Kahn left for the University of Mary Washington after that 2013-14 season, leaving former assistant Tim McDonald to take the reigns in his first collegiate head coaching gig. And though two-time Division III Player of the Year Aaron Walton-Moss played his senior year in McDonald’s first season, the Cavaliers didn’t quite have the same magic, going 17-10 overall (13-5 CSAC) and losing to Neumann in the league championship.

“When I first took over I thought we were going to be able to compete right away,” McDonald admitted, “but we lost a couple of guys that were sophomores and juniors so we really started with all freshmen that year. So building the program up the way I wanted, getting the guys to play the right style that we want to play, it’s taken a bit of time -- but I think the guys we have now have really bought in.”

Last season was a smaller step back, finishing at 16-11 (13-5) with another season-ending to Neumann, this time in the league semifinals. But it was a team that started two freshmen and two sophomores, with a number of other underclassmen in the rotation as well.

Now, the focus is on reversing the trend and going back to the Cabrini of old.

“I think we have a lot more experience from that one year... I think that year was definitely good for us to have that under our belt and gain experience,” sophomore guard Ivan Robinson said.

“After the post Aaron Walton-Moss era, we are holding ourselves to that standard -- not only us, but everybody else,” the Paul VI (N.J.) product continued. “After he left, everyone was trying to find out what role they had because we didn’t have that one guy that was going to go out and do everything. Last year was a lot about fitting in, and everybody was trying to find out what they were best at and how we could all fit in to key roles. We played well all summer, played together all summer and I think we established that and can move past it.”

Though Walton-Moss is now playing professionally overseas, the Cavaliers have a new superstar to lead the way.

Philadelphia native Tyheim Monroe was recently named a third-team preseason All-American by D3Hoops.com, coming off a year where he led the team in scoring (18.4 ppg) and the nation in rebounding, pulling in an incredible 15.3 rpg -- that’s more than anybody in Division I, II or III by a full rebound.

Monroe’s growth during his college career has been pretty incredible, and not just his emergence as one of the best players in the country. When he first arrived on campus out of Olney Charter in 2014, he was a 6-foot-3 wing; by the beginning of the season, he’d already grown two inches. And it didn’t stop there.

“My doctor told me I was going to stop growing when I was 5-10, so I was trying to be a point guard,” Monroe said. “Now I’m 6-7.”

The big man is one of three returning featured players for the Cavaliers, along with Robinson (12.8 ppg) and junior wing Deryl Bagwell (13.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg), who came off the bench in 20 of his 27 appearances; also back is sophomore wing Jimmy Robinson III, who started 18 of 24 games but only averaged 2.2 ppg in 11.5 minutes.

The only two main contributors from last year who aren’t back are Jair Green, who departed for Gannon after averaging 17.2 ppg and 6.1 rpg as a freshman, and senior Ace Henry (9.1 ppg, 2.3 rpg), who graduated.

Joining the squad is Bard transfer DeVahnte Mosely, a 6-3 wing and former high school teammate of Robinson’s who led the Raptors last year with both 15.8 ppg and 6.0 rpg. Also new to the team is Chris Lawhorne, another 6-3 wing forward who last played at Manor College two seasons back.

After that, there are several players who saw reserve minutes a year ago who should really factor into things, like a quartet of sophomores all from the southeastern Pennsylvania/southern New Jersey region: guard Joe Mostardi (Archbishop Carroll), forward Kwame Doakes (Haddon Heights), center Anthony Linder (Robbinsville) and guard Mike Doyle (Penncrest). Kane McGovern, a junior from Emmaus, is expected to slide into the starting lineup when he returns from an ankle injury.

“We’re going to be a lot deeper than we were last year,” McDonald said. “Those guys would have played a couple of minutes a game last year, they’re going to hopefully double their minutes and their production will go with it.”

This is the group McDonald will roll with as the Cavaliers aim to take down Jim Rullo and Neumann, the league preseason favorite and the program that beat Cabrini in the 2015 league championship game. It won’t be easy -- the Knights, coming off a 22-8 season and ECAC South tournament championship, return two stars in seniors DeShawn Lowman (17.6 ppg) and Jimmy Butler (16.2 ppg, 8.3 rpg) and a number of other key contributors.

But this is Cabrini. Winning is part of the program’s history.

And the Cavaliers aren’t going to back down from a challenge.

“People are looking at us like underdogs, you know we lost two years to Neumann,” Robinson said. “People may still believe that we are under-experienced, but I think this will be a good year for us. I expect a big year out of us.”