Hoop dreams: Baltimore college basketball awakens from four-year slumber

Pat Kennedy wanted to prove he could take another team to the NCAA Tournament.

Jimmy Patsos wanted to step out of a coaching legend’s shadow.

Each coach took a separate path to achieve his goal, but all ended in the same place: the Baltimore area. In a span of six weeks during the spring of 2004, each took over a downtrodden team that had reached its lowpoint, making college basketball an afterthought in Charm City.

Today, the Baltimore area is in the midst of a renaissance that has rejuvenated college basketball in a city that hasn’t had a local school qualify for the NCAA Tournament in a decade.

Consider:

» At UMBC, Monroe has led the Retrievers (18-7) to first place in the America East entering last tonight’s game at Albany — not bad for a school that has never qualified for the postseason in its 22-year history as a Division I school.

» At Navy, Lange’s Midshipmen were 13-12 and in second place in the Patriot League entering last night’s game, which is quite a feat for team that hasn’t had a winning season in seven years.

» At Towson, Kennedy’s Tigers were 9-15 overall and 5-9 in the highly competitive Colonial Athletic Association entering last night’s game at Hofstra. Still, the Tigers have exceeded expectations this season, as they could finish as high as sixth after being predicted to finish last in the 12-team league.

» At Loyola, Patsos has the Greyhounds at 16-12 and in a four-way tie for first in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Four years ago, Loyola went 1-27.

Getting into the NCAA Tournament would bring “lots of attention to the mid-major programs in Baltimore,” Patsos said. “If one of us makes it, it really helps everybody.”

GOLDEN RETRIEVERS

Monroe has been through all of the highs and lows at UMBC the past 14 years. He arrived at the Catonsville school as an assistant under coach Earl Hawkins in 1994 and remained on the staff when Tom Sullivan was hired a year later. In 2004, Sullivan resigned just before the conference tournament — leaving Monroe in charge of a team that lost 21 of 28 games during the 2003-04 season.

After three mediocre seasons, Monroe found the recipe for success. He combined the best players he recruited — Jay Greene and Brian Hodges — with three stellar transfers — Ray Barbosa and Cavell Johnson (both from James Madison) and Darryl Proctor (Coppin State). The result: a team that has made men’s basketball relevant at a school known for its lacrosse teams.

“It’s important to be upbeat throughout all of the ups and downs in the rebuilding process,” Monroe said. “Building a program does not happen overnight. You have to have a great deal of patience.”

Monroe’s work hasn’t gone unnoticed. UMBC and its high-scoring offense that averages 75.1 points per game has fans packing the RAC Center. A crowd of 3,492 — the third-largest in school history — attended Sunday’s win over Boston University. This season, the Retrievers’ average attendance is 2,530, about 50 percent more than the 1,648 the team averaged four years ago.

“The crowd is phenomenal,” Monroe said, “When you can look over to the ‘Dawg Pound’ and see it packed and you have a bunch of enthusiastic fans who are really into the game and make a difference. Our guys get juiced with that crowd. The atmosphere is euphoric.”

MIDS SAILING ALONG

Lange knows he likely will never get a Michael Beasley, Kevin Love, O.J. Mayo or any of the country’s top recruits to play at a school that places turning boys into military leaders over winning games. But just like the Academy’s football coaches, Lange, a former assistant at Villanova, casts a large net across the country looking for players willing to sacrifice a five-year postgraduate commitment to the Navy for a chance to play Division I.

Navy was an afterthought at season’s outset, predicted to finish seventh in the eight-team Patriot League after starting guard Corey Johnson quit to play football and center Trey Stanton transferred. But Navy has proven its critics wrong, as it entered last night’s game against Holy Cross having won three straight league games — its longest streak in six years. Navy guards Chris Harris, Greg Sprink and Kaleo Kina combine to average nearly 50 points per game, enabling the Midshipmen to set their sights on their first Patriot League Tournament title since 1998 after going 5-23 the year before Lange arrived.

“Program development takes a long time,” Lange said. “We haven’t turned the corner yet, but I can see us approaching it. I feel like we’ve come a long way in four years. It’s a lot different taking over a program that already has the players in place compared to one that hasn’t won in a while.”

TIGERS ON THE PROWL

No local team perhaps has a tougher road to being competitive than Towson.

The Tigers have not had a winning season in 12 years, but unlike Navy, Loyola and UMBC, they play in one of the nation’s toughest conferences: the Colonial Athletic Association. The 12-team CAA is ranked 14th out of 32 Division I conferences according to the latest Ratings Percentage Index. By comparison, the Patriot League is 16th, followed by the MAAC (20th), America East (27th) and the MEAC (30), which includes Morgan State and Coppin State.

But Kennedy is confident he can return Towson, which last made the NCAA Tournament in 1991, to contention much like he did at Florida State, DePaul and Montana before arriving in Baltimore County.

The two previous seasons, Towson has won 16 league games compared to five during the two years before Kennedy’s arrival. Kennedy believes next year will be Towson’s season to make a jump in the standings, as seven new players will be in the mix to play alongside with returnees Junior Hairston (12.4 ppg) and Josh Thornton (11.9 ppg). And there’s reason to be optimistic: Towson plays in a league that features George Mason and Virginia Commonwealth, which were relative unknown teams until George Mason made the Final Four in 2006 and Virginia Commonwealth knocked off Duke in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament.

“To really fix a program, it takes four or five years if you want to do it right,” Kennedy said. “Next year’s class will be the most important for us, as we’ll finally have all the pieces in place. We’ve seen a great commitment from the university and I think we’re right on track.”

GREYHOUNDS SEEKING GOLD

Patsos knew he was going from one extreme to another when he arrived at Loyola.

In 2002, he was an assistant at Maryland under Gary Williams, which had just won an NCAA title. Now, he was at a school that had won just one game the year before and hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 1994.

Patsos immediately tried to generate excitement for Loyola basketball at a school known for soccer and lacrosse. First, he brought in some Maryland swagger by hiring former Terrapin players Terrell Stokes and Matt Kovarik as assistants. Then, two players from College Park — guard Andre Collins and forward Hassan Fofana — transferred to play for him.

Patsos next step was stopping out-of-state teams from signing the Maryland’s top recruits. He landed guard Marquis Sullivan from Spalding in 2005 — the same year Providence transfer Gerald Brown, a Baltimore native, came to Evergreen. The result: Brown is the MAAC’s third-leading scorer (18.9 ppg.) and the Greyhounds are on the verge of ending their 14-year postseason drought.

“The hardest leap we are trying to make is the one right now where we are trying to win a tournament title,” Patsos said. “The groups that came before us four years ago didn’t have the vision that the coaches have here now. Myself coming from Maryland, Billy coming from Villanova, Pat coming from Florida State and Randy coming from La Salle and Vanderbilt, we all understand big-time basketball and how we can have that here. “

Four years later

UMBC

» Coach: Randy Monroe (fourth season, 50-63)

» 2007-08 record/average attendance: 18-7 (10-2 first place America East); 2,530.

» Record/ average attendance in year before arrival (2003-04): 7-21 (lost to Stony Brook in America East Tournament first round); 1,868.

NAVY

» Coach: Billy Lange (fourth season, 47-64)

» 2007-08 record/ average attendance: 13-12 (6-4 second place in Patriot League); 2,157.

» Record/ average attendance in year before arrival (2003-04): 5-23 (lost to Lehigh in Patriot League quarterfinals); 1,828.

TOWSON

» Coach: Pat Kennedy (fourth season, 43-71)

» 2007-08 record/average attendance: 9-15 (5-9 eighth place in CAA); 1,907.

» Record in year before arrival (2003-04): 8-21 (lost to Virginia Commonwealth in CAA quarterfinals); 1,203.

LOYOLA

» Coach: Jimmy Patsos (fourth season, 54-60)

» 2007-08 record/average attendance: 18-9 (11-5 first place in MAAC), 1,481.

» Record/average attendance in year before arrival 2003-04: 1-27, lost to Rider in MAAC Tournament first round; 1,070.

rsnyder@baltimoreexaminer.com