GoLocal’s All-Rhode Island D-I Basketball Team
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Saturday, March 16, 2013
Scott Cordischi and John Rooke GoLocalProv Sports Editors
While none of Rhode Island’s four division one men’s basketball programs made it to the promise land that is the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in 2013, there were many strong individual and team performances this past season.
Here’s a look at GoLocalProv.com’s All-Rhode Island First and Second Teams along with out Coach and Rookie of Year:
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Dyami Starks - 1st
Dyami Starks So. G (Bryant) – Bulldogs’ coach Tim O’Shea kept telling all who would listen how good Starks was while he sat out last season after transferring to the school from Columbia University. He couldn’t have been more right! Starks led the Bulldogs in scoring at 17.7 ppg and shot 45% from the field, 40% from three and 84% from the free throw line. He was a big reason for the team’s record 17-win improvement from a season ago.
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Alex Francis - 1st
Alex Francis Jr. F (Bryant) – Francis wrapped up an outstanding junior season in Smithfield by averaging 17.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. He shot 57% from the field and was really the team’s only legitimate inside presence in a team that essentially played four guards.
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Bryce Cotton - 1st
Bryce Cotton Jr. G (Providence) – It is one thing to lead your team in scoring. It’s another thing to lead the entire Big East Conference in scoring that is exactly what Cotton did with his 19.6 ppg. When teams prepared to face PC, their defensive game plans started by focusing on Cotton whom they still had trouble stopping. What makes him such a great scorer is his great perimeter skills and his ability to create off the bounce.
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Kadeem Batts - 1st
Kadeem Batts Sr. F (Providence) – No one, and I mean no one, expected Batts to have the stellar season that he did and it was a big reason for PC’s success. Batts averaged 15.2 ppg and 7.4 rpg and gave PC a true inside presence. While many expected Henton to be the man up front, it was Batts who led the way.
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Matt Sullivan
Matt Sullivan Sr. G (Brown) – Sullivan wrapped up his stellar career on College Hill by eclipsing the 1,000 point plateau and playing in more games (115) than any player in Brown basketball history. Even more impressive than his team-leading 14.1 ppg was the fact that he was continually asked to defend the opponent’s best player – a job he welcomed and flourished in. After three frustrating years as a team, it was nice for Sullivan and the Bears to enjoy success his senior year finishing 7-7 in the Ivy League.
More importantly, Sullivan this year was a 1st Team Academic All-American and will graduate from Brown with a 4.0 GPA.
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Xavier Munford - 2nd
Xavier Munford Jr. G (URI) – On a team that was clearly offensively challenged, Munford was the only consistent scoring option night in and night out. He averaged a team-best 17.4 ppg averaging almost 36 minutes per game for the Rams. He gives Dan Hurley an experienced scorer and a go-to guy on a team that will be a lot more talented next season and expected to compete in the Atlantic Ten.
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Vincent Council - 2nd
Vincent Council Sr. G (Providence) – Council played in just 20 games this past season due to injury and probably wasn’t himself for 5 or 6 of those. Still, he managed to break the legendary Ernie DeGregorio’s assist record at PC and became the Big East’s all-time disher as well. If healthy, Council (10.0 ppg, 7.0 apg) clearly would have been on our first team.
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Frankie Dobbs - 2nd
Frankie Dobbs Sr. G (Bryant) – While Dobbs’ numbers (13.5 ppg, 5.1 apg) don’t jump off the page at you, he was clearly that “glue guy” and the man that ran the show for the 19-win Bulldogs. The son of Bryant assistant coach Frank “Happy” Dobbs, Frankie was like a coach on the floor for his entire career.
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Sean McGonagill - 2nd
Sean McGonagill Jr. G (Brown) – No one has to work harder night in and night out than Sean McGonagill who other teams try to wear down with their full-court pressure. The focus of opponents’ defenses, McGonagill still managed to score 14.0 ppg, pull down 4.5 rpg and dish out a team-best 3.9 apg. He also passed the 1,000-point mark in his junior year.
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Rafael Maia - 2nd
Rafael Maia So. F (Brown) – The Brazilian big man played his first season for the Bears after sitting out due to NCAA rules as a freshman and did not disappoint. He averaged 10.5 ppg and led the Ivy League in rebounding at 7.5 rpg finishing a grand total of one rebound ahead of his teammate Cedric Kuakumensah for the league’s rebounding title. His low post moves are extraordinary but he needs to improve both his finishing skills and his free throw shooting to take his career to the elite level.
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Player of the Year
Player of the Year: Dyami Starks So. G (Bryant)
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Rookie of the Year
Rookie of the Year: Cedric Kuakumensah Fr. F (Brown) – Despite playing his high school basketball at nearby St. Andrews in Barrington, no one expected the type of freshman year at Brown that Kuakumensah had. He set the Brown school record for most blocked shots (66) in a single season and led the Ivy League in blocked shots. He finished one rebound shy (210-209) of the league’s rebounding title as well behind his teammate Maia. While he averaged only 6.9 ppg, it was his presence on the defensive end of the floor that was Bill Russell-esque. When he wasn’t blocking shots, he was altering shots and in the heads of opposing players. He should have an outstanding career for the Bears.
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Coach of the Year
Coach of the Year: Tim O’Shea (Bryant) – You would think that a 17-win turnaround from last year to this year would have made O’Shea a lead-pipe cinch for this award but that wasn’t the case. Ed Cooley’s Friars went through many ups and downs yet the PC coach was the steadying influence throughout the season and has the team in contention for a possible NCAA Tournament berth. Likewise, Mike Martin led the Brown Bears to an improbable 7-7 league record and terrific non-conference wins over the Friars and Niagara. Even Dan Hurley, despite URI’s 8 wins, managed to put his stamp on his program laying the groundwork for future success. Rhode Island is blessed with four very good basketball coaches at the D-1 level.
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Comments:
Rod Carri
12:47pm on Saturday, March 16, 2013
No player meant more to his team than Xavier Munford. Without him, the Rams probably would have been winless.
For him to be second team in RI is a JOKE, especially since he was on the All District first team.
Figures.
Scott Cordischi
1:11pm on Saturday, March 16, 2013
I'm not sure how thorough that all district team was Rod as Bryant received no recognition on it whatsoever yet they were one of the better low major stories all season. That said, as I posted on FB, keeping Munford off 1st team was a tough decision. However, as I also said, players from winning programs usually get these types of honors over players on losing teams. As a coach once said to me, "there are no good players on bad teams!" I don't completely subscribe to that theory but understand the point.
John Rooke
8:45pm on Saturday, March 16, 2013
Rod - when teams win, players win. It's that simple. I like Munford alot, but his team didn't win.
Bob Rotondo
3:46pm on Sunday, March 17, 2013
"there are no good players on bad teams!"
Are you serious? Tell that to Otis Thorpe.
Scott Cordischi
6:15pm on Sunday, March 17, 2013
Munford didn't make any of the A-10's postseason teams either.
Charles D.
11:05pm on Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Another disappointing article, so let’s look at a few perspectives which seem to be lost on Mr. Cordischi and Mr. Rooke. First, winning may indeed help players win awards, but that seems to apply more to the national scene than the small sample of four RI D-1 schools. How many RI players are in the pool, 50-55 in total, even less since the focus is top performance? You mean you can’t more deeply analyze the performance of that number of players in selecting an all star team. Second, there are only four D-1 programs in RI, playing in leagues of varying quality. The RPI site which ranks all the 31 conferences in the nation shows the Big East at #2, the A-10 at #7, the NEC at #20 and the Ivy at #23. Since there are big differences between the top and bottom, any sound selection of an all RI team must recognize this difference. The importance of doing this is borne out in Mr. Cordischi’s silly comment justifying his non selection of Xavier Munford by saying Munford was not selected to the A-10 all star team either. Please, comparing the three RI teams to 15 teams in the A-10, five of whom went to the NCAA just confirms the poor scholarship of this selection. Finally, when you consider that Xavier Munford was the top scorer on a poor shooting team, it is safe to say that URI opponents keyed on Munford. That he was the top scorer under a hounding defense cannot be dismissed.
So I believe the criticisms over this all RI team are justified… and it is not even close. Munford should have made the first team. Given that Mr. Cordischi and Mr. Rooke appear to have some solid credentials in the sports field, then I have to conclude being this far off the mark indicates there is some hidden bias at work.
Scott Cordischi
7:21am on Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Charles:
It has become very clear that, like Rod, you have a pro-URI agenda which is fine by me. Regardless of what you or Rod think, John and I DO NOT have an anti-URI bias. If we were to use your criteria for selecting the teams, then no Bryant or Brown players could make the first team because they play in conferences at the low-major level compared to URI (mid major) and PC (high major). Why don't we just put PC's staring five as our first team if we are simply going to judge it based upon the strength of their conference?
Furthermore, I notice you have not made any comments congratulating me for being correct on my story last week. As stated here, Bryant IS hosting a CBI game and, if PC wins tonight, they will likely use the Ryan Center for a second round NIT game.
Don't worry, I don't need your praise. It's clear that you have an anti GoLocal agenda as well. Again, that's fine. Just keep reading the stories!
Charles D.
9:29pm on Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Mr. Cordischi, your memory is failing you. As I said in an earlier response, I am not a native RIer, have not lived here for very long and am not a URI fan, but I do hail from a part of the country where public institutions are better supported by the general population and the state government than is the case in RI. And this experience base admittedly does probably color some of my perspectives. My interest here has always been good journalism which includes fairness, insightful and in-depth analysis and my criticisms of your articles have always had that bias.
Let me correct you on one matter - my comment on conference differences was a direct response to your rationalization that Munford did not make the all A-10 team either. My point was the two scenarios are not comparable and you then exaggerated it to make it into my criteria (BTW, a plural word) which it was not. You should confine your retorts to what I actually say and not some distortion of it.
The RPI difference between the BE and the A10 is not huge, but the difference between the BE and A-10 to the Ivy League is significant. Let me be more specific, if you look at the raw data for both Munford and Sullivan and analyze from the internet some of the play-by-play details of games, you easily come to the conclusion that Xavier Munford should get the nod over Matt Sullivan of Brown. Then overlay that reality with my points – Munford faced stiffer competition and since he was on a poor shooting team he was often double teamed. Matt Sullivan faced no such problems. McGonagill and Maia were not far behind him in scoring, in fact even Halperin, #4 in Brown scoring, was closer to Sulivan than anyone on the URI team was to Munford.
I respect always the right to disagree, but when you show a lack of consistency in responding, you lose credibility. For example, take Mr. Rooke’s comment “when teams win, players win. It’s that simple. I like Munford a lot, but his team didn’t win.” Why does that not apply to Matt Sullivan or did I miss something in that Brown had a winning season?? Sorry, I stand by my belief, Xavier Munford belonged on the first team and not Matt Sullivan.
Finally, I’m not anti GLP. A more accurate statement is I do take a dim view of the site’s journalistic prowess especially on serious matters, but I do come to the site to get info on food and dining as it helps me with my clients. Oh, I have to be honest, lately I do visit to tweak your journalism, Mr. Cordischi, and you are so easy to tweak!! Wink-wink.