When Monmouth– a MAAC school with only 4,300 undergraduates located in West Long Branch, N.J.– upset UCLA, 84-81, in overtime the first weekend of the season, the college basketball world gasped.
The Hawks (4-2) weren’t supposed to be in the same galaxy as the mighty Bruins. The only reason Bruins’ coach Steve Alford agreed to play them was after the Hawks had already scheduled two other games on their West Coast trip.
He may think twice the next time before risking his team’s image.
“You never think you’re coming into UCLA where you’re going to win,” Monmouth coach King Rice said. “We take these trips because they are great for our kids. To say they got to come into Pauley Pavilion against UCLA on John Wooden Court, they are going to tell their families that forever. And now we’ve got a win.”
Collin Stewart, a 6-7 junior guard, scored 19 points and made all six of his free throws, including the go-ahead ones with 18 seconds left in overtime. Tiny 5-8 junior guard Justin Robinson, a first team All MAAC selection– added 16 points and 6-5 redshirt freshman guard Micah Seaborn had 14 points for the Hawks, who rallied from 13 points down in the second half to force overtime, then pulled off the stunning victory before a sparse stunned crowd of 6,674 In overtime, UCLA led 80-75, helped by six straight free throws from 6-8 forward Tony Parker and guard Bryce Alford, the coach’s son. From there, the Hawks outscored the Bruins 9-2 to close out the upset. Monmouth did it all on free throws, going 9 of 10 from the line over the final 1:49, when Parker fouled out.
Monmouth forced UCLA into 23 turnovers, including six each by Parker and freshman Aaron Holiday, the brother of former UCLA star Jrue Holiday.
Ordinarily, this may have seemed like an early season fluke.
But it was only the beginning.
Last weekend, lightning struck again. Robinson showed he’s much bigger than his size again, this time scoring 22 points, including two deciding free throws with about three seconds left to give the Hawks a 70-68 victory over 17th-ranked Notre Dame in South Bend, beating a ranked team for the first time in school history. The win featured some wild celebratory antics from the Hawks’ bench mob that was filmed by ESPN and gave walk ons Dan and Louis Pillari, Tyler Robinson plus injured Dan Noack instant celebrity status on social media.
Then, finally this Sunday, Robinson exploded for 27 points as Monmouth put an exclamation mark on a magical month by defeating USC (a Pac-12 team they had lost to in L.A. the second game of the season), 83-73, to claim third place in the Advocare Classic in Orlando. Robinson broke the three game tournament scoring record with 75 points. Seaborn added 20 and 6-6 forward Deon Jones had 14 points and 10 rebounds.
.”It’s very exciting, but we expected to get to this point at some point,” Rice said. “We weren’t sure when it was going to happen. It probably took longer than I thought it was going to take when I got the job five years ago.”
Monmouth, like so many other teams in college basketball, are mid-majors in name only. Maybe this is the year the NCAA tournament really will be a grab bag. Perennial giants like Kentucky, Kansas, North Carolina, Maryland, Villanova and Michigan State should once again emerge as national contenders as the season progresses, but the early moments of this season has been filled with a tsunami of shocking outcomes.
Name teams from power conferences, which have key injuries or have to restock the shelves after stars graduate or depart early to the NBA draft, are suddenly becoming more vulnerable in early season games against quality mid major programs. More and more schools from less publicized conferences with junior, senior experience may be undervalued by the NCAA tournament selection committee, but they are not long push overs or sacrificial lambs in guarantee games.
Radford from the Big South defeated Georgetown. Northern Iowa from the Valley defeated top-ranked UNC. UT Chattanooga from the Southern Conference defeated Georgia and Illinois. Arkansas, Western Illinois of the Summit defeated Wisconsin, Belmont of the Ohio Valley defeated Marquette, Little Rock from the Sun Belt defeated San Diego State. UT Arlington from the Sun Belt defeated Ohio State and Memphis. Sacramento State from the Big Sky defeated Arizona State. William and Mary from the Colonial defeated NC State. Akron from the Mid- American defeated Arkansas.
The list continues to grow.
Northern Iowa is no stranger to the NCAA tournament, but the Panthers were only picked to finish fourth in the Valley this season. North Carolina scheduled a road game in Cedar Falls, Ia. as a homecoming for its All America guard Marcus Paige. But Paige didn’t play because of a broken bone in his hand and Wes Washpun scored 21 points for the Panthers who stunned the Tar Heels, 71-67– just a week after losing to Colorado State at home.
The Panthers used a 29-8 stretch over 12 minutes of the second half to turn a 50-34 deficit into a 63-58 lead, and held on for the upset. Northern Iowa also got 19 points from Matt Bohannon — whose 3-pointer with 2:51 left gave Northern Iowa the lead for good. Paige’s replacement Joel Berry, had just five points on 2-of-7 shooting. NIU also beat the Tar Heels in the paint, 24-22.
Rice, a former star guard at North Carolina, and the experienced Hawks has been in the biggest surprise of this growing movement. Rice is rapidly building Monmouth into a regional power. The Hawks who left the Northeast Conference to join the MAAC three years ago, was picked second behind Iona this year. “Two years ago, we were picked 11th and we stared then we were going to move up in this league,” Rice said.
Robinson was named to the All-MAAC pre-season first team with Jones, who is the lone senior on the team, making second team.
Robinson is averaging 24.4 points despite an impressive schedule that has seen Monmouth take on UCLA, Southern California twice and Drexel, Dayton as well as the Irish. The Hawks will not play their home opener before Dec. 13 when they host Wagner. A cross-country flight to California, a bus trip to Philadelphia, a flight to Orlando and another bus ride to Western New York equals 8,681.4 miles round-trip before a home game is played. Throw in bus rides to Georgetown, Rutgers, Cornell and Army between Dec. 15-28.
The Hawks are true road warriors.
They can go eight deep with solid players, have an improved center in 6-10, 280 pound Zac Tillman and are filled with experienced athletic wings like Stewart and Jones who can compliment the mercurial Robinson. And Rice has upgraded his recruiting with the additions of Seaborn and 6-4 guard Je’lon Hornbeck, both good friends who both made their way to Jersey from Arlington, Tex. and are both eligible after sitting out a year.
Before Seaborn visited last spring, Rice and then-assistant coach Derrick Phelps, another former Carolina star, had already made inroads with Hornbeak, a 6-4 former four star recruit who decided to transfer after two successful seasons at Oklahoma. Rice is friends with Prime Prep head coach Ray Forsett, who coached both Hornbeak and Seaborn at Arlington Grace Prep during the 2011-12 season. Forsett moved to Prime Prep and coached Seaborn for two more seasons at the Dallas charter school. Seaborn was a major steal but was ruled a non-qualifier by the NCAA and had to complete 24 hours to be eligible this fall.
With wins over UCLA Notre Dame and USC and a 73-70 loss to Atlantic 10 favorite Dayton in the Advocare semis, Rice’s team is putting together an impressive résumé to take into MAAC play. They’re not done with their big nonconference games yet either. They face off against Georgetown on Dec. 15. If the Hawks continue to fly, they could legitimately start building a case for an at-large bid to the NCAAs if they don’t win this competitive league tournament.
