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Barry Rohrssen: Despite Big Recruits, Manhattan Basketball Coach Must Be Fired

March 11th, 2010

It astounds me that Manhattan College is still considering Barry Rohrssen for a fifth season as the men's basketball coach.

In his first four years, Rohrssen compiled a 42-60 record without one postseason appearance. His fourth season was his worst, finishing 11-20 and in eighth place in the MAAC. Rohrssen finished fifth in the MAAC in his first and third years.

It is time that this guy goes. 

This past year, Rohrssen had a team with a lot of talent. The 2009-10 Jaspers consisted of five seniors and one redshirt junior. Rohrssen had also brought in Rico Pickett from Miami Dade Junior College. Pickett was a top 50 recruit in 2006 and was supposed to be a savior for Manhattan.

Despite this talent, Rohrssen drove the team straight into the ground with horrific coaching.

As a game coach, Rohrssen has not been able to draw up plays to get good shots for Manhattan when it needs them. Manhattan has trailed by one possession with the ball in the final minute of eight different occasions.

When Rohrssen was growing up, his elementary school must have left two letters out while teaching the alphabet—"x" and "o."

With all honesty, I attended 10 Manhattan games this year and saw Rohrssen draw up a play one time. 

Rohrssen has brought in some good recruits over the last two years, which is a legitimate reason to keep him. For the 2009-10 season, Rohrssen beat out UConn and Florida for Rico Pickett, and then signed Mohammed Koita, who originally had committed to UCLA. Rohrssen also signed George Beamon, who averaged 35 points per game as a high school senior.

For 2010-11, Rohrssen has already signed Mike Alvarado, a guard from All Hallows who is supposedly one of the best in New York City; Rhamel Brown, who is a defensive beast; and Joel "Air Jamaica" Wright, who could be the best of this recruiting class.

However, Rohrssen has not been able to develop the talent he brings in.

In his first season, Rohrssen was left with Devon Austin as the only player that looked like he could be a star from the previous season. As a freshman, Austin stepped into a starting role after the suspension of C.J. Anderson, averaging close to eight points per game.

After scoring 12.4 points per game in his sophomore season with Rohrssen, Austin declined and only averaged 11 points per game as a senior.

Rohrssen brought in some solid freshmen in his first year with Manhattan. Darryl Crawford and Antoine Pearson looked like they would be All-MAAC players by the time senior year came around. 

Crawford steadily progressed, although he never reached his full potential. But Rohrssen made the big mistake with Pearson.

Pearson averaged 9.5 points per game as a freshman and was one of the quicker guards in the MAAC. His crossover literally put some players on their backsides. 

Pearson played 30 minutes per game as a sophomore but then began to decline. Rohrssen only played Pearson for an average of 23 minutes per game for his final two seasons as a Jasper. 

In Pearson's rare playing time, he was still able to get to the hoop and create open shots on offense. 

So, even if Manhattan risks losing Rohrssen's big recruits for 2010-11, it does not matter. These players will not get much better, and Manhattan will still not contend in the top of the MAAC until Rohrssen is gone.

I will pose one other way Manhattan can keep Rohrssen and fix all the problems. I do not know how hard/possible this would be, but if Manhattan could bring in an assistant coach that could help develop the players and draw up plays on the bench, there could be a solution.

If Manhattan is not willing to do this, Rohrssen should be fired if the Jaspers ever want to have any chance at winning a MAAC championship.

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Posted in College Basketball, College Basketball Recruiting, MAAC, MAAC Conference Basketball, Manhattan Basketball, NCAA, Opinion

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UNLV Goes into MWC Tourney To Face the Dreaded…Utah Utes?

March 9th, 2010

It is hard to believe that Utah is the only team that the Rebels have not beaten in the Mountain West, but that is the case. A team with only seven conference wins, Utah seems to have the number of a team that only has seven total losses, UNLV. This should make for an interesting first round matchup.

The fans of UNLV were celebrating a win over Wyoming on Saturday only to get a punched-in-the-gut feeling upon learning that the Utes had lost to the Colorado State Rams, putting them into the six spot in the conference seedings.

The Rebel fans would have rather seen anyone in the first round other than Utah. Another lost to this sub-.500 team could put an end to UNLV's tournament hopes and surely would have a devastating effect on their seed.

This matchup leaves Coach Lon Kruger with quite a conundrum in making his lineups. He has two players, Matt Shaw and Derrick Jasper, coming off of injuries. If they were playing Colorado State, a team they handled easily at home, then he could get Shaw and Jasper some good minutes and get them ready for postseason play.

Jasper's ability to get rebounds from the 3 spot will be crucial in an NCAA tournament game, but do you risk putting a player that is not in game shape on the floor in a must-win scenario?

Hopefully, the Rebels will get a few more chances to get Shaw and Jasper into a real game but they must get past Utah first.

You would think that the Rebels would need to keep the much bigger Utah team off of the boards, but that has not been their problem. In the first matchup, the Rebels out-rebounded the Utes 34-31, and in the second game, UNLV lost the rebound battle but only by five 28-33.

While the rebounding could be better, it was not the cause of their losses.

The key to winning seems to be controlling junior guard Carlon Brown. In Vegas, Brown was only 5-for-12 but made three out of his five three-point attempts to finish the game with 16 points. In the game in Utah, he shot 8-for-12 to lead the team with 18 points.

The UNLV Rebels will be fired up for this game, but there will be some concern over whether or not this UofU team is in their head.

At least the game will be on the home court of UNLV and I believe the coaching advantage is on their side as well. All the Rebel fans can hope is that the old adage, it is hard to beat a team three times in a season, holds true.

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Posted in College Basketball, Lon Kruger, NCAA, Preview/Prediction, UNLV Basketball, ncaa tournament

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Manhattan-Siena: Jaspers’ Season Comes to an End With Poor Second Half

March 7th, 2010

Barry Rohrssen was 20 minutes away from saving his job in the 2010-11 Manhattan season, with his Jaspers leading Siena 40-36 at halftime in the MAAC Quarterfinals.

Manhattan (11-20, 4-14 MAAC) came out strong in the first half. Darryl Crawford scored the first seven points for the Jaspers, and then a steal lead to a breakaway slam for Rico Pickett. Alex Franklin's slamback with 16:48 left gave Siena (25-6, 17-1) its first points.

It looked like Siena was quickly back on the horse, cutting the lead to 9-4. Manhattan came back with the next seven points to take a 16-4 lead. 

Alex Franklin dominated the first half to keep the Saints close, scoring 17 points in the first 20 minutes. 

Owen Wignot hit his second three-pointer of the game to cut the Jasper lead to 32-31 with 3:22 left. Antoine Pearson responded with a three-pointer of his own.

After Wignot turned the ball on the ensuing possession, Rico Pickett got another chance at a breakaway dunk. Pickett looked over to the Siena bench as he came inside the foul and smiled, sticking his tongue out. Pickett then rose up for a backwards dunk, firing up the Manhattan squad. 

Patrick Bouli made a three-pointer a minute later to give Manhattan a 40-31 lead. Franklin came back with five points in the final 1:08 to cut the Jasper to lead 40-36 at intermission. 

Manhattan surprisingly came out with a lot of energy in the second half. After a couple of minutes, Clarence Jackson, who was held scoreless in the first half, found some room and scored eight points in a 12-2 Siena run. The run was capped by a Jackson three-pointer, giving the Saints their first lead of the game, 48-46. 

The Jaspers did not let the game get away from them, staying within 54-52 with 9:53 remaining. An 8-0 run by Siena put the Saints in the driver's seat with a 62-52 lead. 

Manhattan unraveled in the final few minutes, with Siena taking its largest lead of the game on a Just-in'love Smith three-pointer with 39 seconds left. 

The buzzer sounded with the scoreboard reading 78-61. The Saints move on to the semifinals to play No. 4 Rider, while the Jaspers end a miserable season with their 20th loss.

Fran McCaffery made a questionable move after pulling his starters in the final minute. There was plenty of jawing and shoving during the game and McCaffery thought that it would be best to send his starters to the locker room before the end of the game when they would shake hands with Manhattan players.

McCaffery really should have just let his players quickly shake hands with Manhattan and then run to the locker room before anything else could happen. 

Hopefully, with this loss the Barry Rohrssen era will come to an end. After four years with the Jaspers, Rohrssen's worst year came in 2009-10. Rohrssen showed poor coaching once more on Saturday and he is simply not a winner.

 

Analysis

As usual, Rohrssen was horrible with substitutions. Djibril Coulibaly did not deserve to play at all. Coulibaly should have had at least five rebounds, but due to his inability to grab a basketball, he only had one. Coulibaly let Siena get a lot of second chance opportunities.

Also, Antoine Pearson had a very good first half and was helping the offense move well. Pearson was absent for a lot of the second half.

Manhattan had no idea what it was doing when it had to execute in the final 10 minutes. The Jaspers did not have a plan to get a good look at the basket. If the Jaspers worked for good shots, they would have still had a chance down the stretch.

Although I feel like a real complainer for saying this, the officiating heavily favored Siena in this game. Everybody knows that the MAAC wants Siena to win because it would be best for the conference. However, the referees were so biased that it really threw the game off.

Every time Manhattan grazed a Siena player, the whistle was blown. At one point Crawford went up for a layup and was pulled down by his jersey. Crawford hit the floor and waited to hear a whistle. No whistle was blown—this was just one of many examples similar to this. 

If there had been better officiating, especially in the first half, Manhattan could have gotten to a more comfortable lead and might not have had as much pressure entering the second half.

_________________________________________________________________________

Alex Franklin led all scorers with 23 points. Franklin had 11 rebounds, eight of them offensive. Franklin shot 7-of-10 from the field and 9-of-14 from the line.

Owen Wignot was key off the bench with 11 points. Wignot made 3-of-4 three-pointers. 

Ryan Rossiter picked up yet another double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Edwin Ubiles also scored 10 points. Some think Ubiles is an NBA prospect, but he has not seemed to have what it takes to be with the pros this season.

Clarence Jackson scored eight points. All eight points came during Siena's 12-2 second half run. Jackson shot 2-of-15 from the field, and 2-of-11 from three-point range. 

The Saints struggled from the field and will need to figure things out if they hope to win an NCAA Tournament game for the third straight year. Siena shot 26-of-68 (38.2 percent) on Saturday.

Rico Pickett led Manhattan with 18 points. Pickett shot 7-of-16 from the field. Pickett had two monster dunks in the first half, but it was not enough for Manhattan. 

Darryl Crawford scored 12 points and ripped down nine rebounds. Crawford finished his collegiate career 22 points shy of Larry Lembo for seventh place on the Jaspers all-time scoring list.

Patrick Bouli scored nine points on three three-pointers and Antoine Pearson scored seven points, all in the first half.

 

For more college basketball, follow Jesse Kramer on Twitter by clicking here .  

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Posted in College Basketball, Game Recap, Manhattan Basketball, NCAA, ncaa tournament

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2010 NFL Draft: Sean Weatherspoon Playing His Way Into First Round

February 16th, 2010

Spooooooon will be heard echoing from the Missouri Tigers stadium long after Sean Weatherspoon heads off to the NFL this April in the 2010 draft.

The 6'2", 245 pound outside linebacker from Jasper, Texas was a main stay on the Mizzou defense and wreaked havoc on opposing offenses since 2007, his sophomore season at Missouri.

The very outspoken and hardly ever at a loss for words Weatherspoon is a natural and very vocal leader of the defense and nothing will change that fact from playing on Saturdays to playing on Sundays.

“He’s probably been the vocal leader from the start here at the Senior Bowl in Mobile,” said Matt Burke, linebackers coach for the Detroit Lions. “He’s a real enthusiastic kid and has obviously been a great college player. He’s got a pretty outgoing personality and has fun playing football—he likes being out there.”

Spoon will be quick to tell you as well, he has always been like that, even as a kid.

“All my life I’ve just been the type of person to always be talking,” said Weatherspoon. “No matter where I am, I’m always that guy. Back when I was little I used to get ‘talks excessively’ on my report cards."

Although Weatherspoon is outspoken off the field, he lets his play on the field speak for itself.

In his Missouri career Sean compiled 388 tackles, 12 sacks, three forced fumbles and had four interceptions.

No season was bigger than his junior year in 2008.

Weatherspoon had 149 tackles (73 solo, 76 assist), five sacks, three interceptions—including two he returned for touchdowns on the year, vaulting him into one of the elite linebackers in college football.

Along with the outstanding stats he put up at Missouri, Weatherspoon was also the physical and vocal leader of the defense and really for the entire team. No more so than what he showcased at the Senior Bowl this season.

From day one of practice you could tell Sean was ready to play and as usual, was not at a loss for words.

“You’re going to have to step up in front of your teammates and command everyone’s attention in that huddle,” he said. “I feel like I’m definitely the guy that needs to do that being in that position. It’s just pretty natural to me."

Again, he showed his talents on and off the field in Mobile, Al. Right off the bat he made the first play of the game, a very big and nice open field tackle on the South’s Dexter McCluster on the opening kickoff of the game.

The tone was now set for Spoon for the rest of the game; on and off the field. He mocked South fans as they all cried for Tim Tebow to come into the game. Doing the "Gator" chomp at them and asking where "superman" was.

Dancing every chance he got during TV timeouts to the music playing over the loud speakers.

"That's just my deal you know?" "If you can’t have fun with the fans of the other team, you might wanna change sides, you know?" said Weatherspoon when asked about his off-field banter with the South's fans.

“I like to dance to the music, it pumps me up during the game; it’s just what I do. I get a lot of flak for it from the other team’s fans, till we walk off the field with the win and then I don’t hear nothing.”

With all the horsing around aside there is a more serious side to Weatherspoon and that comes out of him on the football field when it's time for him to strap on the helmet and get to work.

With his outstanding junior and senior seasons for Missouri and the play at the Senior Bowl, more and more teams are starting to move Weatherspoon up their draft charts and into the first round.

I would look for and like to see Sean get taken with the 24th overall pick by the Philadelphia Eagles to shore up their linebacker core.

It would also be a "Spoon" filled core with Will Witherspoon already in Philly adding Sean Weatherspoon to the mix to  patrol the middle of the field for the Eagles next season.

One question remains though. Is Philly ready for "Spoony Love"?

We will most certainly see come next season.

 

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Posted in Football, NFL, Preview/Prediction

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RB Gilbert Moye Leaves Team, Will to Transfer From Missouri

February 9th, 2010

The crowd that is Missouri's offensive backfield has become a little less dense.

Running back Gilbert Moye has left the team and will transfer from the university upon completion of the current semester, school officials confirmed to the Columbia Daily Tribune on Monday.

According to MU beat writer Dave Matter, a source close to Moye confirmed the news, as did team spokesman Chad Moeller, who told the paper Monday evening that the running back has, indeed, parted ways with the team.

Matter reported that Moye intends to transfer to a program from either the Southwestern Athletic Conference or Southland Conference—both of which are part of college football's Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA—where he hopes to play his old high school position of quarterback.

Missouri will now enter next month's spring practices with three scholarship running backs on its roster, but that number may very well double entering preseason workouts. The trio of senior Derrick Washington, junior De'Vion Moore, and sophomore Kendial Lawrence will be joined in the fall by freshmen Marcus Murphy (DeSoto, Tx.), Henry Josey (Angleton, Tx.), and Greg White (DeQueen, Ark.), all of whom were part of MU's recent recruiting class.

Considering Moye's past in the MU program—which was laden with variety but light on production—his decision to leave should not be altogether surprising.

A former standout quarterback from Diboll High School in Texas, Moye was quickly converted to the safety position upon his arrival in Columbia in 2007 as one of the country's top-rated "athletes." After a redshirt season, he played in 11 games in 2008, with a significant portion of his time spent on MU's kickoff return unit. All the while, Moye was receiving plenty of reps in practice while learning from one of the best safeties in MU history—current Atlanta Falcon William Moore.

But along with the 2009 season came yet another position switch. In an attempt to utilize Moye's coveted blend of size, speed, and athleticism, the Missouri staff moved him to running back, where the 6'2", 220-pound native of Jasper, Texas, figured to challenge for a backup role.

However, with Washington and Moore entrenched as the team's top two backs, Moye struggled at times with inconsistency and fumbles during preseason workouts in August, resulting in him losing his No. 3 role to Lawrence.

Buried on the depth chart as MU's fourth option at running back, Moye was nearly invisible this past season, rushing for only 35 yards on six carries, all of which came versus Furman on Sept. 19.

 

Photo courtesy of Columbia Daily Tribune.

You can find this article and more at my page at Examiner.com.

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Posted in Breaking News, College Football, Missouri Tigers Football, NCAA

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