Full Steam Ahead-A Midshipmen's Journey

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Annapolis, MD---The United States Naval Academy formally announced the signing of their new head basketball coach at a press conference yesterday afternoon. Steve Deane, a graduate of Bethune-Cookman, has accepted the job and acknowledges the challenges associated with coaching at a military academy.

"The Naval Academy is a fine academic institution and requires all members of it's community to act with integrity, honor, and discipline. My job is to get players that live up to those values while also putting a quality team on the court."

Deane is probably best known for his senior season at Bethune-Cookman, when he led the Wildcats in scoring at 19.6 ppg and led the team to the 3rd round of the NIT, which included a first round upset of LSU.

Deane credits his college coach, Mark Lee, for his great end to his collegiate career and also for the discipline needed to get a job at a place like Navy.

"I was only lucky enough to play for Coach Lee for one year, my senior season at Bethune-Cookman, but it was by far the most rewarding of my career. We did great things as a team that year and Coach Lee is a very strict, but fair coach so anybody that played any length of time playing for him has a great understanding of the word discipline."

After Deane's college career, he played briefly overseas, but said that all along, he wanted to return to the US to continue his career, preferrably as a player, but he'd love to coach at some point also.

"Unfortunately, it wasn't possible for me to come back home and play professionally so I turned to coaching. To be able to come back and not only coach, but coach kids who are the future defenders of our fine country, is quite an honor. In fact, it's such an honor that I don't know if I am worthy of the position, but I will definitely do everything I can to maintain the integrety of this institution while making Navy basketball a force to be reckoned with, not just in the Patriot League, but across the country."

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Starters:

PG #22 Isaiah Roberts 6'2", 185lbs Freshman (60 ovr)
SG #25 Jordan Sugars 6'3", 215lbs Junior (66 ovr)
SF #15 Romeo Garcia 6'4", 212lbs Senior (65 ovr)
PF #3 James Loupos 6'6", 185lbs Freshman (64 ovr)
C #44 Mark Veazey 6'11", 235lbs Senior (62 ovr)

Bench:

SG #10 Greg Brown 6'4", 192lbs Senior (60 ovr)
SF #32 Jacob Liebert 6'3", 190lbs Freshman (59 ovr)
SG #1 Ted Connolly 6'3", 200lbs Walkon-Junior (58 ovr)
C #33 Alex Newsome 6'9", 235lbs Sophomore (54 ovr)
SF #31 J.J. Avila 6'7", 240lbs Freshman (52 ovr)
SF #20 Carlton Smith 6'6", 220lbs Walkon-Junior (52 ovr)
SG #11 Thurgood Wynn 6'3", 175lbs Freshman (51 ovr)

Released:

PG #2 Brennan Wyatt 5'9", 154lbs Frshman (46 ovr)

Coach Deane's Comments:

"We have a good blend of experience and youth and the challenge will be to find the proper combination of each in the game at the proper moments. It will be interesting to see what this team can do as the players get more comfortable in my system."

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11/9 @ Longwood Lancers
11/11 @ Drexel Dragons
11/14 Robert Morris Colonials
11/17 @ UTSA Roadrunners
11/20 Canisius Golden Griffins
11/23 Liberty Bell Classic B
(Seton Hall Pirates vs. Navy Midshipmen)
(Penn Quakers vs. Virginia Cavaliers)
11/27 @ Howard Bison
11/29 Towson Tigers
12/3 Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers
12/17 @ San Diego State Aztecs
12/22 @ Maryland-Eastern Shore Hawks
12/29 @ St. Francis (NY) Terriers
1/2 NCCU Eagles
1/5 Longwood Lancers
1/12 @ Bucknell Bison
1/16 Lehigh Mountain Hawks
1/19 Lafayette Leopards
1/23 @ Holy Cross Crusaders
1/26 Army Black Knights
1/30 @ American Eagles
2/2 Colgate Raiders
2/9 Bucknell Bison
2/13 @ Lehigh Mountain Hawks
2/16 @ Lafayette Leopards
2/20 Holy Cross Crusaders
2/23 @ Army Black Knights
2/27 American Eagles
3/1 @ Colgate Raiders

Coach Deane's Comments:

"This is a good schedule....for us. A Big Ten team would look at this schedule and laugh, but for us, it's a very good schedule. We'll be challenged each night, but at the same time, all games are winnable and the players realize they're winnable games. With the exception of Seton Hall, there are no games on the schedule that the players can pick out and think we don't have a chance. That will the players focused on each game so whatever we try to teach them should stay with them a little better."

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Best Overall Player-Rob Delaney-Lafayette Leopards (74 ovr) Sophomore
Best Freshman-C.J. McCollum-Lehigh Mountain Hawks (71 ovr) Freshman
Best Shooter-Jim Mower-Lafayette Leopards (71 ovr) Junior
Best Playmaker-R.J. Evans-Holy Cross Crusaders (71 ovr) Junior
Best Pro Prospect-Rob Delaney-Lafayette Leopards (74 ovr) Sophomore
Best Defender-Stephen Lumpkins-American Eagles (70 ovr) Junior

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Farmville, VA---Fans hoping for offense were disappointed in the first half of this game. The Navy Midshipmen would fall behind 8-2 early, but would then go on a 23-2 run and would go into the half with a 25-15 lead. The Midshipmen shot 40% in the half and were led in scoring by Jordan Sugars with 12 points. The Longwood Lancers would shoot 27% in the half. The Midshipmen also dominated the boards in the half, pulling down 20 rebounds to just 10 for Longwood.

Coach Deane commented going into the locker room. "Despite what you might think, I'm not all that impressed with our defense so far. Sure, we have a good lead dominating the glass, but that's more a result of bad offense by them instead of good defense by us. They had a lid on their basket and just couldn't make anything in the half. When we did defend, we fouled way too much and gave them a lot of points from the line that they shouldn't have gotten."

The offensive struggles continued in the 2nd half, but this time Navy was the team struggling to hit shots. The Midshipmen would shoot just 29.6% and would score just 19 points in the half. Longwood would score 27 points and would shoot 52.7% in the half. The Midshipmen would continue to rebound well though and would limit the Lancers to 1 shot on the possessions that they did miss. Navy would hold on for the 44-42 victory behind some clutch shooting by Jordan Sugars, who hit a long 2 to make it 39-35 and then a contested 3 as the shot clock expired, giving Navy a 42-37 lead. Navy would struggle from the line down the stretch, but Longwood wouldn't capitalize on the misses as Navy would get several rebounds off missed freethrows.

Sugars led Navy with 19 points, but the real story of the game was Mark Veazey with 8 points and 15 rebounds and James Loupos also pulled down 10 rebounds in his collegiate debut. Antwan Carter led the Lancers with 11 points, 8 rebounds. Navy would win the battle of the boards 35-28.

Navy is now 1-0 on the young season while the Lancers have dropped to 1-2. Next up for Navy is a trip to Philadelphia to battle the Drexel Dragons (0-1), who is coming off a 73-70 loss at Northwestern.

Coach Deane's Comments:

"We still fouled too much in the 2nd half, but that's to be expected in the first game of the season. The kids came in with a lot of intensity and it showed. What concerns me more is that we went away from our offense in the 2nd half. We started settling for long jumpers instead of attacking the basket even though it was attacking the basket that got us the lead. I do like the way we handled the pressure at the end of the game. Not the defensive pressure because they didn't pressure us much, but just the pressure of the situation. We could have easily folded under the pressure in that situation since the team is learning a new offense and Longwood had all the momentum, but we stepped up when we needed to and got the win."