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James Hett and the Monmouth Hawks Beat Lehigh University, 69 – 68

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What an exciting game at the MAC Center in West Long Branch, New Jersey tonight! The Monmouth University Hawks went head-to-head against the Lehigh University Mountain Hawks in a game that ended with a final score of 69 – 68 in the Hawks’ favor. This game was literally won in the final second on a foul shot by Senior James Hett (see the side picture to the left below and the larger version in the last row of pictures below). Of course, anyone that attended this game is not only going to remember the excitement in the final few seconds, but they’re going to remember the vomit, too.

James Hett Winning the Game

That’s right. The vomit.

Twice during the game Monmouth’s Ed Waite threw up on the floor. In fact, the first time he yacked it appeared that he splashed the basketball a little bit. While I didn’t see the first upchuck, I definitely saw both shots of his second oral expulsion and it was gross. The best part of the vomiting fiasco was that after Waite threw up for the first time and the officials called for an official timeout, Head Coach Dave Calloway was overheard immediately asking the referee if it was still the team’s ball. Hilarious! That’s a man who keeps his eye on the prize, eh?

Bear with me, I’m trying to get all of the possible ways to say “vomit” out in this one entry. Unfortunately, I’m not as professional about discussing Waite emptying his stomach as someone like Tony Graham at the Asbury Park Press, who eloquently wrote, “sophomore forward Ed Waite took sick on the floor.” Graham is good; I’m just trying to find new ways to say vomit. 🙂

Aside from the vomit, it appeared that the Hawks were outmatched for a good portion of the game. However, through a few good stretches of play, they were able to position themselves well enough to win the game. What struck me was how the gigantic center from England, Phil Wait, played during the game. It just seemed to me like there was something off in his game tonight. And I’m not sure, but I also got the distinct feeling that by the second half of the game Wait’s teammates were trying to find ways to play around him.

Now, by no means am I an expert on basketball so take this next statement for what it is, which is a fan making an observation. However, I’m boggled about Wait’s actions on the floor. It seems to me that if you’re 7′ 2″ that you should be under the basket at all times. You should be the lead the team in rebounds and, frankly, you should probably be among the top scorers since you’d likely be putting the ball directly in the basket with each rebound. It doesn’t appear that Wait does any of that too often. In fact, if you look at the box score for tonight’s game, Wait had less rebounds than any of the other starting five.

And it’s not like he wasn’t near the bottom of the basket, rather he was just too far away from the basket to make a difference. There were routinely two or even three guys between him and the hoop when he was going up for rebounds. He also seems to be a very lateral player in that he likes to reach forward when the other team takes a shot. Shouldn’t a guy that tall be putting those massive arms up in the air and jumping to block the shot?

Whatever, I’m just a fan watching a game making an observation.

I hope you enjoy some of the 40+ pictures below. This game was a lot of fun to attend and even though I can’t find an official number on the attendance tonight, I would assume that all of the folks who were there would agree that it was a fun game to watch.

Monmouth Hawks Defeat Wagner Seahawks, 76 – 67

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Last night, in front of about 1,200 fans at the MAC Center in West Long Branch, the Monmouth University Hawks welcomed back Center Travis Taylor in a 76 – 67 win over Northeast Conference rival the Wagner College Seahawks. Taylor returned in big fashion against the Seahawks having a career high scoring day with 30 points. This victory brings Monmouth to .500 in the NEC with a record of 7 – 7. The Hawks need to keep on winning as the season draws to a close if they want to secure a playoff berth in the NEC Tournament. For detailed stats from last night’s game, head over to the Monmouth Athletics website by clicking here.

Taylor Quick Stats

It really is amazing the difference that one player can make on a team’s performance. Taylor put up almost 40% of the Hawks’ points for the night. That’s crazy. And what’s even better is that he’s only a Sophomore…

Aside from Taylor’s return after a seven game suspension, there were a lot of other things going on at last night’s game. For example, last night was the first time that the Wagner team has been to Monmouth’s campus since the end of last season, when Wagner obliterated the Hawks by 31 points in the last game played at the Boylan Gymnasium. The leading scorer for the Seahawks during that win was a guy named Joey Mundweiler (who also broke the NEC record for most three pointers in a single game during that game). Last night’s leading scorer for Wagner was Danny Mundweiler, Joey’s younger brother. Taylor commented on last year’s loss to the Asbury Park Press before last night’s game:

“Last year was embarrassing to leave Boylan like that,” Taylor said. “It’s a pride thing. You’re never supposed to lose like that, especially your last game in the gym. So this game should be taken to heart.”

And Taylor definitely took last night’s game to heart, as did the rest of the Hawks. Taylor’s career-high game was complimented by the consistency of guys like James Hett and Will Campbell, a Junior and Sophomore, respectively. When you add in the leadership of a guy like Senior Whitney Coleman and the raw talent of someone like Freshman Ed Waite, then you have a pretty formidable team in this year’s Hawks. Hett and Campbell have become two of my favorite players on the Hawks and I think that they have all of the potential in the world. Like all young athletes, I suspect that their off-season training will be key in deciding how far they go next year and into the future.

As for the total team itself, while there’s no way to know how Monmouth would have fared if Taylor wasn’t suspended for the last seven games, the Hawks still have a chance to make it to the NEC Tournament. After last night’s victory they are tied for sixth place in the NEC where only the top 8 teams make it into the conference tournament. Monmouth needs to keep on winning to stay in the playoff hunt.

I didn’t take as many pictures as usual during last night’s game. The reason for this is because due to a prior commitment I won’t be able to make Monmouth’s last home game for the season on Saturday, February 27th. So last night’s game was likely the last time I’ll see Monmouth at the MAC Center until next season and I opted to spend more time cheering for the team instead of taking pictures. I think that the pictures that I did take, though, are pretty decent – I hope you enjoy them!

The Mount Defeats the Monmouth Hawks, 69 – 42

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Last night, the Monmouth University Hawks lost a home game to the Mount St. Mary Mountaineers (also known as “The Mount”) in front of 1,238 fans at the MAC Center in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Unlike Monmouth’s recent 66 – 63 loss to FDU, last night’s game (for the most part) didn’t maintain a close score. The Mount was more effective at scoring points and they won the game – very simple.

Shadow's Entrance Video

However, even though the final score wasn’t close that doesn’t mean the Hawks stood still and took a beating. Not at all, actually. Instead, they came out in the second half and played with the type of desire and energy that you would expect of a championship team. Unfortunately, the Hawks just couldn’t get the ball in the basket and without doing that, you can’t win the game (there’s my John Madden moment for the day). The worst showing came in the three pointer stats where the Hawks were only 16 percent last night. Not good. I don’t have The Mount’s three pointer stats, but they were slamming them left and right in the very beginning of the game and towards the end of the game. Overall, the Hawks only shot 29 percent. Watching the team miss so many shots made the first half drag on; it’s not fun to watch so many missed opportunities for the home team. Hawks Captain Whitney Coleman commented on the missed shots during the post-game press conference (courtesy of the Asbury Park Press):

“Losing is miserable,” said Monmouth fifth-year senior Whitney Coleman. “We need to make shots.”

Coleman’s right – if Monmouth could sink a few more of the shots that they are taking each game, they’d be beating teams like FDU and The Mount. It was encouraging, though, to see the Hawks not give up after being down by double digits at the half. That shows that there is a lot of heart and determination on this Hawks team.

The Asbury Park Press has some great articles about last night’s game where you can get all of the notes, statistics, and quotes from the players and coaches. I’d suggest checking out Tony Graham’s column or Steve Edelson’s column. Mr. Edelson, in particular, focuses on how the team has been hurt by not having Travis Taylor playing for the last seven games. Lucky for Hawks fans – Taylor is back starting Saturday night against Wagoner. The Hawks have also had a great deal of difficulty penetrating their opponents’ defenses. Hopefully, with Taylor returning they can find more success in that area, too.

In the coming days (possibly tomorrow), I’ll be posting some random thoughts about my visits to the MAC Center to watch Monmouth basketball this season. Particularly, I have some comments on The Varsity Club at the MAC. Until then, though, below are 30+ pictures from last night’s game. Enjoy!

Monmouth Hawks Fall to Robert Morris Colonials, 66 – 53

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Last night, the Monmouth University Hawks fell to the Robert Morris University Colonials by a final score of 66 – 53 in front of 2,065 fans at the MAC Center in West Long Branch, New Jersey. The first ten minutes or so of this game was an incredibly low-scoring competition of speed and aggressiveness. Once both teams got down to business, though, the game was pretty competitive – which is a good sign for the Hawks who were playing without star center Travis Taylor. In Taylor’s place was Nick DelTufo who did a great job and will be a great starter for Monmouth into the future.

Before I go any further, though, I have to make a comment about the officiating in this game. And let me preface this comment by saying that I’m just a fan – not a sportswriter wannabe or someone who thinks that because he watches basketball he is an expert on the sport. I’m not. I’m just a fan who enjoys watching his team win. If you’re looking for an excellent sportswriter’s comments on this game then you want to check out Tony Graham at the Asbury Park Press’ The Hawks Nest blog.

Anyway, here’s my comment on the officiating. I know it’s cliche for fans of the losing team to point towards anything to justify why the team didn’t play as well as they could have or why they lost in the end. And it’s cliche for fans to point towards the officiating as a cause of the team losing. But the referees last night were so incredibly bad and so incredibly off with their calls that you had to believe they were playing a joke or something. I played highly competitive sports in high school and while it’s a whole different world from college, I understand that these student athletes are putting in a lot of time and effort to prepare to play against (and beat) their opponents each week. But how does a coaching staff or a team of student athletes prepare for horrendous officiating? You can’t prepare for that – it’s impossible.

When I got home from the game I checked the DVR of the game (it was on the MSG Network) and there was an interview with the Commissioner of the Northeast Conference who was apparently sitting somewhere near me. I have to imagine that the Commissioner of the NEC was a little disgusted with that type of officiating. She mentioned in her interview that she wants to get the NEC brand out there to other parts of the nation. Well, that’s great, but you want to make sure that the image presented is one of two competitive teams putting out great performances – not one of two competitive teams trying to play around an inept officiating staff.

Moving on, though…

I missed Thursday’s game because I was teaching and it was nice to be back in the MAC Center to watch the Hawks play. It was also nice to see the Shadow Nation fans back in the stands supporting their team (the entire student section was pretty much barren during winter break).

As for the game itself, I thought that the Colonials were overly aggressive and somewhat classless for most of the game. Their players were playing pretty dirty away from the action (which is smart since the referees weren’t paying attention). That said, they’re a pretty strong basketball team with some good field goal shooting. The Hawks couldn’t hit a field goal or three pointer all game last night – it was terrible. And the same was true of the Colonials. In Graham’s blog entry on the game, he quotes the RMU Head Coach Mike Rice who joked that he wanted to fire his shooting coach at half-time.

There are almost 30 pictures from different aspects of the game last night (including some of the non-game stuff going on, like me taking pictures of my friends from across the court). Enjoy.

Monmouth Hawks Get By Bryant Bulldogs, 67 – 62

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If you decided not to go to the Monmouth University home game against the Bryant University Bulldogs last night, then you missed a very competitive, very good college basketball game. In the end, the Monmouth Hawks won by a slim five point margin, but anyone who was at the game last night has to be impressed with the tenacity of the Bulldogs both on offense and defense. I can’t believe that Bryant hasn’t won a game yet because they looked great at the MAC Center in West Long Branch last night.

Justin Sofman on Defense

However, as a Hawk fan I was glad to see our guys win. Overall, I thought the Monmouth defense was sluggish in the first half, but much better in the second half. It seemed like some of the players may have taken Bryant for granted and thus didn’t expect to be behind by almost ten points a few minutes into the game. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that some of the Hawks didn’t seem to have their heads in the game for the first half. On that note, if you head over to The Hawk’s Nest blog on the Asbury Park Press website, you’ll see that there are some interesting “notes” for the game. One of the notes says that Dutch Gaitley started for the Hawks last night because Freshman Ed Waite came late to the pregame shoot around. Frankly, Waite’s play seemed to be affected by his not starting the game. Some of that may be age-related, but since I don’t know the entire story of why he was late to the pregame shoot around, I can’t be sure of the circumstances.

Yet it wasn’t just Waite who seemed distracted last night. Another Hawk walked off the court after being substituted out and yelled, “Fuck!” because he wasn’t happy with his performance. The same player did the same thing a little bit later in the game. That’s not acceptable. Being a college athlete is not an easy responsibility to shoulder and I understand that pressure. However, there’s little that can be said to defend a player when he walks off the court and yells “Fuck!” twice in one game.

At the end of the day, though, Monmouth is on a four game winning streak and making waves in the Northeast Conference (NEC). Their next home game is on Thursday, January 21st against Saint Francis of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I will not be at that game because – fortunately – I will be teaching that night. I’ll be back watching the Hawks and taking pictures on Saturday, January 23rd when the Hawks take on Robert Morris – a game that will be broadcast on MSG.

Some other thoughts from the game…

One of the pictures below shows some Bryant fans with signs supporting their team. I thought that was great – even though the team is down 18 straight games, their fans are making the trips to away games and bringing signs to show their support. That’s great. I’m always impressed with Head Coach Dave Calloway and the way that he commands his team on the court. He’s got to be the hardest working coach in the NEC, hands down. Also, Travis Taylor started off the game a little bit slow, but I thought that he did a great job on defense. Take a look at one of the pictures below where Taylor blocked a Bryant player’s shot like it was no big thing. Taylor is a tough player and a great asset for the Hawks. Not enough good can be said for Will Campbell and his consistent levelheadedness under pressure. Campbell sunk five separate three point shots, two of which were in the last few minutes to seal the victory for the team. Very impressive. Some more on Campbell’s game-winning pair of three pointers from The Hawk’s Nest:

Campbell, who ended with a game high 19 points, sent Monmouth in front 64-62 connecting from the right corner with two minutes left.

With 15 seconds remaining Campbell struck again from the right wing after Monmouth coach Dave Calloway called time with seven seconds showing on the shot clock.

“Obviously on that last play there, we’re looking for Travis (Taylor) or Will,”
Calloway said. “Those were the two calls.”

Bryant (0-16, 0-4), which has lost 18 games in a row dating back to last season, double-teamed Taylor and point guard James Hett got the ball to Campbell.

“James made the right decision and went towards Will and Will hit a big shot,” Calloway said.

Below you’ll find nearly 30 pictures from last night’s game. I’ve been trying to refine the pictures a little bit more than from the first few games so that they all don’t look exactly the same (it’s a basketball game and I have a stationary seat, what do you expect?!). Enjoy.