First-year LIU Brooklyn coach Jack Perri isn’t calling his two-time defending Northeast Conference champions “the team to beat,” but just about everyone else is.
The Blackbirds, looking to become the first team in the 32-year history of the conference to win three consecutive titles, retained their status as favorite yesterday at NEC Media Day at the Barclays Center, receiving nine of 12 first-place votes in the preseason coaches poll.
“How could you not look at LIU as the team to beat?,” said Robert Morris coach Andy Toole, whose Colonials received the other three first-place votes and were picked to finish second. “It’s almost impossible not to look at them as the team to beat. They have more matchup issues, they have more balance and they have more scoring ability than other team in our league.”
The Blackbirds’ chance at history almost was derailed before the season started, following an on-campus altercation Sept. 14 that led to the arrests of the team’s top three scorers, but seniors Julian Boyd, Jamal Olasewere and C.J. Garner, along with sophomore Troy Joseph, only were suspended for the first two conference games.
So, as Perri expected upon taking over a Division I program for the first time, the coach has the core of a team that is 34-2 in the conference over the past two seasons, holds a 27-game home win streak — the second-longest in the nation — and finished third in scoring in the nation last season.
“I’m not going to change a whole lot. That would not be a real smart thing to do,” said Perri, who spent the past seven seasons as an assistant at LIU and replaced Jim Ferry, who took over at Duquesne. “We have a starting five as experienced as any. I might never get to see that again as long as I coach. These guys know what it takes. It certainly makes things a little bit easier.”
Boyd, the reigning conference player of the year, and Olasewere, a first-team All-NEC selection last season, were named to the preseason All-Conference team and make up the top returning scoring duo in Division I with 34.3 points a game, while junior Jason Brickman ranked fifth in the nation in assists last season with 7.3.
Perri said the team is motivated by the idea of becoming the conference’s “best ever,” but Wagner, picked to finish third, is expected to contend after coming off a school-record 25-win season.
Playing under Division I’s youngest coach, Bashir Mason, the 28-year-old’s team may not be able to match the top-heavy talent in Brooklyn, but the Staten Island squad may have the deepest team in the conference, returning four starters, while adding Dwaun Anderson, who originally signed with Michigan State.
“I think us certainly having as deep a team as we have, I think it sort of separates us, but in our conference there’s not separation,” said Mason, who replaced Dan Hurley, now at Rhode Island.
Quinnipiac finished fourth in the poll, followed by St. Francis (N.Y.), Sacred Heart, Monmouth, Central Connecticut, Mount St. Mary’s, Bryant, Fairleigh Dickinson and St. Francis (Pa.).