Don’t tell Glenn Braica he’s the favorite.
St. Francis Brooklyn may enter Thursday night’s first of two Battle of Brooklyn showdowns with an impressive non-conference résumé, a 9-6 record and wins at Miami, Florida Atlantic and Stony Brook, but LIU Brooklyn is still the three-time defending Northeast Conference champion.
“I told our guys, I don’t feel the roles are reversed at all,” Braica, the fourth-year St. Francis coach, said in a phone interview in advance of his team’s game against LIU. “They’ve won the league, they’re the favorites. [Point guard Jason] Brickman is still there, and that guy is a great player. We have to play like we’re the underdogs, and that’s fine. I like it better when we play that way anyway.”
The records say otherwise. St. Francis finished one win shy of becoming the first NEC program to enter conference action with 10 wins, despite playing eight of its first nine games on the road. The Terriers nearly upset second-ranked Syracuse, one of just five undefeated Division I programs remaining. LIU, meanwhile, is just 5-8.
“It’s very important in these games to have the right mind-set,” Braica said. “If you think you’ve arrived or something, then it could be a problem.”
St. Francis has been buoyed by the impressive play of freshman forward Wayne Martin, a South Shore High School product, and stellar leadership of junior forward Jalen Cannon and senior sharpshooter Ben Mockford.
“I like their resiliency so far,” Braica said. “Defensively, we’ve been good most nights. It seems like everyone’s had a hand in it, and guys have stepped up on different occasions. They’ve been in some tough situations on the road, starting the season with eight of nine on the road is not an easy thing to do.”
The Terriers, Braica said, have a long way to go before they can even talk about reaching the NCAA Tournament for the first time, and it begins with the league opener at home against LIU, the 99th meeting between the borough rivals.
St. Francis is coming off a disappointing loss at Columbia, and LIU has won the last six meetings and nine of 10.
“Yeah, it’s important, no question,” Braica said. “It’s a rivalry and it’s a league game. It’s definitely important. I still think you have to have the same approach each game. I obviously want to beat them, and they want to beat us.”
Of course, this isn’t the same LIU that has owned the NEC the last three years, reaching the NCAA Tournament each of those seasons. Jamal Olasewere, last year’s NEC Player of the Year, graduated, and Julian Boyd, the NEC Player of the Year the previous season, tore his ACL for the third time last week, ending his career.