Young Eagles showing maturity

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A year ago, Husson College men’s basketball coach Warren Caruso was a living testament to the power of Murphy’s Law.

Everything that could possibly go wrong did just that.

The starting point guard decided to transfer, the 6-foot-11 starting center and talented freshman forward were both lost with season-ending injuries, one player unknowingly used up his eligibility, another decided he didn’t want to play any more, two more key players missed the preseason and first two weeks of the regular season due to academic ineligibility, two more were hobbled for much of the early season by injuries.

“Yeah, that was unbelievable,” Caruso said. “This will be nothing like last year, although it was a learning experience for a very young group.”

Compared to the unrelenting torrent of bad news and injuries the Eagles were besieged with early last season, even the loss of sophomore guard Bill Beauregard for six to eight weeks with a stress fracture this preseason and the departure of another player doesn’t seem quite as devastating as it could be.

“I think our talent level is deeper than we’ve been the last couple years and I’m really pleased with that,” said Caruso, explaining why his team is better insulated against losses this season. “We have 10 or 12 real quality college players who are going to get an opportunity to play. We feel we have enough depth to cover injuries.”

The Eagles are young, but that youth doesn’t mean they’re inexperienced.

“You look at our roster and we only have one senior and two juniors, but we have some maturity within a young group, which we didn’t really have last year. We also have leadership developed now,” said Caruso, who has led Husson to seven conference titles in the last 11 years.

Seven players return with plenty of game minutes from last season. One – former Calais High School star center Joe Footer – logged plenty of minutes as a freshman at the University of Maine-Machias before transferring to Husson last December.

Other young veterans include sophomore swingman Tyler Muzzy from Greenville, senior forward Jeff White of Etna, junior forward Buddy Leavitt of Guilford, sophomore and Winslow native Micah Grant, and junior forward Phil White.

This core group helped lead Husson to a 13-5 season and second-place seeding in the North Atlantic Conference last year.

“We asked some guys to step up and they did a great job doing that,” said Caruso. “In the end, we learned a lot about ourselves and grew up in a hurry. We threw some kids in the fire and had some success.

“We were initially disappointed in our performance, but as we looked back on what we had to overcome, we felt pretty good about what we accomplished.”

This year, the Eagles will have to overcome the loss of Beauregard and the absence of a true, veteran point guard due to Duane Ailey’s graduation. That’s where freshmen Andy Frost from Brewer, Sheraud Lee of Bridgeport, Conn., and Travis Patterson from Dexter fit in.

“This is the first time in my 11 years that we’ll start a true freshman at point guard,” Caruso said.

Muzzy will slide into Beauregard’s spot at shooting guard with Phil White at power forward, Footer at center, and Jeff White at small forward.

“Really, every sophomore on my roster is more like a junior because they played so many minutes last year, and in a way, we’ve benefited from having so many injuries last year,” Caruso said.

The Eagles want to play a more up-tempo game this season, both offensively and defensively.

“Our system remains the same, but with our depth, we’d like to try to wear teams down on both ends of the floor,” Caruso explained. “We’ve been kind of a half-court team the last couple of years, but we want to play a quicker game.”

Although Husson looks like a legitimate NAC title contender this season, defending champion Lasell College of Auburndale, Mass., remains a favorite. Despite the facts that Husson was the only NAC team to beat Lasell in 2003-2004 and the Lasers graduated all five of their starters, Caruso still gives the nod to Lasell because it has a good nucleus of players back.

Then again, so does he.

“I feel we have a very versatile lineup with interchangeable parts who can all give us something on any given day,” said Caruso. “We also think we’re better defensively with a group that can keep us in a game.”

Husson Men’s Basketball Schedule

November

20 – Bunyan Classic vs. William Jewell, 2 p.m.

27 – Southern Maine, 2 p.m.

December

4 – Lasell, 5 p.m.

5 – Mount Ida, 3 p.m.

11 – at Bates, TBA

13 – UM-Presque Isle, 7 p.m.

29 – at Lehman College, 7 p.m.

January

Maine Event Tourney at Standish

2 – vs. TBA, 1/3 p.m.

3 – vs. TBA, 5/7 p.m.

8 – at Castleton State, 3 p.m.

9 – at Johnson State, 3 p.m.

13 – at Maine Maritime, 7:30 p.m.

19 – at UM-Farmington, 7:30 p.m.

22 – Maine Maritime, 2 p.m.

26 – at Thomas, 7:30 p.m.

29 – at UM-Presque Isle, 2 p.m.

31 – at St. Joseph’s, 7:30 p.m.

February

2 – UM-Farmington, 5:30 p.m.

6 – Lasell, noon

9 – Thomas, 5:30 p.m.

12 – St. Joseph’s, 1 p.m.

15 – at Bowdoin, 1 p.m.

18 – Elms, 5:30 p.m.

19 – Becker, 3 p.m.