Alvernia Preview

The following preview of Saturday's opponent Alvernia was taken from The Reading Eagle:

11/13/2008
Miller, Crusaders have their work cut out for them
By Jerry Reimenschneider
Reading Eagle

He has coached basketball for 27 seasons and has probably held a similar number of positions within his profession's prism.

Whether he's directed the high school freshman team or the college varsity, Mike Miller has done one thing consistently: win.

He's never, as in ever, had a losing season.

Which is remarkable, given the range of potential pratfalls in any particular season. Injury. Ineligibility. Poor judgment off the court. Poor play on it.

Through it all, and on every stair along his coaching ascent, Miller has avoided a single sub-.500 season.

He did it again last season, his fourth heading the Alvernia University men. Despite a sluggish 4-7 start, the Crusaders finished 16-11, including a first-place, 13-3 regular season during their final go-round in the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference.

Miller's impressive history might be the only reason to refrain from sounding the warning siren entering this season. Because there are few other reasons, at least from an outsider's perspective.

"Yeah," Miller quipped. "I'm gonna have to coach for once."

He was only half-kidding.

Alvernia has lost 2007-08 PAC Player of the Year Terrence Shawell and his 20.9 points per game. Shawell is not enrolled at the university.

It has lost, for at least another month and maybe more, All-PAC forward Matt King to a foot injury. It's anyone's guess when the Crusaders will reclaim the junior's 15 points and seven rebounds per night.

Alvernia has lost point guard Zach Westmoreland, a would-be junior who started 18 games last season and was the team's No. 2 assist man. Westmoreland is not enrolled.

Add to that murky mix this season's switch to the far-more-physical MAC Freedom Conference, and this winter could be something of a continental drift for the Crusaders.

"I think it makes you better as a program and as a coaching staff when you have to do new things," Miller said. "And this certainly is making us do new things."

Chief among those is a shift Alvernia would likely have made, sooner or later, to annually compete in the MAC. The Crusaders will move from Miller's preferred, uptempo style to more of a halfcourt offense.

"Usually our offense is very spread out, (and we) shoot 3s," Miller said. "We may not shoot that many 3s. We're going to be very different."

Whereas Miller rarely had more than one traditional post player on the court in years past, this year's lineup will often feature two or three big guys on the floor at any given time.

Foremost among them will be 6-6 senior center Tyrone Bradley, a returning starter who averaged a team-high 7.7 boards in 2007-08. With the personnel losses prompting a points hemorrhage, Miller would also like to see Bradley supplement last season's 8.8 scoring average.

Benefiting from the more-big-men approach will be Holy Name grad and 6-6 junior center Nick Rivera, as well as 6-5 transfer Marcel Roane, a junior from Philadelphia.

"Those three are going to play a lot," Miller said. "You've got to go with what you've got, and we do have some big people."

But the Crusaders have even more small people.

Sophomore Eric Barefield will start at the point. That will free senior David Washington, last year's assists leader at 3.7 per game, to shoot more from his off-guard spot.

Gov. Mifflin grad Charlie Hughes will be more involved in the backcourt rotation as a junior, and Muhlenberg grad Derek Zeller could see the court as a freshman.

Seniors Derek Dubbs and Tim Walters will start at forward, followed by classmate Jeff Amponsah.

Despite the myriad changes, Miller holds out hope that a defensive focus and fresh attitude will improve the Crusaders into contenders by season's end

"I know there could be some lows at the beginning," he said, "but I think our defense will carry us along until our offense catches up."

Spoken like a career winner.

•Contact Jerry Reimenschneider at 610-371-5079 or jreimenschneider@readingeagle.com.