A framed photo in the office of men’s basketball head coach Tony Morocco expresses a core concept of what he thinks will lead this year’s team to new heights in the WVIAC this season. With players’ and coaches’ arms raised together in unison, it reads simply, “First, Last, and Always…TEAM.”
By Sean Maiolo
Staff Writer
A framed photo in the office of men’s basketball head coach Tony Morocco expresses a core concept of what he thinks will lead this year’s team to new heights in the WVIAC this season. With players’ and coaches’ arms raised together in unison, it reads simply, “First, Last, and Always…TEAM.”
That team concept starts at the top with the coaches and flows down to the last player on the bench. Coach Morocco believes that idea must be absorbed by everybody if his team hopes to succeed this season.
“The fundamentals, defense, accentuating passes and teamwork are the focus,” the defensive minded Morocco said. “[But] teamwork is the big focus.”
Having that team working together as a healthy unit also helps tremendously. With the wide variety of the injuries sustained last season, team trainer Laura Tuten attributes it mostly to bad luck.
“If we had a lot of knee injuries, we could say they need more strength in the hamstrings and quads,” Tuten explained. “If the injuries were similar, then they’d be easier to address.”
Last year’s squad was depleted by injuries to several key players including seniors Cody Boone and Emmanuel Jackson, who were both hurt all last year.
“They’re coming back healthy,” Morocco said of Boone and Jackson. “We had lots of injuries last season and were totally depleted.”
We basically had the whole starting lineup injured,” said Jackson, who still rehabs on a daily basis. “We took injuries to another level [last year]. But everybody’s looking much better, much faster and much stronger.”
The head coach pointed to the increased depth of this year’s squad as being extremely valuable when confronted with injuries.
“This year we’ve got more bodies and we’re healthy, which is big,” he said. “We’ve got a nice complement of players at each position now but we’re young.”
Boone, who is coming off a back injury, expressed his eagerness to get back on the court and take on a leadership role for the young club.
“We do have to step up the leadership a bit and try to get these new guys to get into the system and get going,” he said.
“Basketball is basketball,” added Jackson, who feels confident the team’s youth will not be a factor in winning games. “Once they get the mental aspect of the game, they can kind of just run with it.”
Coach Morocco has been with the program since its inception in the 2003-04 season when they “hit the ground running.” He has no intention of slowing down in the team’s second full season of NCAA Division II play. The Griffins have a long history of playing an up tempo style conducive to Coach Morocco’s philosophy.
“We’ve got a quicker team this year and more weapons,” he said, noting the addition of several young players debuting with the team this season. “We play an up and down style where we press the ball a lot. We’ll be moving up and down the floor quickly with a high-spirited, fast paced style of basketball.
“This is an exciting team and we’re trying to get kids at the school to turn out and watch this team play,” the Morocco added.
The head coach also hopes playing the University of Pittsburgh last season can add to the team’s allure on campus this year.
“It’s a dream playing in that kind of atmosphere,” he recalled of playing in the Peterson Events Center last season.
“We played the number one team in America and played them pretty well for the first half even with a depleted team,” he continued. “It was great exposure for the university, for the kids and people recognized Seton Hill University athletics.”
Second year assistant coach Luke Crump agreed with the Moracco’s assessment of the game against Pitt.
“We actually had the lead about eight minutes in,” he said. “Those first ten minutes or so we played them pretty good.”
Morocco credits his coaching staff, which also includes former Griffin star now graduate assistant Jordan Thomas, in helping him prepare this year’s team.
“We’ve got an extremely good coaching staff,” said Morocco. “They add a lot to the team.”
The coaches believe this team can go really far if the freshmen mature and the team stays healthy. Coach Morocco hopes the student body is as excited about this year as he is, and encourages them to join the team and “come fly with the Griffins.”
