2009-10 Outlook

The 2008-09 season was full of great team and individual accomplishments, as the Griffins captured their fourth league championship en route to the NCAA Tournament while finishing with the league’s best mark. The 2009-10 squad, who has received votes in the D3hoops.com Pre-Season Poll, will undoubtedly have the targets on their backs and have big shoes to fill on their road to repeat as conference champs.

Gone are a core of seniors, including league and conference tournament MVP, but with the experience of the returning letterwinners and the excitement of the incoming players, the Griffins will once again look to battle for a league crown.
Two key starters in the backcourt are back in seniors Lemeire Talley and Matt Johnson, both who are on the verge of the 1,000 career-point mark. Talley earned a second-team all-conference nod while Johnson is the returning leader in scoring, assists, steals, and three-point shooting. They’ll be counted on to spark the offense and spread the ball around. Junior Jon Crabtree will also contribute as he saw action in all 29 games a year ago. Freshmen Doug Berzins along with rookie Brendan Stanton have the potential to step on the floor right away.

Junior Jon Hogga, who contributed greatly in his first season as a Griffin, gave the team an instant impact as the sixth man. He’ll look to move into a start-
ing role and help supply the offense, which was ranked 5th in Division III (85.6 ppg).

Aside from the offense, coach Baron will stress the importance of defense, along with free throw shooting and rebounding in order to be successful this season.
Baron will look to Mike Payne, Brian Haas, and Jay Lucas spearhead the defensive effort at the guard position.

Down in the post is where questions arise. Two voids are open due to graduation. Coach John Baron says both spots are up for grabs and hopes the competition between the returnees and rookies will make the team better as a whole. Sophomores Brandon Williams and Brandon Sharp will be pushed by freshmen Frank Champion and Dave Brown, both who tower over 6-6 and 6-7 respectively.

This season’s schedule will surely test the Griffins. After the season opener at Rutgers-Camden, the Griffins will play at the Rotary Tip-Off Tournament hosted by Franklin & Marshall, a preseason top 5 team, featuring NCAA Tournament qualifiers St. Lawrence, and the host Diplomats along with N.Y. City Tech. Gwynedd has their home opener on December 9th against regional power Widener, but it doesn’t get easier from there. Two days later, the Griffins travel to Boston to play in the Regis College Tournament where Westfield State and WPI, also NCAA Tournament participants from a year ago, await. They’ll play the last game before the winter break against Elizabethtown. When they return, the Griffins play at Cabrini in a rematch of last season’s conference championship game.

After going a perfect 12-0 at home a year ago where they outscored opponents by 23 points a game, Gwynedd will play seven of its last nine contests of the regular season here at the Griffin Complex.

Gwynedd-Mercy will take a simple approach of taking it one game at a time, opponent-by-opponent, as they try to march toward a another conference championship.

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