2009-10 Men’s Basketball Season Preview

The St. Joseph's College men's basketball team turns to the 2009-10 season to rebound from their fourth loss in the Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference championship game in five years after entering as regular season champions.

"Our goal remains the same – to capture the Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference regular season and tournament championships," remarks head coach Joseph Cocozello.  "Not being able to win when it counts leaves a dark cloud over our regular season success."  That regular season success has translated to a 24-1 record in conference and four regular season titles, but only one tournament title in 2008.

Cocozello, entering his eighth season at the helm, hopes the toughest non-conference schedule in program history will help prepare the squad to capture the title that keeps eluding them.  That schedule includes a Division I (New Jersey Institute of Technology), four teams that qualified for the NCAA Tournament last year (Widner University, St. Joseph's-Long Island, New England University and Brooklyn College), and tough opposition from local conferences in the Skyline (Maritime, Mount Saint Vincent), the NJAC (New Jersey City University, Rutgers-Camden), and CUNYAC (Staten Island, Lehman, CCNY and City Tech).

Despite losing three starters who accounted for 30.8 points per game last season, about 45% of the offensive production, the Bears return a solid core unit from last year and key new additions look to fill the void.  The inside duo of junior Jon Matzelle (9.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg) and senior Wilkerson Exantus (Brooklyn, NY/Nazareth) (4.6 rpg, 4.4 ppg) are the lone returning starters and will be backed up by promising freshman Ismael Dabo (Bloomfield, NJ/St. John's Prep) and sophomore transfer Dom Orlando.

Seniors Larry Fawcett (Middle Village, NY/Christ the King) (4.7 ppg, 1.2 rpg), Lew Monaco (7.0 ppg, 37.3% 3fg%) and Mike Dziewit (Ridgewood, NY/Wadleigh) (1.9 ppg, 1.8 rpg) will be called upon for leadership and to provide scoring from the guard position.  Perhaps the most pressure will fall on sophomore Antoine Forehand (New York, NY/Rice) (3.8 ppg, 1.3 apg) who will be asked to play a major role in ball handling ball and running the offense.

Freshmen Tommy Karasinski and Cesar Madera have shown promise in practice and scrimmages, and will have the opportunity to earn key minutes right away.

Rounding out the roster is senior Pat Chiarel (Woodside, NY/Archbishop Molloy), playing his first season after serving as manager for two years, and sophomore rookie Dhiraj Bhakta (Glendale, NY/Bishop Loughlin).  Bhakta's size and strength will be a force to be reckoned with in key situations.

The Bears will have a new identity after graduating four players, but with five seniors on this year's squad, Cocozello hopes their experience and leadership will help the team mesh together.

Cocozello will also have a new look on the bench with assistant Luke Caccavo leaving after four seasons to focus on his career and his increased workload.  He will be replaced by alum Lukasz Cygan '06 (913 points, 592 rebounds) who has brings the same intensity he displayed as a player back to the gym each day.  Cocozello also adds recent alum Lukasz Klimaszewski '09 (551 points, 350 rebounds) to his staff who in addition to his coaching duty will handle most of the scouting and recruiting duties.

With an influx of new players and coaches, there is a lot of excitement in the air.  The team looks forward to the challenge of the tougher schedule and beginning their campaign for their second Hudson Valley Men's Athletic Conference championship.